Within hours of Scott Pelley being abruptly and unceremoniously fired by CBS News executives this week, the furious anchor is being offered what insiders are calling 'mindboggling, over-the-top, never-before-seen' book and movie deals worth as much as $100 million, Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.

And a close source alleged that Pelley, privately predicting a battle with neophyte CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and knowing a showdown with her and her team was inevitable, has been keeping a secret diary – 'listing and detailing every conversation, every contact, every meeting, including what other CBS News stars have had to say'. 

'It's all there, all the juicy behind-the-scenes stuff, and ready-made for a book manuscript, a movie script, and a streaming Netflix mini-series,' the source told the Daily Mail. 

'And from what I'm told, Pelley is anxious to make a deal.'

The source said Pelley, 68, is 'chomping at the bit to tell his side of the story and 'clearly seeks retribution for his treatment'.

Celebrity blogger Rob Shuter reported Thursday that Pelley is already consulting lawyers as he plans to sue CBS over his firing which came after he slammed new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton during an introductory meeting on Monday.

He told Bilton, 49, who had been appointed by Weiss, that he had no relevant experience and 'would never be welcomed here'. The following day Pelley was out. 

Weiss, 42, says she fired Pelley because she's 'only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect', saying 'that foundation was broken when Pelley laid into Bilton.

The embarrassing firing of the legendary newsman then ignited a power struggle from the publishing world in New York to the power players in Hollywood to buy his story, seemingly with whatever it takes.

According to a well-connected publishing insider, 'A Pelley tell-all about the battles and intrigue, the love and hate among the stars inside the now tarnished Tiffany Network – all the bitchiness – and what really goes on behind the scenes at 60 Minutes, has all the elements to be the biggest media blockbuster since 'All The President's Men.'

The Woodward and Bernstein thriller about the rise and fall of President Nixon and the Watergate scandal earned more than $70 million at the box office and tens of millions more in book and other media sales, and made the young journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the story, overnight, multimillionaires and celebrities.

''That was in the mid-1970s, half a century ago,' noted the source. 'And $100 million is definitely not out of the question when all is told.'

Powerful acquisition editors at top publishing houses in New York were said to be already vying for a Pelley tell-all beginning within hours of his out-of-the-blue firing that shook the media world 'with offers being thrown around for a candid tell-all by the popular TV news star of as much as $30 million.

The offers are being made to Pelley through his people, a source close to Pelley says. That amount – one of the highest book advances ever – plus film rights, TV rights, foreign deals, first serial rights and more could be worth tens of millions of dollars more than the whopping advance, and that's me thinking conservatively.'

In Hollywood, agents and producers are 'tripping over each other' to secure option rights to Scott's story,' an executive producer who is among those vying told Daily Mail.

'Pelley could easily garner points and credits worth tens of millions of dollars, and that's when the film is made. But just getting him to assign the rights, which I desperately want, and with rights to partner with me, to co-produce, or executive produce on a script by him – well, we're likely talking off the top of my head of maybe $50 million, maybe more.

'His unparalleled firing, his incredibly public battles with Bari Weiss and her team at CBS, the pretentious stars at the network and all those fiery happenings at CBS are ready-made for a big screen feature, and a Netflix mini-series.'

As a leading New York and Washington, D. C. literary agent who is known for his big publishing deals involving media and political figures told the Daily Mail, 'Scott's at the center of the biggest media storm and story ever – the decline and possible fall of one of the most powerful TV networks in the world.

'It has all the drama – the battle between Scott and Bari, the biggest names in television news publicly attacking one another, mass firings, rumors that more is to come with credible chatter that CBS News veterans Leslie Stahl, 84, and Bill Whitaker, 74, could be next – voluntarily or involuntarily.'

Two younger correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, 54, and Cecilia Vega, 49, were canned even before Pelley, who accused Weiss and Bilton of 'murdering' the long-running show.

Sources noted that there 'hasn't been a scandal like this in broadcast news' since Scott's predecessor at CBS News, anchor Dan Rather departed 20 years ago in a controversy over his handling of a 60 Minutes II segment that attacked then-presidential candidate George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard, a story he continued to defend.

Close Pelley sources say Rather, now 94, has urged Pelley 'from Day One to speak out' against the Bari Weiss regime 'come hell or high water'.

When Weiss was given full power to revamp CBS News and 60 Minutes last year when she was brought on by new Paramount head David Ellison, Rather was livid, asserting that a culture of fear spread through the newsrooms, with staffers fearing job losses.

Rather, who served as CBS Evening News anchor from 1981 to 2005, asserted that the hiring of Weiss, a former New York Times opinion writer and founder of a successful Right-leaning news blog, The Free Press, with no broadcast news experience, was all due to her support of Donald Trump.

Declared Rather on his Substack, called Steady: 'That deal and the hiring of Weiss signals to everyone, especially to the man in the Oval Office, that CBS is no longer independent, but under the tutelage of a conservative billionaire who is putting more than his thumb on the scale.'

He voiced his opinion that Weiss is 'not a reporter,' and dubbed her hiring 'a dark day in the halls of CBS News'.

As for fellow Texan Pelley, Rather once declared, 'Scott burns with the hot, blue flame to report news. He's relentless on a story. He has news in his id, his DNA.'

Meanwhile, Rather's called 60 Minutes a 'damaged franchise.'

The close Pelley source tells Daily Mail that the big money his story appears likely to bring is 'unimportant' to him. 

'He's already very well off, a millionaire many times over from his decades at the top of the news chain at CBS, his high-paying speaking engagements, and a well-reviewed 2019 memoir, Truth Worth Telling.

'Scott may not like my view of the current situation he's in, but it's clear from his words, public and private, that its revenge he's seeking – fair and square. And with his firing he's chomping at the bit to tell his side of the story in a book, in a movie, and in TV form. 

'He has dynamite to tell, and those willing to throw millions at him know it.'

Pelley did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment. 

Jerry Oppenheimer is a bestselling biographer whose books have focused on controversial icons such as the Kennedy family, the Clintons and the Kardashians