In 2014, reporter Brian Reed traveled to S-Town for the first time, and what he found there would turn into a podcast phenomenon that spread worldwide. S-Town, or “Shit Town” John B. McLemore called it, is a tiny town in rural Alabama. Its real name is Woodstock, and it’s home to some extremely memorable characters whose voices took listeners on a journey far more entertaining than the original plot of the podcast was set to be.

While John B.’s story has been heard by over 90 million listeners across the world, his legacy still lives on in Woodstock. His family, friends, and detractors are vocal, and it seems unclear how the future of S-Town will pan out. After a lawsuit in 2018 over the show’s candidness about John B.’s private life, talks of a film adaptation seemed to stop. So will S-Town become a film or is this podcast meant to stay an audio drama?

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The Story of John B. McLemore

     S-Town

S-Town is a podcast developed and released by Serial, a spinoff series from This American Life. Serial’s first claim to fame came in the form of an investigation into the trial of Adnan Syed, a man who was arrested at 17 for allegedly murdering his ex-girlfriend and who was subsequently imprisoned for life. This was Serial’s first season, released in 2014, and as a result of their investigation, Adnan’s conviction was overturned in 2022, freeing him from prison after 23 years. This debut season of Serial broke podcast records at the time, garnering millions of listeners.

However, its second major release S-Town would blow its first season out of the water. S-Town was in some form of production from 2012 to 2017, starting to release two years after the subject of its “investigation” passed away. John B. McLemore was a brilliant man who took his own life during the course of the podcast’s production.

After he passed, creator Brian Reed began to see what John meant about his home being a “shit town.” The series focuses mainly on John B. and his life story through interviews with him and those who knew him. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, and it easily captured the hearts and minds of millions of listeners upon its release. In its first four days, S-Town received 10 million downloads, quickly outnumbering the listeners of Serial’s first release at the time.

The Podcast Has Suffered Setbacks

After its release, S-Town was the subject of acclaim and criticism. Very quickly it seemed, a film was in the works. Among the critics were the new owners of the McLemore estate, however, whose legal battles forced the S-Town team at Serial and This American Life to put a pause on developing the adaptation.

With Brian Reed, Serial, and This American Life under the scrutiny of the courts, all other news about S-Town faded into the background. The lawsuit went to depositions and discovery in 2019, where the recordings Brian Reed took with John B. were shared. The lawsuit was quickly dismissed once John’s own words proved the podcast was valid journalism and not exposing more than he had shared with Reed.

That was in May 2020. In the years since little information has surfaced about future developments with an S-Town movie. The other subjects of the podcast have attempted to pave their own way, with some creating merchandise and others pioneering suicide awareness efforts in the community, but there is little news about the film.

Is The S-Town Movie Still In The Works?

Back in 2018, multiple articles were published discussing the podcast’s film adaptation, and the attitude was generally optimistic. After winning the Peabody Award, a film adaptation seemed like the natural next step. Whether it would be a documentary or a fictionalized account of S-Town, there was plenty of material to adapt in the seven-episode podcast.

Participant Media acquired the rights to the film adaptation in 2018 and was in talks with director Tom McCarthy and writer Samuel Hunter to join the S-Town film team. Then the lawsuit put all of that on hold.

In 2020, Cheryl Dodson, who was interviewed in S-Town, became the center of a documentary about Woodstock entitled US-Town: Amidst the Flowers. The documentary aims to spread suicide awareness and prevention through the lens of S-Town’s impact on its community. The documentary was in production through 2020 with an expected release in 2021, but it failed to reach its Indiegogo fundraising goal and little has been published about it since.

As of 2020, many articles mentioned the S-Town film and how it was currently being made. It was seemingly in pre-production prior to the lawsuit and resumed following the case’s dismissal, but the film’s expected release date of 2021 has come and gone with no updates on the project.

There has been no news about the highly anticipated film since. It seems as if, for now, S-Town will not be coming to the big screen.