Last week news broke that director Clint Eastwood had found his Richard Jewell for THE BALLAD OF RICHARD JEWELL in Paul Walter Hauser (I, TONYA, BLACKKKLANSMAN), and now the cast is fleshing out even more as stars Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm have been added to the drama. Based on the true story of Jewell, a security guard accused of planting a bomb at Centennial Park during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Wilde will be playing journalist Kathy Scruggs, who covered the case, and Hamm is playing an FBI agent who investigated Jewell and the bombing.
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Variety got the scoop about Wilde and Hamm’s casting, who now join Oscar winners Sam Rockwell as Jewell’s attorney and Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mother, thus expanding the impressive ensemble. Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio were once on board for the Hauser/Rockwell roles but dropped out and now remain on as producers.
Based on the Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner, “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell,” the movie will track Jewell’s case which began with him finding the backpack containing a pipe bomb at Centennial Park, saving hundreds of lives and becoming a media celebrity. Soon, he was made a suspect in the bombing case, investigators believing he planted the bomb only so he could find it and earn praise. While he was finally cleared by the FBI 88 days later the news coverage scarred his personal and professional lives, and his case became a textbook example of how the media can jump to conclusions before all the facts are in. Billy Ray (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, GEMINI MAN) will be working on the script.
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Wilde and Hamm are two great gets for the movie, with the former having a particularly good year with the release of her critically acclaimed directorial debut, BOOKSMART. She also led the indie drama A VIGILANTE, which after making the festival rounds last year was given a quiet release last March, and features her best performance yet. Hamm has also been having a good year, and can be seen in the new Amazon show GOOD OMENS and will be seen this year in THE REPORT and LUCY IN THE SKY.