What do you do after your groundbreaking Netflix series exposes a gross miscarriage of justice and the corruption in our country’s legal system, ignites hundreds of thousands of people to protest on social media, spawns dozens of conspiracy theories and becomes one of the most talked-about documentaries in the past decade? You take down one of the most powerful multi-billion dollar companies in the world.
Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, the filmmakers behind Making A Murderer, are planning to make Johnson & Johnson — yes, the baby powder Johnson & Johnson — the subjects of their newest project. The duo is adapting a Huffington Post article written by journalist Steven Brill titled “America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker.” In the piece, Brill reveals how the company made billions of dollars marketing a dangerous drug called Risperdal to children and the elderly. Apparently, the drug is a powerful anti psychotic used to treat people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and it carries some pretty harmful side effects. Johnson & Johnson failed to disclose said side effects to the poor people it sold the drug to, which resulted in a lawsuit the company settled for $2 billion — though it sold $30 billion worth of the drug.
Ricciardi and Demos are partnering with George Clooney’s production company Smokehouse Pictures and Sonar Entertainment for the new project — no word yet if it’ll be a film or series, though Brill’s article is split into 15 parts. Nicki Paluga will adapt the piece with Ricciardi and Demos and the pair will direct as well.
This is pretty exciting news considering the filmmakers’ last project was such a hit for Netflix, but we’ll go ahead and say what everyone’s thinking: What does this mean for Making A Murderer season two?
(Via Variety)
