Controversial Canola Case Gets Starring Role in Hollywood Drama

(Bloomberg) -- Canola is finally getting its day in the Hollywood sun.

The oilseed crop has a starring role in a movie being teased ahead of its October theatrical release, with Christopher Walken taking on the lead as a small-town Canadian farmer in an epic battle against the former seed giant Monsanto Co.

“Percy” is based on the events around a 1998 lawsuit involving Percy Schmeiser, a Saskatchewan farmer who challenged Monsanto when the company’s genetically modified canola was discovered in his crops, according to the film’s distributor, Mongrel Media. The movie trailer has had more than 47,000 views on YouTube since being posted last week.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, hasn’t viewed the movie, script or how Schmeiser’s situation will be portrayed on screen, according to company spokeswoman Carly Scaduto. “What we do know is that the case has been decided by the Canadian courts.”

The actual outcome of the legal fight was mixed: Canada’s highest court ruled in 2004 that Monsanto’s canola patent was violated when Schmeiser replanted seeds he found in his field without paying the company, yet also decided that Monsanto wasn’t entitled to damages.

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