Hollywood is embracing Harvey Weinstein once again but this time the disgraced mogul is the subject of a new film, not the driving force behind it.

The film rights to the story of how an all-female core team of journalists at The New York Times exposed the scandal have been snapped up by two of the industry’s leading production houses, one of them part-owned by Brad Pitt. 

The drama is envisaged as a thriller in the mould of Spotlight, a best picture Oscar winner in 2016, and Alan J. Pakula’s All The President’s Men, the cinematic account of how The Washington Post exposed the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, the news site Deadline has reported. 

The film rights have been bought by Plan B, a production company part owned by Pitt, who is believed to have confronted Weinstein in the mid-1990s after hearing from Gwyneth Paltrow, his then girlfriend, that the mogul had harassed her. 

Weinstein is not expected to be the main focus of the film, which will concentrate on obstacles navigated by the female reporters and their editor, Rebecca Corbett, in pursuit of a scoop that had long eluded news organisations. 

Money matters: Weinstein ’s company, The Weinstein Company, owes over $100,000 each to Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence and veteran actress Meryl Streep, it has emerged from court documents obtained by The Blast. 

The now-embattled company, founded by Weinstein with his brother Bob, owes $142,965 to Streep and $102,623 to Lawrence. 

The company worked with Streep, 68, on The Iron Lady and August: Osage County while Lawrence starred in Silver Linings Playbook for which she won an Oscar for best actress in 2012. 

Other celebs who are owed money include John Legend, Julianne Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Jerry Seinfeld, directors 
Michael Bay and Sir Peter Jackson and author Stephen King. 

The company also owes money to Malia Obama, the daughter of former US President Barack Obama. 

Ben Hoyle, The Times, London, & agencies