According to Deadline, Golden Globe winner Michael Keaton (Batman, Spotlight) has signed on for the role of Ramsey Clark in Paramount Pictures‘ forthcoming drama film The Trial of the Chicago 7 which will be directed by Oscar-winner Aaron Sorkin. Oscar-winner William Hurt (A History of Violence, Goliath) and J.C. MacKenzie (The Irishman) have also joined the star-studded cast with Hurt portraying the role of John Mitchell.
In addition, the studio has also announced the official theatrical release date for the film. It is first scheduled for a limited release on September 25, 2020, and it will hit theaters nationwide on October 2, 2020. The October 2, 2020 release date will see The Trial of the Chicago 7 going up against tough competition with Sony Pictures’ highly-anticipated Marvel sequel Venom 2 which will see the return of Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and the titular symbiote.
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Sorkin’s second directorial effort will feature Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald) as Tom Hayden, Oscar-nominee Sacha Baron Cohen (Who is America?) as Abbie Hoffman, Emmy-nominee Seth Rogen (The Lion King) as Jerry Rubin, Golden Globe-nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Snowden) as Richard Schultz, Jonathan Majors (White Boy Rick) as Bobby Seale, Alex Sharp (The Hustle) as Rennie Davis and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Luce, Waves). This will mark Gordon-Levitt and Rogen’s third major pairing after 50/50 and The Night Before, while Redmayne and Cohen appeared together in 2012’s Les Misérables.
Based on a true story, The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.
After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money. The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.
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Sorkin, who wrote the script in 2007, is just coming off of his directorial debut in last year’s Molly’s Game, which earned rave reviews from critics and audiences and was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film will also be produced by Marc Platt, who has Oscar nominations for Bridge of Spies and La La Land and has also produced hits including Drive, 2 Guns, Into the Woods and Mary Poppins Returns.
