Jennifer Lawrence signs on for big screen Theranos adaptation

The story of blood-testing startup Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes' meteoric rise and fall from grace is already getting the Hollywood treatment. As Deadline Hollywood reports today, Jennifer Lawrence will play the part of Holmes, who at one point seemed to be one of Silicon Valley's biggest success stories, worth about $4.5 billion for her 50% stake in the company. That all came crashing down once the Wall Street Journal started raising concerns that Theranos' main product was unreliable and not actually approved by the FDA.

Theranos was worth an estimated $9 billion at the height of media fervor around the company, which has since been revised down to just a fraction of that as the company has begun voiding its own test results. Holmes herself initially defended her company's processes, and at one point Theranos was trying to fend off harsh penalties that could have banned her from the blood testing industry entirely. After mining the 2008 financial crisis for some dark humor in his previous film The Big Short, Adam McKay is signed on to direct, so it's safe to say there's enough material there for a compelling storyline, especially one that feeds into Hollywood's recent obsession with Silicon Valley.