Variety reports that the long in-development Aaron Sorkin project, The Trial of the Chicago 7, has been put on hold yet again. The film had finally entered pre-production recently more than a decade after the acclaimed writer/director penned the script.
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Amblin announced in a statement that due to Sorkin’s work on adapting the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird for Broadway, which is set to debut on Thursday, and that they are waiting to see how his schedule will balance out.
“Aaron just adapted ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ which is premiering on Broadway this Thursday. He is currently evaluating his schedule and commitments to determine the best time and way to make ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7.’ Amblin remains involved as a producer,” Amblin said in a statement.
The true story follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.
After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money.
The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.
Steven Spielberg was, for years, planning to direct The Trial of the Chicago 7 himself, but the plan became to move forward without Spielberg behind the camera when production was originally scheduled to start in January 2014. Paul Greengrass (22 July) and Ben Stiller (Escape at Dannemora) were both in talks to replace Spielberg at one point, but nothing ever came to fruition with either party.
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Sorkin, who wrote the script in 2007, is just coming off of his directorial debut in last year’s Molly’s Game, which earned rave reviews from critics and audiences and was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Adapted Screenplay. Cohen, who was originally attached in 2007 for the film, is just coming off of his Showtime political satire Who Is America? and is filming the espionage thriller The Spy for Netflix right now.
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