<img src="https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&amp;c2=36750692&amp;cv=3.6.0&amp;cj=1"> Joaquin Phoenix Acquires Rights to PETA Founder’s ‘Free the Animals’ 
Something went wrong. Try again, or if the problem persists.
Your details are incorrect, or aren't in our system yet. Please try again, or sign up if you're new here.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and of Service apply.
Create a GAMURS
By g up, you agree to our and of Service.
Something went wrong. Try again, or if the problem persists.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and of Service apply.
Choose a name
Choose a unique name using 3-30 alphanumeric characters.
Something went wrong. Try again, or if the problem persists.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and of Service apply.
Choose your preferences
Choose how we communicate with you, opt out at anytime.
Something went wrong. Try again, or if the problem persists.
Check your email
An confirmation link was sent to your email. Don't forget to check your spam!
Enter the email address you used when you ed and we'll send you instructions to reset your .
If you used Apple or Google to create your , this process will create a for your existing .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google and of Service apply.
Reset instructions sent. If you have an with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or if the problem persists.
Photo by Rachel Luna/Getty Images

Joaquin Phoenix acquires rights to PETA founder’s ‘Free the Animals’ 

Free the Animals tells the story of one woman's journey with Animal Liberation Front, a militant animal rights group

Actor, activist, and longtime vegan Joaquin Phoenix has acquired the film rights to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) founder Ingrid Newkirk’s 1992 book Free the Animals. The book is an of the militant animal rights group Animal Liberation Front through the eyes of an anonymous member known by the pseudonym “Valerie.”

Recommended Videos

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Phoenix is making no bones about his desire for a potential movie based on the work to inspire a new wave of radicalized, even militant, animal activism. Yes, Free the Animals is about the balaclava-wearing heroes who break windows and laws to save animals, but it’s also about everyone. It’s a call to us all to take action'” Phoenix wrote in his foreword to the book’s new 30th-anniversary edition. “Whether it’s wielding crowbars and bolt-cutters or picking up a pen or a protest sign, every one of us can and must fight injustice and push for animal liberation every chance we get.”

Free the Animals follows the story of Valerie, a twenty-three-year-old Maryland police officer, as she encounters test animals in a laboratory and becomes radicalized, ing Animal Liberation Front to challenge the status quo of animal testing via direct action and eventually finding herself living a life on the run and beyond the law.

“I’ve seen the torture and killing that occurs when someone takes — steals — what rightly belongs to another living being. Strips what’s theirs right off their back or kills them so that parts of their body can be eaten or worn. I’ve seen what horror and fear animals in laboratories live in simply because they aren’t protected from human curiosity and there’s money in caging them to test things, like how they will react when frightened by a rubber snake or when their babies are torn away from them. Knowing all that, I have a moral obligation to act. And I know that’s how the heroes of this book, Free the Animals, felt, too.”

– Joaquin Phoenix, foreword, Free the Animals

Author Newkirk believes an adaptation could lead to another Academy Award for acting for Phoenix, telling The Reporter, “I’m convinced he would win another Oscar for playing Josh, the Navy whistleblower who risked a court-martial to get help for a little dog about to die in a deep-sea diving experiment and who then went on to lead the West Coast Animal Liberation Front teams that freed many more animals who faced certain death.”


We Got This Covered is ed by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about our Policy
Author
Image of Beau Paul
Beau Paul
Beau Paul is a staff writer at We Got This Covered. Beau also wrote narrative and dialog for the gaming industry for several years before becoming an entertainment journalist.