David Yates, perhaps best known for directing four “Harry Potter” movies (and three “Fantastic Beasts” spin-off films) is back with a much more down-to-earth project. “Pain Hustlers,” based on a 2018 New York Times Magazine article by Evan Hughes that was expanded into a book last year, traces the lives of a pair of pharmaceutical reps (played by Emily Blunt and Chris Evans) who play a key role in the opioid epidemic that has swallowed the country. As it turns out the American healthcare system was just as otherworldly to Yates as anything J.K. Rowling could have dreamed up.
Yates’ colleague Lewis Taylor sent him the original article and Yates was blown away.