UPDATED: Todd Haynes is set to direct Participant Media’s “Dry Run,” a movie based on the New York Times Magazine article about the lawyer who took on the chemical company DuPont.
Participant and Mark Ruffalo are producing the pic from a rewrite by Mario Correa. Matthew Carnahan penned the first draft. Sources say Ruffalo is also considering starring in the film as the lawyer, but negotiations have yet to begin.
Based on Nathaniel Rich’s New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” the untitled film centers around Robert Bilott, who had been practicing as a corporate defense attorney for eight years when he took on an environmental lawsuit against the chemical company DuPont. The suit turned into a battle exposing a decades-long history of chemical pollution.
Haynes has spent most of his career developing his own projects and rarely meets for open directing assignments like this one. The history of the Du Ponts, however, holds similarities to some of the flawed characters Haynes has depicted in previous films like “Far From Heaven,” “Carol,” and the Bob Dylan drama “I’m Not There.”
Haynes most recently directed the Amazon Studios pic “Wonderstruck.” He is represented by CAA.
Correa, who is repped by WME, most recently penned the pic “Let Her Speak.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the movie was loosely based on the Du Pont family.
RELATED CONTENT:
