The book, to be written by Jack Ewing, isn't even out yet, but Paramount has quickly lined up renowned environmental spokesperson DiCaprio to help produce the movie adaptation.
Leonardo Dicaprio will be producing a film in conjunction with Paramount Studios about the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, according to a new report.
The studio recently acquired the movie rights to the as-yet-unwritten book about the automotive industry scandal, due to be penned by New York Times journalist Jack Ewing, and according to The Hollywood Reporter has lined up DiCaprio to help them produce the movie, though it’s not yet known whether he’ll be starring in it. To date, his own production credits include The Wolf of Wall Street, Out of the Furnace and Runner Runner.
Leonardo DiCaprio will help produce a movie about the VW emissions scandal
The VW scandal has shaken the industry to its core and set the company’s stock into freefall, after it was found that illegal software was placed in their range of clean diesel cars which could tell when a vehicle was being tested and then turn on the emissions control to cheat the test. Though the vehicles seemed to officially meet environmental standards, they actually emitted 40 times more than the legal threshold.
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When the news broke in early September that 11 million of its cars were fitted with the software around the world, VW’s CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned, and the company faces up to $18 billion in fines by the Environmental Protection Agency. 500,000 vehicles have already been recalled in the US alone, with nearly $6.5 billion being set aside by VW to tackle the problem.
The book proposal by Ewing will apparently explore the company’s “more, better, faster” ethos and how that culture might have played into the scandal.
DiCaprio is known as a keen advocate of environmental issues, having played a part in producing the 2014 documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, about the practices of the meat industry, and Virunga, about the battle to save the endangered mountain gorilla. He also established an environmental foundation in 1998 that has distributed $30 million in grants.
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