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In the first big purchase of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Netflix is closing a deal for the worldwide rights to Emily Blunt package Pain Hustlers in a $50 million-plus deal.
David Yates is behind the project that is described as being in the vein of Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short. Blunt will play, according to the film’s logline, “a high-school dropout, lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical start-up in a yellowing strip mall in Central Florida. Liza’s charm, guts and drive catapult the company and her into the high life, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy with deadly consequences.”
Wells Tower is behind the screenplay for the feature project, which is being produced by Lawrence Grey through his Grey Matter Productions banner, along with Yates and Yvonne Walcott’s Wychwood Pictures. Filming is due to begin in August.
The Pain Hustlers deal comes as Netflix after last month’s first-quarter earnings announcement, revealing the streamer had lost 200,000 subscribers in the quarter and expected to lose an additional 2 million during the second quarter. Earlier this week, Netflix laid off 150 employees, mostly based in the U.S.
The deal marks the biggest sale of an otherwise thus far sleepy Cannes. At last year’s festival. CAA Media Finance and The Veterans are repping the film at Cannes.
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