Ali
Sam Rockwell will replace Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood’s “The Ballad of Richard Jewell”.
The project, which was first set up at Fox but recently shifted to the actor-filmmaker’s traditional base at WB,
The film is a drama based on the real-life security guard whose world was turned upside down after law enforcement leaked to an overzealous reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Jewell was a possible suspect for the pipe-bombing at Centennial Park during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. From that moment on, Jewell went from a hero, who first discovered the suspicious abandoned backpack and saved hundreds of lives, to one of the most hated men in America.
As law enforcement asserted Jewell planted the bomb himself and then “found” it to make himself a hero, the city reopened the park and attempted to calm a terrified public while the real lone wolf perpetrator remained at large. Jewell maintained his innocence throughout and was finally fully cleared by the FBI 88 days later, though his reputation was never restored and his health forever damaged.
Rockwell (“Vice”) will play the lawyer who defends Jewell- who died at age 44 of heart failure – after he is wrongly accused.
In addition to DiCaprio, Jonah Hill was also once set to star; both actors are no longer involved in an acting capacity but remain on as producers.
Via ‘Variety‘
