Netflix’s new Emily Blunt film is the latest to tackle America’s opioid crisis.
Pain Hustlers is director David Yates’s first film outside of Harry Potter‘s Wizarding World since 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan and only the third movie he’s made that doesn’t feature wands, spells and fantastic beasts.
In a departure from his usual, fantasy-based epic actioners, Pain Hustlers is a crime drama with an all-star cast featuring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara and Jay Duplass.
Following a blue collar single mum who is recently made unemployed, she begins a new job at a pharmaceutical company that is not as legit as it seems and she soon finds herself in the middle of a large racketeering conspiracy in a story that gets right to the heart of America’s opioid crisis.
Joining other opioid crisis films and shows such as Dopesick and Painkiller, Pain Hustlers is the latest to tackle the ongoing epidemic but is it based on a true story? Read on for everything you need to know.
Is Pain Hustlers based on a true story?
The genesis for Pain Hustlers is a New York Times article of the same name from journalist Evan Hughes which featured his reporting into a pharmaceutical company that was convincing doctors to prescribe their new drug.
Upon reading the story, screenwriter Wells Tower recalls: “I was just astounded by this incredible story. I found it mind-blowing that these people, who for the most part have no medical training, have so much influence over the medications we’re prescribed.
“And they have this influence because they’re bribing doctors to prescribe medications, in this case fentanyl, even to patients who don’t need it. I knew we had a story on our hands that could offer some really shocking insights into how American medicine works.”
While much of the story is loosely grounded in the real-life rise and fall of the company Insys Therapeutic and its founder John Kapoor, the company at the heart of the story – Zanna – is fictionalised and headed up by a figure named Jack Neel (Andy Garcia), while the lead character of Liza (Emily Blunt) is an entirely original creation.
Director Yates said about adapting the story for the film: “With the exception of Liza, they’re all kind of loosely based on existing characters from that pharma world. But we gave Wells licence to create his own unique version of people.
“They’re inspired by, I would suggest, rather than biographical per se. And Liza was our invention, a single mum with a daughter struggling with health issues, a dreamer, undervalued but incredibly capable.”
As for the real company behind some of the practices depicted in Pain Hustlers, Insys Therapeutic filed for bankruptcy in 2019 with a number of top executives found guilty of racketeering with founder Kapoor sentenced to five years in prison.
Pain Hustlers is available to watch now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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