Paramount Pictures has picked up the life rights of Missouri journalist Linda Trest, who helped break open the cover of a drug-busting con man, says The Hollywood Reporter. Screenwriters Anthony Walton and Andrew Dresher have been brought on board to script a film inspired by her story.
Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing with Troy writer David Benioff.
The 51-year-old Trest was a reporter for the Gasconade County Republican in Gerald, Mo., when she began hearing stories about a federal agent nicknamed “Sergeant Bill” who was rousting people from their homes. Since Gerald had been ravaged by methamphetamine abuse, local law enforcement was happy to assist the fed’s efforts to clean up the town with arrests, home searches and investigations.
The only hitch: Bill A. Jakob turned out to be just an unemployed cop and former trucking company owner from a different town with no actual law enforcement credentials. Trest eventually exposed Jakob’s bizarre con.
