#Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix making documentary on deadly diseases

By Justin Kroll, Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix have teamed up with “Cowspiracy” filmmaker Keegan Kuhn and BAFTA Award-winning director Alex Lockwood, to executive produce, “The End of Medicine,” a new feature-length documentary about zoonotic diseases, which threaten the health and lives of the entire human population.

The doc began production in October 2019, months before Covid-19 was making headlines around the world and touches on the disease, which is when germs and viruses that spread between human and non-human animals. It includes interviews with some of the world’s leading scientists whose research and testimonies conclude that the public health emergency we are presently facing was inevitable and is far from over.

The prevalence of new viruses, including Covid-19, were preceded by deadly ‘superbug’ outbreaks such as swine and avian flu, MRSA infections, multi-drug resistant organisms, and a host of food-borne illnesses, which can all be traced back to one industry: animal agriculture. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the end of medicine as we know it is upon us, as we have entered a post-antibiotic era.

“We hope that ‘The End of Medicine’ is an eye-opening call to action and ignites a spark of willingness to change our habits,” say Mara and Phoenix in a joint statement. “The science is irrefutable. Modern animal agriculture will continue to make us sick if we don’t radically change our patterns of consumption.”

In April, as the death toll from Covid-19 began to surge, Mara and Phoenix penned an Op-Ed for The Washington Post addressing the rarely reported facts about the prominence of wet markets operating in the US.

“Collectively, we are becoming increasingly aware of the threat that zoonotic diseases pose, but our governments and the mainstream media predominantly focus on fire fighting rather than prevention,” Lockwood said. “With this film, we hope to shine a light on the extent to which animal agriculture and environmental destruction contribute to these emerging threats. We also hope to lift the veil on how issues of racial injustice and disease are often intrinsically linked.”

The co-production, under the banners of Kuhn’s First Spark Media, Lockwood’s Lockwood Film along with Mara & Phoenix, will conclude production by the end of 2020.