Apple Original Films today announced Bad Blood, a feature film from Academy Award winners Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, Don’t Look Up) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle).
McKay will write, direct and produce the story about the rise and fall of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and Academy Award winner Lawrence will produce and star as Holmes.
The film will chart the dramatic story of Holmes’ Silicon Valley blood testing startup that catapulted her to being the youngest and richest self-made billionaire before claims of fraud brought everything crashing down.
Produced by Apple Studios, in association with Legendary Pictures, the feature is based on Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist John Carreyrou, who broke the initial story.
The book is described as follows: The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of Theranos, the one-time multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end.
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the female Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier.
Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.7 billion. There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work.
A riveting story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.
Lawrence will next be seen starring in McKay’s Don’t Look Up, which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill. Lawrence and her producing partner Justine Polsky recently wrapped production on A24’s Untitled Soldier Film starring Lawrence and directed by first time filmmaker Lila Neugebauer.
Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. She has been nominated for three additional Oscars for Joy, American Hustle and Winter’s Bone.
Bad Blood will be produced by McKay and Kevin Messick through Hyberobject Industries with which Apple has a multi-year, first-look deal for scripted feature films.
Lawrence and Polsky will produce through Excellent Cadaver. Will Ferrell will produce through Gary Sanchez Productions.