Todd Haynes and Mark Ruffalo Tackle Environmentalism in ‘Dry Run’
…Dry Run is based on a harrowing true story, centering on Nathaniel Rich’s New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare.” The film will follow the efforts of corporate defense attorney Robert Bilott to bring an environmental lawsuit against chemical company DuPont. Despite the seemingly paradoxical situation of a corporate lawyer going against the interests of a company aligned with his firm, Bilott was driven by conscience (in Rich’s feature, Bilott states it was “the right thing to do”) to uncover the truth about a contaminated water supply that first came to his attention after one man’s cattle farm was invariably poisoned.
Bilott eventually discovered a massive history of chemical pollution involving perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. Used to manufacture high-performance plastics that are then made into numerous modern everyday devices, improperly disposed sludge laced with the toxic compound risked the health and safety of thousands. A class-action suit was filed on behalf of 70,000 people against DuPont, through which a court-appointed science panel determined a probable link between multiple health problems — including various cancers, thyroid disease, and ulcerative colitis — and PFOA.
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