Dark Waters (2019 film)

Dark Waters
A man sitting behind the wheel of a car, a vague figure in a suit, is reflected in the window glass.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTodd Haynes
Screenplay by
Based on"The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare"
by Nathaniel Rich
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyEdward Lachman
Edited byAffonso Gonçalves
Music byMarcelo Zarvos
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Release dates
  • November 12, 2019 (2019-11-12) (Walter Reade Theater)
  • November 22, 2019 (2019-11-22) (United States)
Running time
126 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$23.1 million[1]

Dark Waters is a 2019 American legal thriller film directed by Todd Haynes and written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan. The story dramatizes Robert Bilott's case against the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont after they contaminated a town with unregulated chemicals. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman.

The film is based on the 2016 New York Times Magazine article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" by Nathaniel Rich.[2][3] An account of the investigation and case was first publicized in the book Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal: The Hidden Dangers of C8 (2007) by Callie Lyons, a Mid-Ohio Valley journalist who covered the controversy as it was unfolding.[4] Parts of the pollution and coverup story were also reported by Mariah Blake, whose 2015 article "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia" was a National Magazine Award finalist,[5] and Sharon Lerner, whose series "Bad Chemistry" ran in The Intercept.[6][7] Bilott wrote his own memoir, Exposure (2019),[8] detailing his 20-year legal battle against DuPont.[9]

Focus Features gave Dark Waters a limited theatrical release on November 22, 2019, before releasing it wide on December 6. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $23 million.

  1. ^ "Dark Waters (2019)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on November 25, 2005. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  2. ^ Rich, Nathaniel (January 6, 2016). "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare". The New York Times Magazine. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  3. ^ Wiseman, Andreas (January 9, 2019). "Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, More Join Mark Ruffalo In Todd Haynes-Participant Drama About DuPont Pollution Scandal". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  4. ^ Lyons, Callie (2007). Stain-resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof, and Lethal: The Hidden Dangers of C8. Praeger. ISBN 978-0275994525.
  5. ^ Steigrad, Alexandra (January 14, 2016). "American Society of Magazine Editors Unveils Finalists for 2016 National Magazine Awards". WWD. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  6. ^ Lerner, Sharon (October 24, 2019). "Bad Chemistry". The Intercept. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  7. ^ Lerner, Sharon (August 11, 2015). "The Teflon Toxin: DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception". The Intercept. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  8. ^ Bilott, Robert (2019). Exposure: poisoned water, corporate greed, and one lawyer's twenty-year battle against DuPont. New York: Atria Books. ISBN 9781501172816 – via The Internet Archive.
  9. ^ "Lawyer who took on DuPont has book coming out". Associated Press News. Associated Press. July 10, 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved March 2, 2019.