Adam McKay Joins Amazon Workers-Rights Documentary ‘Union’ as Executive Producer (EXCLUSIVE)

Academy Award-winning screenwriter, producer and director Adam McKay will serve an an executive producer on “Union,” an acclaimed documentary that premiered at Sundance. The film won the special jury prize in U.S. competition at the festival and received rave reviews for its look at the efforts of a group of warehouse workers to launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island.

Todd Schulman of McKay’s HyperObject Industries has also joined the film team as an executive producer. The politically charged film was directed Brett Story (“The Hottest August”) and Stephen Maing (“Crime + Punishment”). Producers Story, Maing, Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone and Martin DiCicco have worked with distribution expert Michael Tuckman and Impact Producers Red Owl to self-distribute the film theatrically, with its rollout starting on Oct. 18.

“Not only is ‘Union’ a film about the defining fight of our time; the resurgence of organized labor in an era of towering inequality, it’s also an edge-of-your-seat wildly entertaining movie,” McKay said.

McKay first came to prominence as the head writer on “Saturday Night Live” before going on to direct comedy classics like “Step Brothers” and “Anchorman.” He then applied his satirical take to more serious subjects, tackling climate change (“Don’t Look Up”), the 2007 housing market collapse (“The Big Short”) and the life and career of Dick Cheney (“Veep”). McKay won an Oscar for his screenplay for “The Big Short”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Adam McKay onto our ‘Union’ team as an executive producer,” Story and Maing said in a statement. “Over his long career as a writer and filmmaker, Adam has made some of the smartest, funniest, and most devastating cinematic takedowns of corporate culture and unfettered capitalism. His keen understanding of socio-economic issues and righteous anger towards systemic injustice makes him a perfect fit for our film about a group of ordinary people taking on one of the most powerful companies in the world.”

“Union” follows a diverse band of workers as they start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) seeking to change conditions at the tech and retail behemoth. They face long odds — Amazon has unlimited resources, and they lack major support from national unions or politicians, all while dealing with internal divisions and conflict. In a positive review, Variety‘s Guy Lodge called the film “richly observed” and “stirring.”

Following its Sundance premiere, “Union” has also played at CPH DOX, Visions du Reel, Hot Docs, True/False, Chicago Doc 10, DC/DOX, Full Frame, Sheffield Film Festival, Camden and had a screening at the Michigan Theater hosted by Michael Moore.  It will also screen at many fall festivals, including the New York Film Festival.