Thank You for Smoking (2005) on Netflix
Nick Naylor is the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, disputing the health risks of cigarettes. Senator Ortolan Finistirre wants poison warning labels, and Joey wants to know what his father does.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.5/10236,888 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
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Plot summary
Nick Naylor is vice-president of the Academy of Tobacco Studies, which is funded by the tobacco industry and presents itself as a research body. It denies that smoking is linked to lung disease, and Nick is its public face, arguing the industry's case. He lunches each week with two fellow lobbyists, Polly Bailey of alcohol and Bobby Jay Bliss of firearms, and the three jokingly call themselves the Merchants of Death. As fewer young people take up smoking, Nick proposes getting cigarettes back into films, and his boss sends him to Los Angeles with his son Joey.
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Thank You for Smoking (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During filming, Jason Reitman made the conscious decision not to show any actual smoking of cigarettes; the only scenes that include smoking are older films the characters watch, such as when John Wayne lights up in Sands of Iwo Jima.
- For three years the project languished for lack of financing and studio interest, as most studios wanted Reitman to rewrite the script with a more anti-smoking, uplifting ending in which Naylor has a change of heart and repents for his past.
- It was only after meeting David O. Sacks, who had made his fortune as the former COO of PayPal, that Reitman found a financier; a first-time producer, Sacks spent over a year acquiring the rights from Icon, financed most of the $8.5 million budget and let Reitman keep most of his original draft.
- Mel Gibson's Icon Productions bought the rights to Buckley's novel before its release and Gibson initially saw himself starring as Nick Naylor, but the satiric nature of the book meant the studio lacked a way to film it and the project lacked a usable script.
- Fox Searchlight Pictures and Paramount Classics both issued competing press releases claiming they had secured the film's distribution rights; Sacks later said he never reached a firm deal with Paramount, and that Fox Searchlight had offered $7 million against Paramount Classics' $6.7 million.
- Elon Musk is credited as executive producer of Thank You for Smoking, and his participation was discussed during episode #1470 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Musk as Rogan's guest.
