In this June 2, 2017 file photo, Tom McCarthy arrives at the "13 Reasons Why" FYC Event in Beverly Hills, Calif. McCarthy is in negotiations to direct a film based on the seven-episode podcast "S-Town." (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) --
The popular true-crime podcast "S-Town" is being developed as a movie.
The film production company Participant Media has acquired the feature-film rights to the seven-episode podcast. "Spotlight" director Tom McCarthy is in negotiations to direct.
Made by the creators of the podcast "Serial," ''S-Town" is about an Alabama antique clock restorer from Woodstock, Alabama, named John B. McLemore. In 2012, he sent an email to the makers of "This American Life" asking for help in a murder investigation.
Longtime "This American Life" producer Brian Reed traveled to McLemore's hometown. But Reed uncovered not so much a whodunit procedural as a more mysterious small-town tale.
MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, left, Lawrence O'Donnell, center, and Chris Matthews take part in a panel discussion at the NBC Universal summer press tour, Aug. 2, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Comcast's corporate reorganization means that there will soon be two television networks with "NBC" in their name — CNBC and MSNBC — that will no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News.
How that affects viewers of those networks, along with the people who work there, still needs to shake out. Their new corporate leader, Mark Lazarus, visited the set of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as the plan was being announced on Wednesday and spoke to network staff members during a morning conference call to address concerns.
Comcast is spinning off most of its cable networks, also including USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel, into a separate company. That recognizes how streaming is considered the future and the cable networks are a drag on the bottom line.
In the space of a lifetime, the networks went from upstarts aside a legacy operation like NBC to profitable superstars to castoffs.
Questions range from the simple to complex
Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Universal Media Group, is becoming CEO of the newly-formed company of cable networks, temporarily dubbed "SpinCo." Cesar Conde, who as NBC Universal News Group chairman had oversight of CNBC and MSNBC, will lose those networks from his portfolio, yet remain in charge of NBC News, NBC News Now streaming, Telemundo and the news operations of the NBC-owned local stations.
The presence of Lazarus and Anand Kini, who will be chief operating officer and chief financial officer of SpinCo, is a good sign for the new company, said Jessica Reif Ehrlich, research analyst for the Bank of America. "You can't dismiss it as getting rid of the crappy assets, because these are talented executives," she said.
At MSNBC, questions about the future range from the... Read More