Warner Bros and actor-filmmaker Clint Eastwood are teaming up once again, as the studio has closed a deal to acquire the rights to The Ballad of Richard Jewell from Fox-Disney with Eastwood set to direct.
Eastwood had been wanting to launch The Ballad of Richard Jewell for some time now, and was in talks with Fox before he eventually shifted his focus to another property.
Following the success of his most recent drama, The Mule, the director apparently decided to relaunch The Ballad of Richard Jewell, which was now a part of Fox-Disney, following the recent merger of the two studios.
According to sources, all parties involved, however, thought it best that the film make its way to Warners, the studio that Eastwood has called home for years.
The film tells the true story of Richard Jewell, a security guard, whose life is turned upside-down after media reports identify him as a possible suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing.
Jewell reported on the knapsack bomb at the 1996 Summer Games and helped clear bystanders — only to find himself vilified and suspected of being involved in the terrorism plot. Jewell, who was cleared as a suspect three months later, died in 2007 of a heart attack at the age of 44.