MAINE
CentralMaine.com
BY AMY CALDER STAFF WRITER
acalder@centralmaine.com | @AmyCalder17 | 207-861-9247
The Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight” might not have been made if not for Waterville native David Mizner.
Mizner, an associate producer of the film, pitched the idea of turning the story about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of the Catholic Church priest abuse scandal into a movie.
Waterville native David Mizner was the inspiration for bringing the Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight” to the screen. Mizner, an associate producer for the film, is a novelist and contributing writer to The Nation and other publications and wrote the description of a course on the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Catholic Church abuse scandal for Columbia University journalism class.
“I had no real creative role in the film,” said Mizner Monday. Producers, though, cited him Feb. 28 when they accepted the Oscar for Best Picture at the 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
A novelist and freelance writer, Mizner several years ago wrote a case study for the Knight Case Studies Initiative at the graduate school of journalism for Columbia University.
In doing so, he contacted producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Faust, who were interested in creating a film about one of his novels, and told them he had a great idea for a different movie — about the priest abuse coverup.
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