AKATECH NEWS

JENNIFER LAWRENCE TO STAR IN A FILM ABOUT DISGRACED CEO OF THERANOS AND FORMER BILLIONAIRE ELIZABETH HOLMES.

JUN 12

POSTED BY: Akatech Solutions | | DATE: June 12, 2016. | Source: telegraph.co.uk

Jennifer Lawrence is set to play Elizabeth Holmes in a film about Theranos CREDIT: REX/AP

Jennifer Lawrence is set to star as Elizabeth Holmes in a new drama inspired by the real-life story of the Silicon Valley medical start-up Theranos.

According to Deadline, the film will be directed by Adam McKay, the man behind last year’s Oscar-winning drama about the financial crisis, The Big Short.

Holmes was a Stanford drop-out who styled herself on Steve Jobs, right down to the black turtleneck top. And only two years ago her blood-testing start-up was worth $9 billion.

The company was founded in 2003 and seemed revolutionary and potentially life-changing for its diagnostic product, Edison, which seemingly could conduct blood tests with a single finger prick and deliver rapid results.

Holmes topped Forbes magazine’s list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Woman” in 2015 and appeared in Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people. Theranos also had an illustrious – if unusual – list of boardmembers that included former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and former senators Sam Nunn and Bill Frist.

Jennifer Lawrence in Joy

But, following an investigation by the Wall Street Journal in October last year, it emerged that the reliability of Theranos’s technology had been greatly exaggerated. Shortly after, Holmes was ordered by the FDA to limit the use of the technology to just one of the 200 tests offered by the company.

Then, in April, it was reported that federal regulators had threatened to impose a series of sanctions on the company, including a two-year ban for the now-32-year-old Holmes from operating its labs for two years. The company’s value, 50 per cent of which is owned by Holmes, has since plummeted.

Such a spectacular rise and fall from grace means it is no surprise that Hollywood has already grabbed the story. The casting of Lawrence also follows her Oscar nominated turn in last year’s Joy, about the self-made millionaire and Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano.