Wendy Finerman, Jonathan E. Lim’s City Arts Developing Medical Thriller ‘Chasing My Cure’
EXCLUSIVE: Biotech entrepreneur Jonathan E. Lim, M.D.’s production and financing company City Hill Arts and Forrest Gump Oscar winner Wendy Finerman are producing the feature take of Chasing My Cure.
The project is based on the true story of David Fajgenbaum, a former star quarterback-turned-medical student who began a furious charge to save his own life when he was diagnosed with a rare and usually fatal illness.
The story centers on Fajgenbaum, once a beast-like Georgetown quarterback and now a brilliant medical student, who is struck down with a fatal disease and given only six months to live. With no known cure, he gathers together an unconventional team to challenge every presumption of the medical establishment in a race to save his own life.
Today, Dr. Fajgenbaum is a leader in the medical community. Dr. Fajgenbaum and his team at Every Cure and the University of Pennsylvania were recently chronicled in the New York Times for their work using AI to repurpose existing medications to treat rare diseases.
Chasing My Cure is being written by Amy Snow and also produced by Robin Jonas and Lim in addition to Finerman. The film will be executive produced by Steven P. Wegner and Lisa Zupan.
“I am so thankful to be alive and to be able to share my story with the world, but I never could have dreamed that it would end this way,” said Dr. Fajgenbaum. “Going through it, the experience felt pretty similar to a movie thriller—the same drop in your stomach, the same fear about how it’s all going to turn out. And, at times, I lost all hope, but also, like a movie, I kept grinding and believing it would work out—and that is what I hope will make this movie gripping and inspiring for audiences.”
“Chasing My Cure is precisely the kind of movie we are pursuing at City Hill Arts—a story of someone doing something extraordinary,” added Dr. Lim. “The fact that there’s a medical and biotech angle to the story is certainly a plus, given that we know that world so well. But audiences will connect with the unwavering determination to live, and the love and ingenuity that helped make it possible, that defines David’s story. He’s an incredible individual and a true movie hero.”
The deal was negotiated by Glenn Feig from Reder & Feig, LLP for City Hill Arts, and by Brooke Erlich from CAA and Jeffrey Smith from Greenberg Traurig, LLP for David Fajgenbaum.
