Todd Haynes To Direct 'Dry Run' About A Corporate Defense Lawyer Turned Environmental Protector; Mark Ruffalo Will Star

Director Todd Haynes has been staying quite busy since his 2017 film “Wonderstruck.” The filmmaker has some interesting movies lined up, including a documentary project on singer Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground that is in the works. Well, Haynes can now add another directorial project to that growing list, and it’s interestingly, an open-assignment gig and one that he didn’t develop himself.

According to Variety, Todd Haynes will tackle the Participant Media (“Spotlight“)-backed “Dry Run,” based on Nathaniel Rich’s New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare.” The movie has been written by Matthew Carnahan (“House Of Lies“) with playwright Mario Correa writing a new draft.

The lawyer in question is Robert Bilott, a legal counselor who worked as a corporate defense attorney for eight years before taking on a landmark environmental lawsuit against the chemical company DuPont. Mark Ruffalo, a passionate environmental right advocate, has signed on to produce the film with Participant, could very well take on the leading role, but negotiations are still in the works.

If DuPont rings familiar, it’s for good reason. The wealthy philanthropist John du Pont was the subject of director Bennet Miller‘s Oscar-nominated 2014 film “Foxcatcher,” with Steve Carell starring (and earning his first Oscar nomination) as the heir to the du Pont fortune. Ruffalo also starred in the film, winning an Oscar nomination, as David Schultz, a wrestler that the unhinged du Pont murdered in cold blood. But this is a very different, mostly unrelated story and one that sounds like it’s about a man finding his moral compass.

Here’s a good synopsis of Billot’s true-life story from The Right Livelihood.

Robert Bilott is one of the world’s finest environmental lawyers. With a combination of innovative litigation, scientific understanding, and extraordinary perseverance, he has achieved one of the most significant victories for environmental law and corporate accountability of this century. In a legal battle lasting 19 years, he represented 70,000 citizens whose drinking water had been contaminated with Perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) by the chemical giant DuPont.

Haynes has a reputation for being drawn to stories with flawed characters, so while “Dry Run” doesn’t exactly scream “Todd Haynes film!” perhaps the idea of a soulless corporate shill finding his way towards doing the right is the real draw. Update November 9, 2019: Mark Ruffalo is officially starring in the picture.