Harvey Weinstein: the books, films and TV shows sparked by the scandal

In the two and a half years since numerous women came forward accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse, the disgraced media mogul has come to represent the ills of gender imbalances in Hollywood, unchecked male ego, cultures of sexism and the silencing of sexual assault survivors.

A slew of new films, books and TV projects explores the unfolding of the Weinstein scandal, what it says about the culture of Hollywood and the impact of #MeToo movement that followed.

Breaking the Weinstein saga has led to book deals for several high-profile journalists, including the New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, and Ronan Farrow at the New Yorker.

Farrow turned his reporting on Weinstein into a bestselling book, Catch and Kill. Released in October, the book is as much about Farrow and the spy film-esque challenges he faced throughout his investigation, as it is about Weinstein. Late last year, Farrow also launched a podcast that expands on Catch and Kill. And in interviews for the book, Farrow teased, like a cliffhanger season finale, that “there’s absolutely more to be disclosed”, suggesting his contributions to the #MeToo movement are not over.

Related: ‘There’s more to our story’: Weinstein accuser helps survivors cope after trauma

Kantor and Twohey’s book She Said, released last year, re-examined the duo’s investigative reporting on Weinstein, which included interviews with 80 women. It was an instant bestseller and is being turned into a Brad Pitt-backed movie adaptation.

The Assistant, a fictional drama released earlier this year, revolves around a junior worker who is confronted with a pattern of sexism and sexual abuse from a celebrated film executive, and explicitly draws on the Weinstein story.

Kitty Green, The Assistant’s director and writer, interviewed dozens of women in the film industry following the revelations of Weinstein’s abuses. Her film, Green says, was an effort to highlight the impacts of a system designed to keep a predator in power and a course-correction from many news reports that tend to focus on the predator, rather than the victims. Green told the Guardian she considers the growing number of #MeToo films as a positive development – one that forces audiences to interrogate their own behaviors and consider how they can make their workspaces safe and fair.

Last year, the Oscar-nominated, star-studded film Bombshell touched on the #MeToo troubles of Fox News and Roger Ailes. The former chairman and CEO, who died in 2017, was accused by more than 23 women of sexual harassment, including the prominent hosts Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson.

Elsewhere, the streaming platform Hulu released the documentary Untouchable, which weaves together the stories of Weinstein’s survivors and eyewitnesses to provide a compelling, comprehensive look at his crimes.

Even when he is not directly mentioned, journalism on Weinstein and his survivors has become the source text from which many other #MeToo narratives spiral out. Weinstein’s presence looms large in #MeToo-themed episodes of shows like Tuca & Bertie, Law and Order: SVU, Murphy Brown, and Grey’s Anatomy.

In Tuca & Bertie’s #MeToo narrative, Tuca, a parakeet with baking aspirations, faces harassment and lewd comments from the celebrity head chef she interns for. Tuca’s dilemma is that speaking out against the powerful chef feels like potential career suicide. Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many other Weinstein survivors faced the same concern, illuminating why it took so long for the allegations to break.

TV also has widened its focus to other prominent, Weinstein-esque men abusing their power.

There were the hyped documentary specials Leaving Neverland, which focused on allegations of child abuse by Michael Jackson, and the dream hampton-produced Surviving R Kelly.

The Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, tackles sexual politics at a TV network with frank dialogue, drawing much of its material from the story of Matt Lauer, the ousted NBC anchor who faced rape and harassment allegations from several women.

A host of works have confronted consent and sexual harassment: Believe Me by Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman, which includes essays from writers about trusting women who speak out about abuse; Whisper Network, a compelling novel about a group of women banding together to take down a CEO with a history of sexual harassment; #MeToo in the Corporate World, which sees the economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett use datasets to illustrate the effect of the #MeToo movement on corporate America. Moira Donegan, the creator of the Shitty Media Men list and Guardian columnist, announced she would be writing a “primer on dealing with sexual harassment”.

In addition, a crop of works focused on intersectional, underrepresented voices in the #MeToo movement appears to be on the horizon. One of the most anticipated novels of 2020 is the already hotly debated My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. The Stephen King-approved book has a #MeToo premise: an English teacher discovers a professor she had an affair with as a 15-year-old is now romantically involved with another student.

There is the forthcoming HBO documentary On the Record, which focuses on the survivors of color who allege the rap mogul Russell Simmons sexually assaulted them (Oprah Winfrey was previously attached to the project as an executive producer).

The producers of Surviving R Kelly returned to television last month, with a follow-up entitled Surviving R Kelly Part II: The Reckoning. The two-night special examined another part of the #MeToo experience: the harassment and attacks survivors face after their stories are told. And the Los Angeles Times is running a podcast about the accusations against Bill Cosby that includes interviews with his survivors, some of whom are women of color.