Walmart Legal Saga to Become Netflix Show Starring Amy Adams

(Bloomberg) -- A legal fight against Walmart Inc. that became the largest employment class-action lawsuit in history will become a series at Netflix Inc. from actress Amy Adams and “The Big Short” director Adam McKay.

“Kings of America” will follow three women involved in the lawsuit, which went to the Supreme Court in 2011: a Walmart heiress, an executive and a saleswoman at the retail chain. Adams stars as one of the women, and McKay will direct the first episode of the series.

The case involved female employees suing Walmart for alleged gender discrimination -- including pay disparities and favoring male workers -- on behalf of potentially more than a million employees. That made it the largest lawsuit of its kind. Walmart is the biggest private employer in the U.S. and the world’s largest company based on revenue.

With billions of dollars at stake for Walmart, the Supreme Court blocked the suit from proceeding as a class action in a 5-4 vote in June 2011. The late Justice Antonin Scalia argued there was no “convincing proof of a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy.”

McKay has had success turning business stories into films and television shows. He’s an executive producer for “Succession,” loosely based on the billionaire Murdoch family, and adapted the Michael Lewis book “The Big Short” into a 2015 movie about the underpinnings of the financial crisis.

Adams also serves as an executive producer of “Kings of America.” Netflix hasn’t announced a release date yet.

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