Sony buys rights to develop ‘I’m Not Here To Hurt You’ for screen
Mediahuis Ireland has signed an option agreement with Sony Pictures Television for the rights to the hit podcast I’m Not Here To Hurt You.
Launched in July 2023, it has already had more than 500,000 downloads worldwide and topped the Irish charts.
The podcast tells the extraordinary life story of John O’Hegarty, who went from being a highly-qualified academic to one of Ireland’s most prolific bank robbers.
Nicknamed “the polite bank robber”, he ultimately became Prisoner 33293 after leaving a trail of destruction.
In the six-part series, Irish Independent executive editor Kevin Doyle goes on a journey to find out how a man with qualifications from two of Europe’s top universities falls into a life of drugs and criminality. The answer begins with a tragic accident that had fatal consequences.
I’m Not Here To Hurt You was developed by the team behind multi-award winning The Indo Daily podcast. Mr Doyle said: “It is rare to have somebody like John O’Hegarty agree to be interviewed about his past and then to have him describe his crimes, life behind bars and personal struggles so deeply.
“We are very pleased to have finalised an agreement with Sony Pictures Television, which will allow them to look at new ways of telling the story.”
Mary Carroll, Mediahuis Ireland head of audio, added: “I’m Not Here To Hurt You took a year to make. A huge amount of effort went into investigating John’s story and developing the podcast. We see the interest of such a major studio in the project as an endorsement.”
The team behind I’m Not Here To Hurt You was Kevin Doyle (presenter), Garrett Mulhall (series producer), Mary Carroll (executive producer), John Smith (assistant producer/sound design), Gavin Hennessy (sound design) and Amy Molloy and Conor Feehan (reporting).