Richard Jewell is a new Clint Eastwood film based on the 1997 article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell” by Marie Brenner, published in Vanity Fair.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new film!
- Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film
- It is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood
- It is written by Billy Ray
- The film is based on the 1997 article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell” by Marie Brenner, published in Vanity Fair
- The film depicts the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and its aftermath
- There security guard Richard Jewell found a bomb and alerted authorities to evacuate
- Only to later be wrongly accused of having placed it himself
- It stars Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell, alongside Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Wilde
- The film had its world premiere at AFI Fest on November 20, 2019
- It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on December 13, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures
- It received generally positive reviews from critics
- It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best films of the year
- With Bates also being recognized for Best Supporting Actress
- The project was announced in February 2014
- Then Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill teamed to produce the film
- With Hill set to play Jewell
- And DiCaprio the lawyer who helped Jewell navigate the media blitz that surrounded him
- Paul Greengrass began negotiations to direct the film with Billy Ray writing the screenplay
- Other directors considered include Ezra Edelman and David O. Russell
- Before the project went to Clint Eastwood
- DiCaprio and Hill were no longer officially attached to star
- Though they remained as producers
- In May, Warner Bros. acquired the film rights from 20th Century Fox, which had been acquired by The Walt Disney Company earlier that year
- In June, Sam Rockwell was cast as the lawyer, and Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell
- Kathy Bates, Olivia Wilde, Jon Hamm and Ian Gomez were also cast
- In July 2019, Nina Arianda joined the cast
- Filming began on June 24, 2019 in Atlanta
- A trailer was released on October 3, 2019
- It is scheduled to be released in the United States and Canada on December 13, 2019
- It will be released alongside Jumanji: The Next Level and Black Christmas
- It is projected to gross $8 to 12 million in its opening weekend
- The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 82%
- Based on 66 reviews
- With an average rating of 7.06/10The site’s consensus reads: “Richard Jewell simplifies the real-life events that inspired it — yet still proves that Clint Eastwood remains a skilled filmmaker of admirable economy”
- Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100
- Based on 22 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- The film came under fire for its portrayal of late Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001
- Criticism was specifically directed at the film for depicting offering to trade sex with an FBI agent in return for confidential information
- The current editor-in-chief of the newspaper claimed that there is no evidence proving this occurred, and in an open letter, employees of the newspaper demanded the film have a disclaimer, acknowledging that “some events were imagined for dramatic purposes and artistic license”
- Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended her role
- She claimed a sexist double standard that Jon Hamm’s portrayal of the FBI agent was not held to the same scrutiny
- Commentators noted that Wilde’s character was based on a real person
- Whereas the FBI agent was an amalgamation of multiple characters from the original script
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