Thursday, February 09, 2006

Reviving an Old Clinton Scandal

A new Hollywood film, Blood Trail, is in the works. It will dramatize the story of how contaminated blood from Arkansas prisoners found its way into the veins of thousands of Canadian hemophiliacs, killing many.

Elizabeth Fowler of Clear Pictures Entertainment, one of two partners in the project said it will feature some prominent characters: Bill Clinton and Paul Martin. She purchased rights to the life stories of Michael Galster, an Arkansas doctor who raised alarms about the prison blood program, and Michael McCarthy, a Canadian hemophiliac who became infected through tainted blood.

It's the second film that has been made about the scandal. The first, Factor 8, is a documentary of a reporter’s search for the truth. He discovers that his home state knew it was dealing a dangerous product, yet put profits over public safety while federal regulators looked the other way. Charges of cronyism and cover-up reach all the way to the administration of then-Gov. Bill Clinton. Factor 8 has never been distributed in North America although it has won some film festival awards.

Blood Trail, is expected to be released in about a year.

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