Initially, director/co-writer Tom McCarthy passed on creating Spotlight. He felt that the subject matter was too intimidating and too important. Nevertheless, because the subject matter was so important, McCarthy eventually decided to make the film. Working with his co-writer, McCarthy said that creating that film "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."
After a considerable amount of work, the two finished writing the script in 2013. Afterwards, it was quickly added to the prestigious Black List of the best unproduced scripts. "This story isn't about exposing the Catholic Church," co-writer Josh Singer said, "We were not on some mission to rattle people's faith. The motive was to tell the story accurately while showing the power of the newsroom – something that's largely disappeared today."
Still, McCarthy and Singer wanted to create a film which was as true to life as possible - and that showed in the final product. The film was lauded for its nuance, historical accuracy, and deft touch in dealing with extremely difficult subject matter - subject matter which was essentially kept a secret from the public for decades, if not centuries.
