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Arts & Entertainment

Brad Pitt To Make Film On Anonymous Hacker Who Exposed The Steubenville Rape Case

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Brad Pitt will produce a film about the Steubenville rape case (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images For Paramount)

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On the heels of Brad Pitt's success with 12 Years a Slave snagging the Oscars' Best Picture award earlier this year, he's moved onto his new project—another hard subject. The actor will be producing a film with his Plan B company and Dede Gardner on the true story of a hacker who exposed the covered-up rape of a Steubenville, Ohio teen.

The film will be based off David Kushner's Nov. 2013 Rolling Stone article, "Anonymous vs. Steubenville, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It follows how Deric Lostutter, a 26-year-old member of the Anonymous hacker collective, released damning information on how members of the Steubenville community (even school officials) covered up the fact that two high school football players raped a 16-year-old girl.

When Lostutter released a video of the rape that took place, the FBI raided his home. Since he had obtained photos and videos of the rape through social media, he was charged with identity theft and threatening the rapists. Now, Lostutter is facing 10 years in prison, while the rapists were sentenced to only one year in jail.

Although Lostutter tweeted out the following message on April 1, he has since been posting articles on Twitter about the film since word came out.

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