DEADLINE: Documentary About Controversial LuLaRoe Clothing Empire In Works From ‘Fyre Fraud’ Team

By ANTHONY D’ALESSANDRO
July 10, 2020 4:59pm

We hear that Cinemart, the documentary team of directors Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason and producer Mike Gasparro, is partnering on the documentary LuLaRich with Based on Media’s Blye Faust and Cori Shepherd Stern.

The doc will investigate LuLaRoe, the billion dollar clothing empire which has recently been accused of misleading thousands of American women with their multi-level marketing platform. Once promoted by Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson, the brand has gone from an aspirational movement to a trending “pyramid scheme” that is now the subject of multiple lawsuits.

LuLaRoe’s founders DeAnne and Mark Stidham have denied all allegations and have launched countersuits of their own, defending the company’s legitimacy and model. LuLaRoe is still fully operational and many women continue to enthusiastically promote the brand. The company has also dramatically reduced entry costs to attract new saleswomen during the pandemic and economic downturn.

The film will chart the meteoric rise of the company, its Mormon founder and a culture of dedicated legging-clad millennial saleswomen who rose through the ranks seeking a better life for their families.

In addition to offering LuLaRoe execs Mark and DeAnne Stidham a chance to tell their story, LuLaRich will explore the broader zeitgeist of the Mormon subculture, multi-level marketing, social media, women’s rights, economic equality, fraud and white-collar crime in the digital age.

Nason and Furst will direct with EP Gasparro, the award-winning team behind Hulu’s Fyre Fraud and Netflix docuseries The Pharmacist which we reported yesterday was being snapped up by David Permut to be made into a feature narrative.  The Cinemart team is currently in production on a new sports true-con for Quibi about Baseball’s recent sign stealing scandal in a co-production with Spring Hill Entertainment and executive producer Lebron James.

Cinemart will be joined by EPs Blye Faust and Cori Shepherd Stern of Based On Media. Faust won an Oscar for Best Picture on Spotlight and Stern is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning producer known for diverse projects including Warm Bodies and HBO’s Open Heart.

The Cinemart is repped by CAA and Jonathan Gardner and Carissa Knoll at Cohen & Gardner. Based On Media is repped by WME, along with Robert Strent and Ted Fisher at Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks.