EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Renner is set to star as the journalist who helped blow the lid off the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma’s role in the rampant spread of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin.
The two-time Oscar nominee will play Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Armstrong in a drama that is being sold here in the Cannes Market through Expanded Media/LBI Entertainment and 101 Studios.The film will be written and directed by husband-wife filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly (Beneath The Harvest Sky, Queenpins).
Julie Yorn and Patrick Walmsley from Expanded Media/LBI Entertainment and 101 Studios’ David C. Glasser will produce. David Hutkin, Ron Burkle and Bob Yari will executive produce for 101 Studios.Over a four-year investigation, Armstrong discovered evidence that, in order to maximize their profits, members of the Sackler family knew of and supported Purdue’s concealment of the strength and addiction risks of the drug OxyContin.
Since the release of OxyContin, more than two hundred thousand Americans have died from prescription painkiller related overdoses.
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