Animal Factory is a film about life in prison, set in San Quentin and directed by actor Steve Buscemi. It was made in 2000.

Edward Furlong plays a young man named Ron Decker, who is sent to prison for drug possession, and Willem Dafoe is veteran con Earl Copen who takes Decker under his wing and inroduces him into his own gang. Copen is the type of prisoner who has been behind bars long enough that, unlike most prisoners, he prefers his cell to society. Not only does Copen know how to survive behind bars, he knows how to thrive in the small society of prison convicts. Copen's knowledge of the legal system and the administrative side of the prison are shown as especially useful in this regard.

In the film Finding Nemo Dafoe - as a voice actor - played a virtually identical role only the prison in that film was an Aquarium. Animal Factory was filmed on location at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Filming was completed in 30 days, two days longer than originally scheduled. Director Steve Buscemi employed hundreds of prisoners from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, the prison that replaced Holmesburg Prison in 1995.

The film is based upon the novel The Animal Factory by writer Edward Bunker, with whom Buscemi starred in Resevoir Dogs, Buscemi as Mr. Pink, Bunker as Mr. Blue.

Ron, who's young, slight, and privileged, is sentenced to prison on marijuana charges. For whatever reason, he brings out paternal feelings in an 18-year prison veteran, Earl Copan, who takes Ron under his wing. The film explores the nature of that relationship, Ron's part in Earl's gang, and the way Ron deals with aggressive cons intent on assault and rape. There's casual racism, too, in the prisoners and the guards, a strike called by Black prisoners, and the nearly omnipresence of hard drugs. Ron's lawyer is working on getting Ron out quickly, Earl has a shot at parole, and death seems to be waiting in the next cell. Will prison turn Ron into an animal? Written by