With regular collaborators Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg confirmed as directing and starring, Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots' Day has started finding the rest of the cast. First up: J.K. Simmons.
The film blends reality and cinematic invention to chronicle the events surrounding the bombing that happened at the finish line of the Boston race on April 15, 2013. Investigators eventually narrowed down suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and a huge manhunt followed, with Tamerlan killed in a firefight with officers and Dzhokhar found guilty of all his charges and sentenced to death.
Wahlberg is playing a composite of various Boston Police Department officers who were central to the case, where as Simmons is aboard as Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese of the Watertown Police Department, who fought the suspects.
Bridge Of Spies' Matt Charman wrote the script and Berg should be in production next month in Boston.
Simmons is typically busy, and has several films coming up. He'll be heard as the villain in Kung Fu Panda 3 (out March 11) and the mayor in Zootropolis (March 25). And he's reunited with Whiplash director Damien Chazelle for his next film, musical La La Land, which arrives here on July 15.