Oscar-nominated actress and Mean Girls legend, Amanda Seyfried, has landed an incredibly juicy new role playing Elizabeth Holmes – who, for the unfamiliar, was the founder of the doomed blood-testing start-up, Theranos.
At one time, the company was valued at an incredible $9 billion and Holmes was declared the “youngest self-made female billionaire”, but it was later discovered that Theranos was based on faulty technology, putting the lives of thousands in danger. Quickly, Holmes’ fortunate dropped to an estimated $0 and she was accused of fraud, and misleading investors and the government.
The selling point of Theranos was that it claimed it could carry out blood tests using just a small amount of blood and provide test results very quickly – however, following journalistic and regulatory investigations in 2015, major inconsistencies were revealed.
In June 2018, a federal grand jury indicted Holmes and Theranos’ former chief operating officer, Ramesh Balwani, on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for distributing blood tests with inaccurate results to consumers. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Holmes’ pregnancy (she is due to give birth in July) the trial has been delayed until 31 August 2021.
The drama series (set to air on Hulu) will be called The Dropout, after a hit podcast of the same name that also discusses Holmes’ rise to the top and subsequent fall, and is believed to be starting shooting this summer. The name ‘The Dropout’ is inspired by Holmes’ decision to drop out of Stanford University, something that during the peak of her success was referenced in many an interview and profile piece about her.
Initially, the titular role of Elizabeth Holmes was set to be played by Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon, who had to quit the project due to scheduling conflicts.
The Dropout is also far from the only project in the works focussing on the story of Holmes and Theranos, as it’s reported by Vanity Fair that Jennifer Lawrence is also gearing up to star in a film, Bad Blood, as the former Silicon Valley hot-shot. HBO also released a documentary in 2019 called The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley (and we’re sure you can guess the focus of that from the name…).
We’re honestly so obsessed with anything fraud-related that we’ll 100% be watching any and all TV shows or films based on the scam accusations.