Frequent “Harry Potter” director David Yates is tackling the pharmaceutical industry with “Pain Hustlers,” his new Netflix feature starring the likes of Chris Evans, Emily Blunt, Andy Garcia and Catherine O’Hara.
Today the streamer has released the first photos and posters for the film which is inspired by Evan Hughes’ book “Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup’.
Evans stars as Zanna Therapeutics sales rep Pete Brenner and Emily Blunt as Liza Drake, a desperate but business-savvy single mom who weasels her way into a job at the company and peddles its pain medication designed for cancer patients to doctors.
The film will debut this week at the Toronto International Film Festival and Yates tells EW one of the big draws of the project for Blunt was that it wasn’t a straightforward approach to the story:
“It’s a bit subversive, it’s a bit naughty, it’s got some humor at play. She said, ‘You know what, David? I’m so sick of seeing leading female characters who have to be so honorable and straightforward.’
What she loved about Liza is she’s sometimes a little bit shady to get the deal done and fulfil her ambition, and she gets taken up by the whole rollercoaster of it.
I think what we both love about that character is the fact that Liza is fallible, ultimately, and she sort of loses her way a little bit in the moral maze of it all. And I think Emily was excited by creating that character for the audience to see a woman who’s fallible and culpable and accountable for her actions.”
Meanwhile casting Evans was all about going against his good-guy superhero image from the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
“I know he’s been working to subvert that in other roles. So for me, it was just too much of a delight not to bring him in. [Turning] the guy who plays Captain America so beautifully… into a sleepy pharma rep was tempting, and I think he really enjoyed that journey. I think he really relished it and leaned into it and found layers and levels in it that were quite fun.”
“Pain Hustlers” opens in select theaters on October 20th and will be available to stream October 27th on Netflix.
Source: Netflix
