Chris Pine to play Walter Cronkite in JFK assassination drama

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Meet your new Walter Cronkite. Deadline has reported that Chris Pine (OUTLAW KING) has signed on to play the celebrated and iconic newsman in NEWFLASH, a drama which takes place on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Close to two years ago, Seth Rogen (THE LION KING) was in talks to play Walter Cronkite with David Gordan Green slated to direct, but Rogen isn't involved anymore and Green departed in order to helm the two HALLOWEEN sequels. NEWSFLASH, which has been scripted by Ben Jacoby, will revolve around Walter Cronkite, his producer Don Hewitt, their boss Jim Aubrey, and a young Dan Rather over the course of the day that "television network news came of age, and that Cronkite became the most trusted TV newsman voice of America." Here's more from Deadline:

Under pressure from William Paley to show profit at a time when network news wasn’t considered indispensable, the steely Aubrey plays the role of antagonist here. Aubrey felt CBS Evening News wasn’t sensational enough in its presentation of the news and he threatened to remove Cronkite and even scrap the whole evening newscast for programming with greater audience appeal. When JFK was assassinated, there was no cohesion between the network and CBS affiliate news operations, and Cronkite and Hewitt has to scramble to break into soap opera programming from the newsroom because when the on set lights and cameras took forever to warm up. It was a moment when Hewitt, Cronkite and their team proved their mettle, filtering all the unverified information and swirling rumors and find the truth that was conveyed to heartbroken Americans glued to their TV sets.

Mark Ruffalo (AVENGERS: ENDGAME) is attached to play Don Hewitt, Cronkite's producer who helped him to navigate the chaos of the newsroom on that tragic day, and with David Gordan Green out of the picture, the search is on for a director who can start production in January. Chris Pine will next be seen in WONDER WOMAN 1984 on June 5, 2020.