Unbelievable: Matt Damon is “The Informant”

The Informant movie is based on the true story of Mark Whitacre, played by Matt Damon, who blew the whistle on price-fixing policies at grain processing conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland, the film adapts the book of the same name by Kurt Eichenwald.

In 1992, Whitacre confessed to an FBI agent (played by Bakula) that he and other company execs had fixed the price of lysine, a grain-based food additive. Soderbergh is evidently casting the story as a sharp, perhaps even mean corporate comedy in which Whitacre is bipolar, bumbling and delusional.

Whitacre worked with the FBI for almost three years, was responsible for hundreds of hours of audio and video surveillance, and helped lock down what was at the time the largest price-fixing case in history. But he also stole $9m from ADM, and went to jail for a longer term than any of the execs he helped convict.

The Informant opens October 9, but there’s a good chance it will show up in early September at the Toronto Film Festival.