Amazon to make film about Monica Lewinsky
David Farnor | On 06, Jun 2017
Amazon has acquired the script for a new film about Monica Lewinsky.
Called Linda and Monica, Flint Wainess’ screenplay ended up on the Black List of the best unproduced scripts at the end of last year. Now, it’s found itself a home at Amazon Studios.
The movie will be produced by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch, the Escape Artists group behind Fences and the upcoming sequel to The Equalizer. It follows the friendship between Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky, which imploded when it led to the discovery of Lewinsky’s relationship with President Bill Clinton.
The affair was one of the biggest political scandals of the 90s, with Tripp – a White House aide – secretly recording Lewinsky, then an intern at the White House, saying that she had sexual liaisons with the President. Tripp leaked that tape to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, leading to calls for impeachment of Clinton and the end of Lewinsky’s career.
Deadline reports that the script is partly based on actual conversations between the women.
It’s the latest in a string of Black List scripts bought by streaming services, with Netflix nabbing the rights to Bubbles, a stop-motion film about Michael Jackson’s pet chimp, and disaster movie How It Ends, and Amazon acquiring 2013’s top script from the list, Holland Michigan.