The Insider

Production:

Released in USA 1999 by Buena Vista Pictures, a Touchstone Films production, in 1:1.85 widescreen, Technicolor, digital sound, 157 minutes.

Directed by Michael Mann

Written by Eric Roth, Michael Mann, based on the 22-page article by Marie Brenner published in Vanity Fair May 1996 as "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

Produced by Pieter Jan Brugge, Gusmano Cesaretti, Michael Mann, Kathleen M. Shea, Michael Waxman

Original music by Pieter Bourke, Lisa Gerrard, Graeme Revell

Cinematography by Dante Spinotti

Editing by William Goldenberg, David Rosenbloom, Paul Rubell

Casting by Bonnie Timmermann

Production Design by Brian Morris

Cast:

Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, CBS producer

Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, ex-tobacco scientist

Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace, CBS reporter

Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt, CBS producer

Diane Venora as Liane Wigand, wife

Hallie Eisenberg as Barbara Wigand, younger daughter

Renee Olstead as Deborah Wigand, older daughter

Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller

Debi Mazar as Debbie De Luca

Stephen Tobolowsky as Eric Kluster

Colm Feore as Richard Scruggs, anti-tobacco lawyer

Bruce McGill as Ron Motley, Mississippi state D.A.

Gina Gershon as Helen Caperelli, chief lawyer of CBS

Michael Gambon as Thomas Sandefur, B&W president

Rip Torn as John Scanlon

Michael Moore as Himself

Madeleine Reller as Lesley Stahl

Cliff Curtis as Sheikh Fadlallah

Notes:

This film is based on the true story of tobacco executive whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman. Wigand had been fired from Brown & Williamson, the 3rd largest tobacco company in the U.S., but he had signed a confidentiality agreement when he left the company in order to keep health benefits needed for his asthmatic daughter. Wigand decides to become a witness for the state of Mississippi that would lead to the $246 billion tobacco settlement that resolved the most expensive case ever brought against an industry in U.S. history.

Links:

Tobacco Timeline selections

The Insider film title from IMDb

Official Site from Touchstone Pictures includes the Vanity Fair article

Real to Reel article from Brill's Content

Wall Street Journal Pulitzer Prize articles 1995

Film review by Roger Ebert from Chicago Sun-Times