LOS ANGELES (AP) -- USA Network canceled production of a television movie about two drug-tampering deaths after a major pharmaceutical advertiser complained it was inappropriate.
The cable network said Wednesday it pulled the plug on "Who Killed Sue Snow?" on Nov. 22, five days before filming was to begin in British Columbia. The movie was based on the 1986 deaths of two Seattle-area residents who took cyanide-laced Excedrin.
The cancellation followed objections by Johnson & Johnson, whose subsidiary manufactures Tylenol.
The New Brunswick, N.J.-based company threatened to pull all advertising at the network and ask other drug companies to do the same, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources involved in the project.
John McKeegan, a Johnson & Johnson spokesman, confirmed that the company complained about the movie but denied it threatened to pull advertising.
"We were advised of the program and didn't feel it was appropriate," McKeegan said Tuesday. "And we communicated that to the network."
The Times sources said Johnson & Johnson wanted to avoid reminding the public of seven Chicago-area deaths in 1982 from cyanide-tainted Extra Strength Tylenol.
It was unclear whether Excedrin maker Bristol-Myers Squibb also raised concerns. A Bristol-Myers spokesman said he could not confirm whether the company had done so.
USA spokesman Ron Sato, who confirmed the report Wednesday, said: "USA Network and its advertisers agreed that it would be in the public's best interest to stop production of this movie." He said there were concerns it could lead to copycat crimes.
It was unclear who at USA made the decision, which leaves the network responsible for costs of more than $1 million and led to about 150 actors and crew members losing their jobs, the Times said.
The channel is part of USA Networks Inc., a media company owned by Barry Diller, who has controlling interest, and Seagram Co.
USA has dropped from first to fifth place in prime-time ratings among cable networks and could little afford to lose a valuable advertiser when an industrywide advertising slowdown is expected.
Drug companies are the nation's fifth-largest advertisers, spending $2.4 billion in the first six months of this year on all media, according to Competitive Media Reporting.
The movie was to portray the life of Stella Nickell, who was convicted of lacing the Extra Strength Excedrin capsules that killed her husband. To make the murder look like the work of a random killer, Nickell laced other Excedrin bottles and placed them on store shelves in suburban Seattle.
Sue Snow, 40, died after taking two capsules. Nickell, who is serving a 90-year prison sentence, was the first person in the country to be prosecuted and convicted of murder under federal anti-tampering laws.
