Glen Powell to star in legal drama ‘Monsanto’ from John Lee Hancock

Los Angeles, May 9 (PTI) “Anyone But You” star Glen Powell is set to star in filmmaker John Lee Hancock’s legal drama movie, titled “Monsanto”.

According to entertainment news outlet Variety, the 35-year-old actor will be joined by Anthony Mackie and Laura Dern in the project, which Hancock will direct from a script he penned in collaboration with Michael Wisner, Alexandra Duparc and Ned Benson.

“Monsanto” will follow the “true story of young, untried attorney Brent Wisner (Powell), who in 2019 took on a seemingly insurmountable case against the giant US chemical company Monsanto on behalf of Dewayne “Lee” Johnson (Mackie) who used the company’s best-known product Roundup, a wildly financially successful weed and grass pesticide killer, as part of his job as a high school groundskeeper,” according to the film’s synopsis.

Oscar winner Dern will play Dr Melinda Rogers, the Monsanto Company’s chief toxicologist, who testifies with certainty that roundup is safe during the landmark cancer trial.

The film will be produced by Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Philip Schulz-Deyle and Jon Levin along with HyperObject Industries’ Adam McKay and Kevin Messick.

Powell is currently one of the most in-demand actors of Hollywood after delivering commercial hits with “Top Gun: Maverick” and romantic comedy “Anyone But You”.

Besides “Monsanto”, the actor is also in discussions to feature in filmmaker JJ Abrams’ upcoming movie. The duo had earlier collaborated as producers for the documentary “The Blue Angels”.

Powell will be next seen in Netflix comedy “Hit Man”, which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator, director Richard Linklater. He is also headlining “Twisters”, the follow-up to 1996 film “Twister”. The movie, directed by Lee Isaac Chung and also starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, will be released worldwide in July.