Hustling is the mantra for the actress Emily Blunt in her latest film. On Wednesday, Netflix released the first trailer for ‘Pain Hustlers’.
The film stars Blunt and Chris Evans as pharmaceutical sales employees pushing opioids in a story based on real events, reports ‘People’ magazine.
Blunt plays Liza Drake, a single mom “at the end of her rope” after losing her job, per a synopsis. “A chance meeting with pharmaceutical sales rep Pete Brenner (Evans) puts her on an upwards trajectory economically but dubious path ethically as she becomes entangled in a dangerous racketeering scheme. The film’s trailer teases Liza and Pete’s high-earning, hard-partying lifestyle as title cards read that Pain Hustlers “may cause increased energy, elevated mood, ecstasy, paranoia, aggression and greed.”
As Liza deals with “her increasingly unhinged boss, the worsening medical condition of her daughter, and a growing awareness of the devastation the company is causing,” she begins to re-examine her career choices. Netflix described the film as a “sharp and revealing look at what some people do out of desperation and others do out of greed.”
As per ‘People’, ‘Pain Hustlers’ is directed by David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter films and the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs.
It’s written by Wells Tower, adapted from Evan Hughes’s 2018 article published in The New York Times Magazine and the subsequent book ‘Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment’ at an Opioid Startup. Netflix secured worldwide distribution rights to the film at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Yates told Entertainment Weekly, “I’ve always been fascinated by salespeople and what they do and the moral side of the pharma industry when they’re hustling to make money.”
“Elements of the story are obviously consistent to what Evan Hughes documented in his book, but we created Liza Drake, we created the relationship she has with her daughter, Phoebe, just as a way of allowing the audience to connect with a single character and carry us through the story,” he added.
Along with Blunt and Evans, the movie also features Catherine O’Hara, Chloe Coleman, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, Amit Shah, Aubrey Dollar, Willie Raysor and Andy Garcia.