The production company 'Appian Way' of the American actor and film producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and the film studio and motion picture distributor - Paramount Pictures, have acquired a book proposal by Jack Ewing that will detail the multi-billion dollar Clean Diesel scandal of Volkswagen.
As earlier this year, the German auto company was discovered cheating on its emissions reporting.
Paramount Pictures and Leonardo DiCaprio will make a movie showing that the company placed illegal software in their clean diesel cars that could tell when a vehicle was being tested for fuel emissions and would turn on the emissions control to cheat the test and meet EPA standards. However, under normal driving conditions, emission control software was shut off, which then resulted in as much as 40 times more pollution than allowed by law.
The German car manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg is currently facing up to $18 billion in fines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Volkswagen scandal has caught the attention of the automotive company, as Volkswagen's stock start plunging, putting in question the future of the German automotive industry. Not only was the company's stocks affected by the scandal, it has also damaged VW's prestige and led to the resignation of Martin Winterkorn (Volkswagen CEO).
The producing credits of the Golden Globe Awards winner - Leonardo DiCaprio, includes the 2013 American biographical black comedy film - "The Wolf of Wall Street," the American crime thriller film - "Runner Runner," and the thriller film of director Scott Cooper - "Out of the Furnace."
DiCaprio will be seen next in the upcoming American biographical western thriller film of director Alejandro González Iñárritu - "The Revenant."
In addition, Liz Raposo, Executive Vice President of Paramount Pictures, bought the movie rights. And Shari Smiley, Gotham Group's manager in the Literary and Book department, represented Jack Ewing on the sale of the feature rights.
