Pain Hustlers on Netflix: Everything we know so far about the Chris Evans movie

Pain Hustlers is an upcoming Netflix film starring Chris Evans and Emily Blunt in the lead roles. The upcoming film is directed by BAFTA-winning director David Yates, with a screenplay written by Wells Tower. The film is based on Evan Hughes' book Hard Sell, which was published in 2022.

The official description of the film, as per Netflix, reads:

"A sharp and revealing look at what some people do out of desperation and others do out of greed."

Pain Hustlers reportedly takes a look into how two pharmaceutical drug sales representatives unwittingly put into motion the severe opioid crisis in America while in the pursuit of money. It is a story of how capitalism runs amok and eventually leads to one of the worst drug epidemics in America.

The film is set to initially premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 11, 2023. The Netflix release date for the film is set for October 27, 2023.

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Pain Hustlers - Expect an amazing performance from Chris Evans and Emily Blunt

Journalist Evan Hughes published a story in the New York Times Magazine titled The Pain Hustlers on May 2, 2018. The story about two pharmaceutical sales reps and how they led to the opioid crisis in America was later published as the book Hard Sell, which serves as the plot for the upcoming film.

The focus of the film will be Emily Blunt's character, Liza Drake, a blue-collar single mother who has lost her job and is having a hard time making ends meet. Her relationship with Chris Evans’ character, salesman Pete Brenner, leads her down a morally dubious path of pharmaceutical racketeering.

Liza Drake is a single mother who works as a dancer at a bar and meets Pete Brenner, an opportunistic drug salesman for a failing pharmaceutical firm. He hires her to promote a novel painkiller intended to provide pain relief to cancer patients since he has a gut feeling about her talent.

Liza is completely out of her element as she tries to make headway before she manages to persuade one doctor to recommend the drug produced by her company, breaking the code and creating a new sleazy playbook for convincing doctors to write prescriptions. She soon establishes her reputation and assembles a brilliant team that implements the plan all around the nation. It takes the business and Liza's life to heights she never dreamed possible. Later, Liza realizes the damage she's causing, which complicates her relationship with Brenner as he starts to value her more than just as a sales target.

From the looks of the trailer, Emily Blunt has done exemplary work in portraying Liza as a gray character who has to bend the rules to fend for herself. Viewers can also expect to see Chris Evans in a role much different from what he has done before and playing a complex character. The film has the potential to lay the gritty truth of the pharmaceutical industry bare, with certain comic reliefs in between.

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Pain Hustlers

Along with Emily Blunt and Chris Evans, the film also stars Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d'Arcy James, Amit Shah, Aubrey Dollar, and Willie Raysor.

Pain Hustlers will release in select theaters across America on October 20, 2023, after its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, and will be available for streaming on Netflix on October 27, 2023.