The New York-based writer originally from Co. Dublin and raised in Co. Sligo has had his biopic screenplay acquired by Amazon Studios.
The story of Tarbell’s pioneering role as an investigative journalist in the late 19th and early 20th century is a first feature project for McDevitt, which will be produced by Tom Drumm of Think Tank Management & Production. Think Tanks’ Kate Hartt is also dubbed to executive produce.
McDevitt’s previous work includes an amalgam of credits for assistant camera on thrillers such as ‘Inside Man’ directed by Spike Lee and Stephen Spielberg’s ‘Munich’.
His written work has appeared in The New York Times, The Irish Times, The Independent and The Examiner. He has also been shortlisted on two occasions for the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
McDevitt is also the founder of New York company Look Here Films, which specialises in short-form video content.‘Ida Tarbell’ will follow the true story of the iconic female figure whose 1904 publication ‘The History of the Standard Oil Company’ exposes the monopoly of John D. Rockefeller.
Through her work, the a lens fell upon the Rockefeller empire which not only altered public perception of oil trade, but the methods of investigative journalism at the time.
Updates on McDevitt's work will be published on IFTN in the coming months
