Woman of the moment Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm are the latest actors to join the cast of Clint Eastwood’s real-life drama ‘Richard Jewell’.
The film is based on Marie Brenner’s article in Vanity Fair chronicling the story of Jewell, a real-life security guard whose world was turned upside down after law enforcement leaked to an overzealous reporter that Jewell was a possible suspect for the pipe-bombing at Centennial Park during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Wilde will play real-life reporter Kathy Scruggs, who covered the event as it unfolded, and Hamm will play an FBI agent investigating the bombing.
The pair join Paul Walter Hauser who takes on the leading role as Jewell, Sam Rockwell who will play Jewell’s attorney and Kathy Bates who takes on the role of Jewell’s mother.
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Eastwood will take the helm on the project which sees Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio as producers. DiCaprio had previously been linked to the role of Jewell’s attorney, which is now played by Rockwell. Billy Ray will pen the script.
The project became one of the victims of the Fox-Disney merger, not making the cut for Disney meant the title has now landed at Warner Bros.
Wilde recently made her directorial debut with the brilliant ‘Booksmart’ landed her in the top 10 of Variety’s directors to watch.
Hamm can currently be seen on Amazon prime in the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman adaptation of ‘Good Omens’. His upcoming projects include ‘Lucy in the Sky’ alongside Natalie Portman and the highly anticipated ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.
