Writing
The film was written by Tom McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer. When McCarthy was asked how he and his co-author tackled the research and writing process, he said:
As I said, I passed [turned down the film] the first time! That's probably some indication of how intimidating it was. But I think, as always, with any big assignment, once you get over that initial shock and awe of how much material there was to cover, you start digging into the material and become really fascinated by and engaged with it, and we did. And yeah, it was a lot of work, but it was exciting work. It was really interesting work, parsing through details of not just the investigation, but its findings, and trying to determine what was most helpful in telling our story. I think having two brains on it was somewhat helpful too, because we could talk through it a lot. So it wasn't just sitting alone in a room and jotting notes. We were dialoguing a lot about it. That particular collaboration did feel investigative and on some level, seemed to parallel some of the collaboration of the reporters in that investigation. So, I think there was something about our collaboration that made that initial process more palatable on some level.[22]
Development
McCarthy and Singer completed the script in June 2013.[23] It was on the 2013 Black List of unproduced screenplays.[24] Singer told Creative Screenwriting that one of his goals for the film was to highlight the power of journalism, which he feels has been waning. He explained, "This story isn't about exposing the Catholic Church. We were not on some mission to rattle people's faith. In fact, Tom came from a Catholic family. The motive was to tell the story accurately while showing the power of the newsroom—something that's largely disappeared today. This story is important. Journalism is important, and there is a deeper message in the story."[25]
Filming
Principal photography began on September 24, 2014, in Boston, Massachusetts,[26] and continued in October in Hamilton, Ontario. Filming took place at Fenway Park,[27] the then-current Boston Globe offices in Dorchester, Boston,[28] the Boston Public Library,[29] and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.[30] The film's editor Tom McArdle said of the post-production process, "We edited for eight months. We just wanted to keep refining the film. We cut out five scenes plus some segments of other scenes. Often we would just cut out a line or two to make a scene a little tighter."[31] The Boston Police station depicted in the opening scene was filmed in Toronto at the former Toronto Police Service 11 Division station at 209 Mavety Street,[32] and the former Sears building on Islington Avenue in Toronto was converted into a replica of the interior of the old Boston Globe, where the bulk of the filming took place.[33] The brief scene in which Rezendes watches a children's church choir perform "Silent Night" was filmed in St. Basil's Church (Toronto), a Roman Catholic church on the University of Toronto campus.
Historical accuracy
The visual blog Information is Beautiful deduced that, while taking creative license into account, the film was 76.2% accurate when compared to real-life events, summarizing that "the only conceits are scenes of power figures warning off the journalists".[34]
- The film depicts only the events leading up to the publication of the Spotlight team's first article, whereas the team actually continued publishing follow-up reports for nearly two years afterward. As a result, certain events are depicted as having happened earlier than they actually did, including the scene where former priest Ronald H. Paquin freely admits to molesting children and having been molested himself.[35]
- While Sacha Pfeiffer did indeed write the numerous follow-up reports on Paquin, the interview depicted in the film was a blend of two interviews conducted by her and Steve Kurkjian, both of which took place about a month after the events in the film. Kurkjian, played in the film by Gene Amoroso, was a founding member of the Spotlight team before becoming the Globe's Washington bureau chief, but rejoined the team after the first story was published to assist with further reporting on the abuses. Pfeiffer and Kurkjian have said that the confession was a much more gradual process and Paquin did not just "blurt it out" the way he does in the film.[35][36]
- A scene where Matt Carroll discovers one of the priest treatment centers is down the block from where he lives is based on an actual discovery he made during the investigation, with one minor detail changed: Carroll actually lived down the street from John Geoghan, the priest whose case sparked the investigations. This was changed as the filmmakers thought the image of Carroll putting Geoghan's photo on his refrigerator to warn his children would seem unrealistic.[37]
- In a subplot, Eric MacLeish claims he sent a list of 20 priests to the Globe in 1993 but the story was buried in Metro: Robinson later admits he was the editor for Metro at the time and he likely overlooked the case. While the Globe did publish an article about the list of 20 priests, the Spotlight team did not learn this during their investigation. MacLeish himself revealed the article's existence while being interviewed for the screenplay by McCarthy and Singer. This revelation, along with Robinson's response to the filmmakers' inquiry, was incorporated into the screenplay for dramatic purposes.[38]
