'Traffic'-er to tackle drugs
Bickford readies pic about medicine biz
Screenwriter Daniel Therriault, who penned the HBO telepic "Witness Protection" (1999), starring Tom Sizemore, and the pay cabler's 1997 pic "First Time Felon," which starred Omar Epps and Delroy Lindo, will pen the screenplay. No talent is attached to the pic as yet.
Titled "Rx." (as in a doctor's prescription) and set up at BBC Films, pic will examine the conflicts and underpinnings of the multibillion-dollar international pharmaceutical drug business. Joe Stephens, the journalist who covers the pharmaceutical beat at the Washington Post, has been hired as a consultant to the project. (Stephens has written extensively on both the business and seemier sides of the pharmaceutical business. In 2001, Stephens began covering a lawsuit against Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker. Company was sued on behalf of 30 Nigerian families who contended that the company violated international law during a 1996 meningitis epidemic by experimenting on children without their knowledge or consent.)
Bickford was quick to caution that while "Rx." will probably feature a multiple character point-of-view storyline and cross national borders in the manner of "Traffic," the differences in the subject matter are sharp.
"The story of the business of legal pharmaceuticals could not be more different from the illegal drug business," Bickford told Daily Variety. "You're not telling the story of cops and robbers and kids overdosing; you're talking about saving people's lives while trying to make a lot of money at the same time. About the only thing they have in common is that both businesses affect absolutely everyone's lives."
BBC Films Peter Kalmbach, the former USA Films exec who became head of BBC Films' Los Angeles office in November 2001, will oversee development for the BBC. No domestic distribution is in place for the pic, though Bickford does have a first-look production deal at Universal Pictures, where she is also developing "Bounty," based on Chris Sarracini's graphic novel, and "Mata Hari," an original script based on Tatiana Blackington's tale of the life of the notorious danseuse shot for spying for the Germans during WWI.
Therriault was repped in the deal by Writers & Artists Agency.
