| Extraordinary Measures | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Tom Vaughan |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Robert Nelson Jacobs |
| Story by | John Logan |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Andrea Guerra |
| Cinematography | Andrew Dunn |
| Editing by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | CBS Films |
| Release date(s) | January 22, 2010 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $31 million[1] |
| Box office | $15,134,168[2] |
Extraordinary Measures is a 2010 medical drama film starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, and Keri Russell. It is distributed by CBS Films and was released on January 22, 2010. It is about parents who form a biotechnology company to develop a drug to save the lives of their children, who have a life-threatening disease. The film is based on the true story of John and Aileen Crowley, whose children have Pompe's disease. The film was shot in St. Paul, Oregon, Portland, the Corner Saloon in Tualatin, Oregon, and Beaverton, Oregon as well as Vancouver, Washington. It is the first film to go into production for CBS Films, the film division of CBS Corporation.
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Brendan Fraser plays John Crowley, a biotechnology executive whose two youngest children were afflicted with Pompe disease or acid maltase deficiency. In the film his children are aged 9 and 7.
Along with his wife Aileen (Keri Russell), he raises money for research scientist Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), forming a company to develop a drug to save his children's lives.
Adapted by Robert Nelson Jacobs from a nonfiction book "The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million—and Bucked the Medical Establishment—in a Quest to Save His Children" by the Pulitzer Prize journalist Geeta Anand, the film is also an examination of how medical research is conducted and financed.
John Crowley makes a cameo appearance as a venture capitalist.
Filming took place at several spots in and around Portland, Oregon, mostly at the OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Nike campus in Beaverton, Oregon. This was the first time Nike allowed filming on their campus and they donated the location payment to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.[3] During filming, the working title was The Untitled Crowley Project.[4]
In the film, the children are 9 and 7 years old. Their non-fiction counterparts were diagnosed at 15 months and 7 days old and received treatment at 5 and 4, respectively.[5]
Myozyme, a drug developed for treating Pompe disease, was simultaneously approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Henceforth, more than 1000 infants born worldwide every year with Pompe disease will no longer face the prospect of death before reaching their first birthday for lack a treatment for the condition.
The screenplay by Robert Nelson Jacobs is based on Geeta Anand's book The Cure (ISBN 9780060734398).[6] Parts of the book first appeared as a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal.
The small start-up company Priozyme was based on Oklahoma City-based Novazyme. The larger company, called Zymagen in the film, was based on Genzyme in Cambridge, MA.[7] Novazyme was developing a protein therapeutic, with several gene patents pending, to treat Pompe Disease, when it was bought by Genzyme. The patent portfolio was cited in the press releases announcing the deal.[8]
According to Genzyme, Dr. Robert Stonehill's character is based upon scientist and researcher William Canfield,[9] who founded Novazyme.[10] Roger Ebert, in his review, says the character is based on Yuan-Tsong Chen,[11] a scientist and researcher from Duke University[12] who collaborated with Genzyme in producing Myozyme, the drug which received FDA approval.
The film opened at #8 on its opening weekend, taking in $6 million. The film experienced sharp declines and only remained in theaters for four weeks as it only earned $12 million, making it a box office disappointment.
The film opened to mixed reviews. Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote: "Fraser keeps the story anchored in reality. Meredith Droeger does too: as the Crowleys' afflicted daughter, she's a smart little bundle of fighting spirit. So is the movie, which keeps its head while digging into your heart. You have this critic's permission to cry in public."[13] The New York Times' A.O. Scott said in his review: "The startling thing about “Extraordinary Measures” is not that it moves you. It’s that you feel, at the end, that you have learned something about the way the world works."[14] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 27% of 132 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.8 out of 10.[15] Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 20%, based on a sample of 25 reviews. The site's general consensus is that "Despite a timely topic and a pair of heavyweight leads, Extraordinary Measures never feels like much more than a made-for-TV tearjerker."[16] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 46 based on 30 reviews.[17]
Ramona Bates MD, writing for the health news organisation, EmaxHealth, stated that the film brings attention to Pompe Disease.[18] Peter Rainer from the Christian Science Monitor mentions that Big Pharma got a surprisingly free pass in the film and that it will come as a surprise to all those sufferers struggling to get orphan drugs developed.[19]
Jef Akst, writing for the journal, The Scientist, stated that the film is good depiction of the "hard to swallow fiscal issues of drug development."[20]
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