The Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal seems like a scheme that could be right out of a movie.
And, now it will be.
Paramount Pictures late last week bought the rights to an untitled book to be written by Jack Ewing, a Germany-based business reporter for The New York Times, about the VW scandal. Ewing’s book was sold on Oct. 6 to W.W. Norton Publishing for a “significant” amount, according to a statement from Marly Rusoff & Associates Inc.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company is also signed on for the movie, according to Rusoff.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board are investigating Volkswagen for installing “defeat devices” that allow vehicles to skirt emissions tests. The devices allowed popular models, such as the Jetta, to tell when they were undergoing emissions testing.
The defeat device is about 100 million lines of software code written into the vehicle’s programming. The software could tell if a test was taking place based on the position of the vehicle’s steering wheel, the speed the vehicle was traveling, how long the engine was being used and barometric pressure, according to the EPA. The vehicles would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide during testing and then spew 40 times the legal limit during normal use.
Volkswagen officials are blaming “rogue software engineers” for the devices.
Two congressional committees are investigating the scam with law enforcement authorities in Germany.
