Elizabeth Holmes' Theranos Drama Being Fictionalized in Jennifer Lawrence Biopic?

Just as Elizabeth Holmes' medical company Theranos, once seemingly the great promise of medical testing, is surrounded by controversy, Hollywood might be planning to get its story turned into a medical drama. Adam McKay, fresh off the critical success of The Big Short, is planning a biopic revolving around the company -- and Jennifer Lawrence is circling the starring role.

According to Deadline, the Oscar-winning actress is now attached to play Holmes in a movie about the rise and fall of medical testing startup Theranos, a company that was valued at $9 billion a couple of years ago for its technological potential. In the past months, the methods and efficacy behind Theranos' medical tests has been put in doubt by several news outlets, and the future of the company seems doubtful at best.

Variety reports that besides playing the disgraced 32-year-old entrepreneur, Lawrence is also attached as co-producer of the film. McKay, who just won an Academy Award for the screenplay of last year's economy-centric critical smash The Big Short, is listed as both screenwriter and director for the Theranos movie. Next week, the people so far attached to the movie will begin pitching the project to buyers starting, under the Gary Sanchez Productions banner.

Last year, Holmes was named Forbes' richest self-made woman. This estimate was shelved last week, when the same magazine said her net worth had gone down to zero due to the controversy regarding inaccuracy of Theranos-developed tech.

Founded in 2003, Theranos focused its research on the development of proprietary technology for medical testing, supposed to be cheap, reliable and only needing a few drops of blood. Working in almost complete secrecy for a decade, by 2014, the company was valued at $9 billion, with blood-testing device Edison becoming their staple product.

In late 2014, The Washington Journal released a report citing a number of current and former Theranos employees, all of whom saying the Edison tests could be inaccurate and, even more worryingly, that the majority of blood tests performed by the company were actually done through traditional machines made by their competitors. The original report caused a wave of controversy revolving around the already secretive company, and while representatives for Theranos have attacked the Journal for the reports, in the months since the report was published the company has failed to provide proof that would silence this.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are currently investigating Theranos.