Fresh off the massive success of American Sniper, Clint Eastwood has to be very selective with his next big project.
Deadline reports that Eastwood’s next film could very well be the story of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing called The Ballad of Richard Jewell.
[dropcap size=small]E[/dropcap]astwood is said to be very interested in the film, however, his loyalties to Warner Bros. might prove to be a slight obstacle considering that the film is presently set up at Fox. The two studios are supposedly in early talks to potentially co-produce the movie together.
The film stars Jonah Hill as Richard Jewell, an Atlanta Olympics security guard that spotted a suspicious looking backpack on the premises which happened to contain a bomb. He was immediately deemed a hero by the media after bravely minimizing the damage and saving countless people in the area.
At some point word got out that Jewell had planted the bomb in a sad attempt to make himself look good. His public reputation took a nosedive. This was eventually found to be false and the FBI cleared him three months later, but the damage to his image was already done.
Richard Jewell (left), Jonah Hill (right)
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Leonardo DiCaprio is signed on to play Jewell’s lawyer. Given the on-screen chemistry between Hill and DiCaprio during The Wolf of Wall Street one can understand why they’d want to work together again. The screenplay was written by Billy Ray based on a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner and is being produced by DiCaprio through Appian Way, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Jonah Hill, Kevin Misher, and Andy Berman.
The film currently has no set release date and no other cast or crew confirmed. However, if the deal with Eastwood goes through it’s bound to pick up speed.
