Norma Rae, Silkwood, Erin Brockovich and now Nellie Bly — Courageous women’s biopics garner big attention and bigger box office

"Caroline Barry, as journalist Nellie Bly, follows in the footsteps of Sally Field, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in portraying a courageous woman who fought injustice in the biopic, 10 Days In A Madhouse — The Nellie Bly Story."

In 1979, Sally Field won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal as Norma Rae, a textile factory worker from a small town who battled for workers rights. In 1983 Meryl Streep was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear whistleblower and labor union activist. In the year 2000, Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who fought against a huge energy corporation that was poisoning the drinking water of suburban families.

Biopics about courageous womens have been more than good business. They have been gigantic career boosts for actresses, garnered droves of prestigious awards and earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.

Now walking in the footsteps of these mega stars, newcomer Caroline Barry bursts upon the scene this September 25th in US theaters as one of the first whistle blowers, one of the first women investigative journalists and according to life magazine, of the the “100 Women Who Changed The World”, Nellie Bly.

The movie, closely scripted from Nellie Bly’s true life auto-biographical book, 10 Days In A Madhouse, is the first and only feature length telling of her incredible journey into the 1887 madhouse and the corrupt, violent world hidden behind steel bars and locked doors. Bly’s courage was unparalleled.

Ms. Barry portrays the legendary journalist in her first famous assignment working for Joseph Pulitzer and his New York based World Newspaper, where she feigned insanity and got herself committed to the notorious Blackwell’s Island Women’s Insane Asylum to report on the abuses of women who had no advocates.

The movies co-stars Christopher Lambert, (Greystoke, Legend of Tarzan, Highlander, Mortal Kombat and the new Cohen Brother’s movie  Hail Caesar), as superintendent of the real life asylum that was built on what is now Roosevelt Island in New York City’s east River. Blackwell’s Asylum was a horrible place of abuse and featured an ongoing range of unspeakable atrocities. Prisoners where taken from the nearby prison to be used as orderlies and nurses over the poor unfortunate women unlucky enough to be committed into the horrible facility. Bly’s article led to its eventual closure.

“Women want to see themselves on film in roles other than as a man’s side kick or a younger love interest. And biopics about real life courageous women have always traditionally attracted large audiences and big bank for Hollywood,” says the film’s producer Susan Goforth.

Directed by Timothy Hines, the movie has already been gaining momentum with it’s US festival premiere on May 5th, Nellie Bly’s birthday, at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival where it played to a sold out enthusiastic crowd. On that day, Google made Nellie Bly its search engine doodle and for the first time commissioned a song about Bly for its search page. 3.5 billion searchers were introduced to Nellie Bly that day.

The movie then went on to a world premiere at the 68th Cannes Film Festival and once again received raves from audience and industry professionals alike. Janne Kindberg, renown Danish movie director and former model said, “It was the best movie at Cannes this year.” The week 10 Days In A Madhouse played at Cannes, it was reported by Variety as one of the top 3 movies trending on the internet.

The strength of the performance of the young newcomer actress, Caroline Barry has been one of the things driving the buzz and enthusiasm from those who have screened the movie thus far. 10 Days In A Madhouse will play in several more festivals and one time exhibition and charity screenings before it debuts in US Theaters this September 25th.

For Christopher Lambert, industry insiders who have screened the movie are saying he delivers the best performance of his career. Superstar actress and 80’s supermodel, Kelly Le Brock delivers a delicious performance as Nurse Grant. The movie also stars Julia Chantrey, who played in Tina Fey’s Mean Girls and as Jessica Chastain’s best friend in Guillermo del Toro’s $146,000,000 million dollar grossing movie, Mama.

In 10 Days In A Madhouse, as Nellie Bly, Caroline Barry, speaks her famous words, “Energy rightly applied and directed can accomplish anything.” Oscar nominations are a ways off but not outside the realm of possibility with a movie of strong performances and gaining such steam as 10 Days In A Madhouse. The movie is following in the tradition of Norma Rae, Silkwood and Erin Brockovich and will soon take its place amongst the memorable women’s biopics of our age.

The new biopic, 10 Days In A Madhouse — The Nellie Bly Story opens in the US on September 25th.

Video Link: http://www.10daysinamadhouse.com