Actor-director Clint Eastwood’s next project is speculated to be The Ballad of Richard Jewell, a biopic of a security guard whose life gets turned upside down after he is identified as a possible suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. Jewell reported the presence of the knapsack bomb at the Olympics and helped clear bystanders but was vilified and suspected of being involved in the terrorism plot himself. He was cleared as a suspect three months later and died a decade later of a heart attack at the age of 44.
The film, produced by Disney/Fox, will reunite Eastwood and Alan Horn, the current Disney Studios chief. They both worked together when Horn was in charge of Warner Bros motion picture division. While Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio were originally in the fray to play the leads, the current development is that neither of them will star.
They will however be producing the film with the latter’s business partners Jennifer Davisson Killoran, and Kevin Misher also co-producing. Renowned documentary filmmaker Ezra Edelman was supposed to direct the project before Eastwood accepted the role. Captain Phillips screenwriter Billy Ray is writing the script, which will be based on a Marie Brenner article in Vanity Fair.