John Lee Hancock's untitled Monsanto film has added six actors to its cast. LaKeith Stanfield, Julia McDermott, David Duchovny, Melonie Diaz, Bilal Hasna, and Greg Kinnear join previously announced leads Jonathan Bailey and Laura Dern. Production is now underway.
Stanfield plays Dewayne "Lee" Johnson, a high school groundskeeper who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after years of exposure to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Bailey plays Brent Wisner, the attorney who took Johnson's case to trial. A 2019 jury awarded Johnson $289 million in a verdict that established Roundup causes the disease. Thousands of additional lawsuits against Monsanto followed.
Hancock co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Wisner, Alexandra Duparc, and Ned Benson. Producers include Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Adam McKay, and Jon Levin. "I was drawn to this contemporary David vs. Goliath true story because I found it dramatic, moving, quite funny and of critical importance in today's world," Hancock told Variety.
The film is shooting in Los Angeles and Germany. Netflix acquired the project following Cannes 2024. No release date has been set.
Stanfield is known for his work on Atlanta and film roles in Knives Out and Judas and the Black Messiah. Bailey arrives fresh off Wicked. Both actors are at peak visibility. The casting suggests a film intent on matching the weight of its subject: a single groundskeeper's illness, and the chemical company that said it couldn't have happened.