A movie about the Panama Papers is already in the works

Producers and studios are currently vying over the rights as to who will adapt Jake Bernstein's book on the subject, Secrecy World

An activist performs as a client of an offshore company during a protest in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, on April 12, 2016 (Getty)

You can imagine how the very moment news dropped of history's biggest data leak, the Panama Papers, played out in the halls and boardrooms of Hollywood.

A panicked whirlwind, and shouts to get Aaron Sorkin on the line. And Martin Scorcese! David Fincher! What's Adam McKay up to? He can make it The Big Short: Part II! One of the most fervently discussed news items of the year is already being shopped around Hollywood; with plans to adapt the yet-to-be-published book on the subject into a feature film.

Secrecy World, penned by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Jake Bernstein, is set to be published in the latter half of 2017; yet studios and producers are already vying over who will attain the film rights for the book, the Guardian reports. The non-fiction piece will recount the story behind the batch of leaked documents that implicated many high-profile figures, including David Cameron and Jackie Chan, in their use of offshore tax firms.

It's certainly a logical move for Hollywood following the Oscar-nominated success of Adam McKay's The Big Short, focused on the housing market's role in the 2007/8 financial crisis. Indeed, topically-focused films aiming to unmask the secretive and the elite are increasingly becoming a hot trend for studios; with Spotlight's Best Picture Academy Award honoring the journalists who uncovered the Catholic Church's vast cover-up of systemic child abuse in the Boston area.

Upcoming is Oliver Stone's Snowden, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the CIA employee-turned-NSA whistleblower; with its release date recently pushed back to 16 September to qualify as an awards contender.