'Ben Is Back' Team on Addiction Drama's Personal Connections

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

From left: Peter Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges at the New York premiere
of 'Ben Is Back'

"It's hard to find a family in America that's not touched by [the opioid] epidemic in one way or another," producer Nina Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter about the movie following a family whose recovering son leaves rehab to spend Christmas at home.

Addiction drama Ben is Back tells the story of one family dealing with the opioid crisis ravaging America, as the eponymous recovering addict son Ben (Lucas Hedges) leaves rehab to spend Christmas at home and finds himself facing familiar dangers and challenges.

But the filmmakers hope the movie, which also stars Julia Roberts as Ben's mother will have broad appeal despite its smaller scale.

"It's hard to find a family in America that's not touched by this epidemic in one way or another," producer Nina Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the New York premiere of Ben is Back earlier this month. "And yet it's very hard to talk about it all at once and what you wanted was a story like what Peter wrote which was emotional and a page turner and an emotional thriller in a way that has a watchability about it and still has enormous compassion and complexity in how it looks at this struggle."......
The Hollywood Reporter