Deadline is reporting that Clint Eastwood is seriously considering directing FOX's currently untitled movie about the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing. Jonah Hill is attached to star as Richard Jewell (the security guard who was wrongly suspected and later cleared of setting off the bomb), and while Leonardo DiCaprio hasn't officially joined the project yet, it's still possible he will play the Southern attorney who helped Jewell out. Paul Greengrass was reportedly eyeing the film before deciding to direct a new Bourne flick with Matt Damon.
The upcoming movie is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article “The Ballad Of Richard Jewell” and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS scribe Billy Ray wrote the script.
Jewell was the security guard who discovered a backpack in the Olympics compound in Atlanta in 1996. Initially hailed a hero for reporting the suspicious knapsack and then helping clear bystanders from the area before it exploded, Jewell was subsequently vilified just three days later as a potential suspect, his life and reputation torn apart in the advent of the 24 hour news cycle.
There is one thing that could prevent Clint Eastwood from helming the FOX film: his loyalty to Warner Bros. Deadline claims "All parties are wary at the moment," but the site also says the studios are "trying to find some common ground which might involve them sharing the picture as co-production partners." Do you think Eastwood will end up directing the movie?