His recent films have tackled true-life tales (or at least been based on them, with The Mule) and Clint Eastwood is still of a mood to take on a real world story. In fact, he's circling back to one he's considered in the past, talking to Fox/Disney about The Ballad Of Richard Jewell.
Captain Phillips' Billy Ray wrote the screenplay based on a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner. The story revolves around the '96 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Jewell, a security guard working at the event, was initially hailed as a hero for finding a suspicious backpack in the sports compound and helping clear bystanders before the bomb contained within it detonated, killing two people on the day and inuring 111 others.
But soon the Atlanta Journal Constitution, working on a law enforcement tip, reported that Jewell fit the profile of a possible bomber and the media descended, camping outside the house where Jewell lived with his mother and spurring an FBI investigation. The story became a national scandal, even though Jewell was cleared three months later.
Eastwood first considered this one back in 2015, when Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio were on to star as Jewell and the lawyer who helped defend him. Though they're still aboard as producers, they're not currently in the cast, and Eastwood is aiming to assemble a new ensemble for a summer shoot.
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