While the story may be stinky, things are beginning to smell like roses for the Shawn Bannon documentary, The Smell of Money. Deadline announced today that Kate Mara (House of Cards) and David Lowery (The Green Knight) will be jumping on board for the unbelievable tale as executive producers. They’ll join the production team alongside the previously announced Michelle Cho who will serve as an associate producer with Bannon doubling down as a producer. Jamie Berger (Pandemic of Injustice) penned the project.

Set to make its debut at the Sarasota Film Festival, the documentary will tell the unbelievable story of a woman and her community as they stood up to rail against the pork industry. In the 1980s, Elsie Herring was hoping to get some fresh air when she went outside to sit on her front porch. What she’d end up with was anything but. As the North Carolinian woman tried to relax, she was hit with beads of a sickening liquid. Quickly realizing this was not rain, Herring discovered it was in fact hog waste from the neighboring farm. In an occurrence that still happens today, a farmer had been spraying hog manure. At that moment, Herring decided enough was enough.

Rallying others in her community, she decided to tackle the pork industry and bring them to their knees. Although she was backed by countless other residents, it was a slow moving process. Decades would pass as the dedicated anti-pork industry citizens would sign countless petitions, bombard politicians with phone calls, and even make an appearance before Congress. Hiring Mona Lisa Wallace, a small-town attorney, the upset citizens hoped her representation would help them through the process of settling 26 lawsuits.

However, even a group of over 500 angry tax paying citizens were no match for the king of pork, Wendell Murphy. Not only was Murphy the founder of the world’s largest pork company, but he was also a state legislator. Using his political connections, Murphy blocked the angry residents at every twist and turn saying that hog waste is the smell of money. Murphy’s success in the hogging industry would earn Eastern North Carolina the title of the most industrial animal farms in America.

Bannon, a celebrated documentary filmmaker, has had countless projects on the screens of film festivals everywhere including Sundance, AFI Fest, The Atlantic, and more. With his extensive background in bringing viewers incredible real life tales of everyday people, paired with the production skills and eyes of Mara and Lowery, The Smell of Money is bound to both disgust and intrigue audiences. As of right now, no release date has been set.

via Collider