Now Monsanto's Legal Woes Are Going to Be a Hollywood Movie

When the Missouri legislature brought back tax credits for film productions, there was hope it would lead to a boom in big-budget movies being made locally even beyond On Fire, the adaptation of John O'Leary's memoir that filmed in and around St. Louis last fall. But whether state lawmakers would excitedly welcome the new film that really should be filmed in St. Louis is not yet clear.

The film is currently titled Monsanto, and it comes from Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, the guys who brought you the Dick Cheney biopic Vice and the climate change flick Don't Look Up. Safe to say that, unlikely the Missouri legislature, these guys are not likely to be sympathetic to a pesticide manufacturer.

Sure enough, here's how McKay describes the film, according to the Hollywood Reporter: “These days stories about the ‘little guy’ taking on huge institutions seem few and far between, both in real life and on the big screen. So when a story as riveting and inspiring as this one shows up on our desks we get excited. Why? Because people love and need these movies. They always have and always will. Erin Brockovich, Silkwood, It’s a Wonderful Life, Spotlight, 12 Angry Men, Moneyball, Norma Rae … I legitimately think I can list 200 wildly successful and beloved films about real people standing up against overwhelming odds with only fairness and truth on their side. So let’s make number 201.”

The film is being written and directed by John Lee Hancock, best known for The Blind Side, and will star Glenn Powell as attorney Brent Wisner, who sues Monsanto on behalf of a client who used Roundup and got sick. In real life, Wisner is the LA-based attorney who scored the first major victory against Monsanto on Roundup, winning a $289 million verdict on behalf of high school groundskeeper DeWayne Johnson. The company's legal problems, of course, have only multiplied since then.

The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Laura Dern will star as Monsanto’s chief toxicologist. And so we can't help but wonder .... does she drive home to a mansion in Ladue? Will we see her drop her kids at Burroughs?

Bigger question: Can Adam McKay somehow make this film without touching on Clarence Thomas' stint at Monsanto? (We're betting no.) Those three years reportedly helped transform him from a registered Democrat to a conservative. Surely we can get a scene of a young Thomas in Creve Coeur, working for The Man and becoming a free-market-focused firebrand.

Even so, how much you want to bet they pull an Ozark and film in Georgia?




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