The Story Behind Netflix ’s Docuseries Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul

Adaptations in Hollywood are nothing new, but they’ve been at the center of many of this year’s biggest pop-culture conversations. Any intellectual property seems up for reimagining, from books to toys to video games. There are many reasons behind their appeal to studios, among them that they tend to come with built-in audiences—but as I learned firsthand over the past few years, they can also give projects new depth and complexity. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] On Oct. 11, an adaptation of my 2021 book, Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul, premiered as a Netflix series called Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul. In addition to being interviewed on camera, I served as a consulting producer on the series. My role involved helping translate from page to screen the wild tale of Juul Labs, the vaping company that set out to create an e-cigarette good enough to make cigarettes obsolete—and instead became infamous for hooking countless teenagers on nicotine. Through that process, I watched my reporting take on new life and become enriched by even more perspectives on the complex, controversial story of Juul. Ahead of the series’ release, I spoke with Big Vape’s director R.J. Cutler, the filmmaker behind documentaries including The September Issue and Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, about adapting a work of nonfiction, the differences between documentary filmmaking and journalism, and capturing nuance on s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized culturepod Source Type: news