Fox, Littlefield get Dopesick

Fox 21 Television Studios (Homeland) and The Littlefield Company (The Handmaid’s Tale) have optioned author Beth Macy’s book Dopesick for television.

The two companies described the bidding process for the option to Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America as “highly competitive.”

The two will now develop the book, which chronicles America’s opioid crisis, as a television drama. Fox 21 Television Studios president Bert Salke and The Littlefield Company principal Warren Littlefield will serve as exec producers, while Peter McGuigan and Richie Kern will be producers.

Dopesick was published by Little, Brown and Company and is currently number five on the New York Times Best Seller list in the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction category. Macy, a journalist, has also written fellow non-fiction titles Truevine and Factory Man.

“Every once in a while, you come across a piece of material that is that rare diamond in that it’s an incredibly arresting story and, even more, is timely and important,” said Salke. “Beth’s dissection and thoughtful emotion in detailing the opioid crisis that now plagues our country is as compelling a story as I have seen.”