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- Pain Hustlers is a 2023 American crime drama film.
- It was directed by David Yates.
- The screenplay was written by Wells Tower.
- It is based on the 2022 book of the same name by Evan Hughes.
- The film stars Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy García, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chloe Coleman.
- Its plot centers on a high school dropout who lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical company in Central Florida, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy.
- Pain Hustlers had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023.
- The movie was released in select theaters in the United States on October 20, 2023.
- The movie had its streaming debut by Netflix on October 27, 2023.
- The characters and product names in this film are fictionalized. The company was actually Insys Therapeutics, and the sublingual fentanyl drug was Subsys. The founder of the company portrayed by Andy Garcia was John Kapoor. Maria Guzman was the name of the sales rep-turned-whistleblower portrayed by Emily Blunt.
- There were eventually several whistleblowers who filed suit against the company. In addition to the Insys executives who were convicted on racketeering charges, multiple physicians did jail time for fraudulent prescribing practices. Subsys is still on the market, now owned by BTcP Pharma who pledged to only market the drug for cancer-related pain.
- David Yates’ third film outside the Harry Potter franchise, after The Tichborne Claimant (1998) and Legend of Tarzan (2016).
- This is David Yates’ first streaming exclusive movie.
- The movie lasts 123 minutes.
- In August 2021, Sony Pictures announced the development of an untitled film directed by David Yates and written by Wells Tower.
- It is based on the Evan Hughes’ New York Times Magazine article, “The Pain Hustlers” from May 2, 2018, and his subsequent book The Hard Sell released in January 2022.
- It is a co-production between Grey Matter Productions and Wychwood Pictures.
- Yates produced the film along with Lawrence Grey and Yvonne Walcott Yates.
- In May 2022, Emily Blunt joined the cast.
- Also in May 2022 Netflix acquired the film, which was titled Pain Hustlers.
- The deal worth at least $50 million.
- In July, Chris Evans came on board to star.
- In August, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chloe Coleman were added to the cast.
- Production began in late August.
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 23% of 95 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10.
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