Jeffrey Wigand (RUSSELL CROWE) was a central witness
in the lawsuits filed by Mississippi and 40 other states against the tobacco
industry which were eventually settled for $246 billion. Wigand, former head
of research and development and a corporate officer at Brown & Williamson,
was a top scientist, the ultimate insider. No one like him had ever gone public
before.
Meanwhile, Lowell Bergman (AL PACINO), investigative reporter and "60
Minutes" producer, mostly for Mike Wallace (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER) segments,
taped the famous Wigand interview with its devastating statements and arranged
a legal defense team for Wigand. However, before the most newsworthy "60
Minutes" segment in years could air, Bergman would lose to a CBS corporate
decision to kill it and would experience the fracturing loyalties and bitter
divisions within "60 Minutes".
Wigand would find himself sued, targeted in a
national smear campaign, divorced and facing possible incarceration. Wigand,
having wagered so much and now unable to deliver his testimony to the American
people and Bergman trying to defeat the smear campaign and fighting to force
CBS to air the interview, are two ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances.
They find themselves in a fight from which no one will emerge as he entered
and nothing will be the same again.
Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment Present
- Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crowe) and Best Directing
- Starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer
- Directed by Michael Mann (Last of the Mohicans, Heat)
- Box Office Information: $63 million
Cypress Entertainment Group LP © 2004
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