Netflix has acquired buzzy package “Monsanto” starring Glen Powell, Anthony Mackie and Laura Dern. The streamer paid $30 million for worldwide rights out of Cannes, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.
The film is directed by “The Blind Side” writer-director John Lee Hancock. Rocket Science represented the international rights and introduced in Cannes, while CAA Media Finance repped the U.S. and negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.
“Monsanto” tells the true story of young, untried attorney Brent Wisner (Powell) who takes on a seemingly insurmountable case against the giant U.S. chemical company Monsanto on behalf of Dewayne “Lee” Johnson (Mackie), who used Monsanto’s best-known product Roundup, a wildly financially successful weed and grass pesticide killer, as part of his job as a high school groundskeeper. During the trial, Dr. Melinda Rogers (Dern), the chief toxicologist of the Monsanto Company, testifies with certainty that Roundup is safe.
“I was drawn to this contemporary David vs. Goliath true story because I found it dramatic, moving, quite funny and of critical importance in today’s world,” director Hancock previously said prior to the film’s sale. “My ambitions are to deliver a smart, thoughtful and commercial legal drama that takes the audience on a human journey.”
The film’s script was developed in association with Karl Spoerri’s Zurich Avenue and written by Michael Wisner, Alexandra Duparc, Ned Benson and Hancock. “Monsanto” is being produced by Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Philip Schulz-Deyle and Jon Levin alongside HyperObject Industries’ Adam McKay and Kevin Messick.
