‘Hollywood Elites Don’t Even Want It Made’: Award-Winning Author And RFK Jr. Running Mate Creating Pandemic Movie

(Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.’s former running mate, and legendary author Walter Kirn are teaming up to produce a pandemic movie with a storyline very much reminiscent of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The movie, titled “The Rash,” is about a public health professor (a character similar to current NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, an outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and other pandemic-era restrictions) who speaks out against mass hysteria when a skin rash begins to spread. Kirn has written the script, and Shanahan will serve as an executive producer. Kirn’s 2001 novel “Up in the Air” was adapted into a feature film starring George Clooney and nominated for several Academy Awards.

The movie also has the backing of the Brownstone Institute, a think tank founded in the wake of the disastrous COVID-19 lockdowns. In a fundraising appeal published late January, Brownstone said that “investors are terrified of the topic and Hollywood elites don’t even want it made.” (RELATED: Study Finds Covid Lockdowns Hurt Kids Far More Than Officials Were Willing To Admit)

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 26: Independent Vice Presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan speaks during a campaign event to announce Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick for a running mate at the Henry J. Kaiser Event Center on March 26, 2024 in Oakland, California. Nicole Shanahan is an attorney and tech entrepreneur based in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Brownstone also published a pitch deck and said the movie was inspired by classics “Dr. Strangelove,” “Thank You For Smoking,” “Wag the Dog,” and “A Scanner Darkly.”

“This story draws inspiration from classic and contemporary political thrillers that expose the machinery behind national panic and institutional control. Echoing the corporate cynicism of films like ‘Thank You For Smoking’ and the paranoia of ‘A Scanner Darkly,’ the film uses the outbreak as a lens to explore the erosion of truth. Its darkly satirical tone also nods to the sharp critiques found in ‘Network’ and ‘Dr. Strangelove,’ framing chaos not as an accident, but as a product,” the pitch deck says.

Hello, world. Something to show you. A teaser trailer for The Rash, a script I wrote this year for Onset Creative & Nicole Shanahan. The feature film is now in the financing phase. Interested investors may contact me by X DM for more info. Enjoy. I think you’ll get the picture. pic.twitter.com/6UyV4orW1n — Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) September 1, 2025

Hello, world. Something to show you. A teaser trailer for The Rash, a script I wrote this year for Onset Creative & Nicole Shanahan. The feature film is now in the financing phase. Interested investors may contact me by X DM for more info.

Enjoy. I think you’ll get the picture. pic.twitter.com/6UyV4orW1n

— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) September 1, 2025

This sounds like my kind of movie, and its subject and inspiration, the incestuous relationship between public health institutions and Big Pharma, is ripe for a dark satire.

I am not surprised, though, that Hollywood wouldn’t want to touch this movie with a six-foot pole. Hollywood seems to be allergic to anything novel and interesting, not to mention anything that has a whiff of being anti-establishment. By anti-establishment, I mean anything that takes a scathing look at liberal pieties cherished by Hollywood insiders, such as the notion that Anthony Fauci was a god whose decrees could not be questioned, and that questioning other public health authorities during the pandemic was enough to deem you a threat to society.

I hope this movie gets made because America desperately needs more serious movies, stories, artworks, etc., that challenge the institutional grip over the country. Public health and Big Pharma are a great place to start.

© The Daily Caller