Janet Mock Creating Netflix Movie About Janet Cooke

Janet Mock is slated to begin her first major project with Netflix, according to Deadline.

Partnering with producer Ryan Murphy, the Pose writer, director and producer inked a deal with the streaming service last year for a film titled Janet, which will portray the complicated story of Washington Post journalist Janet Cooke.

Cooke famously won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her investigative piece “Jimmy’s World,” which told the fictitious story of an eight-year-old heroin addict, only to have it taken away when it was revealed she made the entire story up.

A former journalist herself, Mock is co-writing the screenplay with former Washington Post editor Ned Martel. 

Currently, the film is casting for the roles of Cooke, her editor Bob Woodward and his boss Katherine Graham. Shooting for the movie will take place later this summer in Washington, D.C.

“Helming Janet Cooke’s story is a full circle moment for me,” said Mock. “I began my career as a journalist, dreaming of telling stories that mattered for a living. I am thrilled to partner with Netflix for my feature debut, centered on a young  Black woman at the Washington Post and her ambitious and complicated quest to make the front page — no matter what.”