Michael Keaton to Star in Opioid Crisis Limited Series Dopesick for Hulu

Hey look, it’s good ol’ Mikey Keats. Photo: Broadimage/Shutterstock

Hulu has announced a straight-to-series order for an adaptation of journalist Beth Macy’s book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. The Dopesick limited series will star Michael Keaton as “Samuel Finnix, an old-school doctor who approaches his practice with kindness and compassion, but finds himself embroiled in Big Pharma’s deadly secret.� Macy’s 2018 nonfiction best seller documented the opioid epidemic as it spread from the introduction of OxyContin in the 1990s to plague rural communities. According to a statement from Hulu, Empire writer and Billions actor Danny Strong had been working on an opioid epidemic project when producer Warren Littlefield brought Macy’s book to his and Hulu’s attention, leading to this collaboration. Hulu describes Dopesick as:

“An ambitious, harrowing, and compelling look into the epicenter of America’s struggle with Opioid addiction, takes viewers from a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA, and to the opulence of ‘one percenter’ Big Pharma Manhattan. The unsparing yet deeply human portraits of the various affected families and their intersecting stories hold up a mirror to where America is right now, while shining a hopeful light on the heroes battling the worst drug epidemic in American history.�

The limited series will be directed by Barry Levinson, of Rain Man, Diner, and “a voice role in Bee Movie� fame. Dopesick is planned to premiere on Hulu sometime in 2021.