The Social Network co-star Armie Hammer is in talks to join Leonardo DiCaprio in the Clint Eastwood-directed J. Edgar Hoover biopic, now titled J. Edgar, says Entertainment Weekly.
Hammer would play lawyer-turned-FBI-official Clyde Tolson (who is said to have been Hoover’s lover).
Hoover was the first director of the FBI. He was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories.
Late in life, and after his death, Hoover became an increasingly controversial figure. His critics have accused him of exceeding the jurisdiction of the FBI.
The Warner Bros. Pictures project, written by Dustin Lance Black, starts filming early next year.
UPDATE: Vulture adds that Charlize Theron is being offered the role of Helen Gandy in the film.
