Deadline is reporting that 20th Century Fox and Amblin Entertainment are teaming on The Post, a film about the Pentagon Papers controversy which will star two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Captain Phillips) and three-time Oscar winner/ 20-time nominee Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Devil Wears Prada). Oscar-winning directing legend Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Lincoln, Munich) has signed on to direct the timely story about the importance of a free press, which was written as a spec script by newcomer Liz Hannah.
The story will follow the 1971 scandal after the decision of The Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) and publisher Katharine Graham (Streep) to publish The Pentagon Papers. Written and leaked by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers established that the Johnson Administration had lied to the public and congress about US military involvement in the Vietnam War, and revealed that the Nixon administration had secretly escalated the war. The Nixon administration tried to stop The Post from publishing them, and Assistant U.S. Attorney General William Rehnquist took the case to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the paper. The late Jason Robards won a 1974 Best Supporting Actor Oscar portraying a Watergate-era Bradlee in All the President’s Men.
This will mark the fifth time Spielberg has directed his pal Hanks after Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal and Bridge of Spies. While Streep has never appeared onscreen in a Spielberg film, she provided the voice of The Blue Fairy in 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
Amy Pascal (Spider-Man: Homecoming) will produce with Spielberg, and Kristie Macosko Krieger (Bridge of Spies), with Rachel O’Connor executive producing alongside Star Thrower Entertainment’s Tim and Trevor White, and Adam Somner.
Because of the story’s relevance to the current political climate, The Post is being fast-tracked as Spielberg’s next project. He currently has 2018’s sci-fi flick Ready Player One in post, and is also prepping The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara with Mark Rylance and Oscar Isaac, as well as the fifth Indiana Jones movie for Disney, which has a July 19, 2019 release date. As with many past Spielberg projects, some of these films may wind up falling to the wayside as other commitments present themselves.
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