Legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood is reportedly circling The Ballad of Richard Jewell as his next directorial effort, the project currently set up at Disney/Fox. Eastwood was previously in talks to direct the film back in 2015, but those plans failed to pan out.
Based on Marie Brenner’s 1997 Vanity Fair article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell,” the film will tell the true story of the innocent security guard who helped save lives during the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta who was later accused of plotting the attack. Eric Robert Rudolph plead guilty to the crime, along with several other bombings, in 2005
Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio had originally been attached to star, but they will no longer appear in the movie though both will still produce. Captain Phillips screenwriter Billy Ray is writing the script, which will be based on a Marie Brenner article in Vanity Fair.
Source: Variety