Take a successful filmmaker who recently won an Oscar and the current biggest star in Hollywood and you have the ingredients for a potentially super-hot movie in the works. Such is the case for Bad Blood, new biographical drama from writer-director Adam McKay and set to star Jennifer Lawrence. It’s property that everyone in town wanted and one that sparked a bidding war between the Hollywood powers that be. In the end, as Deadline first reported, Legendary Pictures won out in the end and Universal Picture will distribute.
What was all the fuss about? Bad Blood details Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the controversial blood testing company Theranos. Holmes’ 2003 start-up became a power player on the thesis that blood could be drawn with a mere pinprick as opposed to injection. The company and Holmes’ story became a cautionary tale in modern trade after an investigation started over disputes of inaccurate blood testing at Theranos. Bidders around Hollywood appeared just as jazzed by McKay’s pitch – likened as a sort of The Social Network meets The Big Short. That last film was directed and co-written by McKay and earned five Oscar nominations this past year, including a win for McKay’s screenplay – that pedigree certainly didn’t hurt.
Lawrence, as the most sought after star of the moment, doesn’t hurt either. Coming off The Hunger Games and X-Men franchises, the Oscar winning actress can certainly have her pick of projects. Earlier this year, the 25-year old star earned her fourth Oscar nomination for headlining David O. Russell’s Joy; she will next appear in the anticipated science fiction romance Passengers alongside Chris Pratt.
As for Legendary Pictures, they won out over Paramount (who distributed The Big Short), Fox 2000, Warner Bros, STX Entertainment, Cross Creek, AG Capital and The Weinstein Company, and Amazon Studios and ponied up about $3.5 million for the script alone. The film is angling to be produced in the $40-$50 range.
We will stay tuned to Bad Blood as more details become known.
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