Jennifer Lawrence: No ‘Bad Blood’ As Theranos Film Finds A Buyer Thanks To Talent Behind Pitch


The controversial soon-to-be-made film that has been a hot topic of late and has Jennifer Lawrence attached to it to portray the lead character, has finally found a buyer.

Lawrence is to portray Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who rose to the top as one of the wealthiest women in the world before her world crumbled following an investigation into the blood-testing company and information that revealed the blood-testing results were not accurate.

The film’s writer and director is Adam McKay, and Lawrence is set to be on the production team for the now-anticipated film. Vanity Fair shares about the deal that was made in the fight for the rights to the film between a number of entertainment giants.

“Legendary Pictures snapped up rights to the hot-button biopic for a reported $3 million Thursday evening, after outbidding and outlasting a swarm of competition from Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, STX Entertainment, Regency Enterprises, Cross Creek, Amazon Studios, AG Capital, the Weinstein Company, and, in the penultimate stretch, Paramount, among other studio suitors.”

A source who has the inside scoop on the deal says that the “numbers are very reasonable,” and declined to share an identity because the person was not given permission to speak publicly on the topic. The source went on to say that the final decision came down to “the quality of the package.”

The film is now on route to being produced thanks to McKay’s diligence in pitching the project that was based on a book proposal by John Carreyront, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. The proposal is entitled Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley. McKay is most well- known for his Oscar-winning adaptation for the screenplay The Big Short.

VF relays further words of the studio source who shares about the premise of the book proposal that will carry over to the film.

“They basically tell the story of how Elizabeth Holmes created these fraudulent blood-testing machines, raised $9 billion through venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, and refuses to admit they don’t work even when it is obvious the testing is inaccurate. They employ a big-time litigator and threaten to sue anyone who challenges her.”

It was one incredibly rare situation that developed involving a package deal and interest from so many major distributors all at once, but it incited the interest of many when Deadline first made the news known about the McKay-Lawrence project back on June 17.

The interest had to do with the intriguing storyline as well as the two talents who joined forces and who are both at the top in their fields at the moment. An executive at one of the distribution companies remarked on this.

“They are two pieces of talent that you want to be in business with. They are both white hot. And there was a resonant pitch.”

It is set to be a win for both Lawrence and McKay. As the publication notes, Lawrence could have likely made the pitch on her own and drawn in the interest of the execs. However, with McKay added into the mix, this project is a surefire hit.

The true story that the film is based on, clearly has something to do with the high hopes for its success, as well. As noted it is based on the real life saga of Elizabeth Holmes who founded a company that saw its value shoot to $9 billion. However, the results were found to be inaccurate which meant the loss of a partnership with Walgreens and essentially a drop to a worth of only $800 million. Holmes has lost her lab tech rights for a two-year period over the controversy and inaccurate practices.

[Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images]

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