‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ Adds Michael Keaton, Sets Awards Season Release in 2020

Nearly a year ago, pre-production on Aaron Sorkin’s long-gestating true story of The Trial of the Chicago 7 was suddenly shut down in order to allow the acclaimed writer some time to work on his Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. But a few months later, the movie was getting back together with a stacked cast assembling. Now the movie has added Michael Keaton, and Paramount Pictures has set The Trial of the Chicago 7 release date right at the start of awards season. Find out more below.

For those who don’t know, The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows the infamous 1969 trial of seven men charged by the federal government with conspiracy, arising from the counter-cultural protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It was a headline-making affair and was the focus of much controversy and conversation for years to come. It has been in the works for over a decade and was originally intended to be a movie for Steven Spielberg to direct. Now it’s in the hands of Aaron Sorkin, who not only wrote the script, but will be making this his sophomore effort as a director.

The cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7 already includes Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard H. Shultz, William Hurt as John N. Mitchell, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin (a role that previously belonged to Seth Rogen), and Frank Langella as Julius Hoffman. As for Michael Keaton, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed he’ll be playing Ramsey Clark, a progressive lawyer who was also a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century.

Production will take place next year with filming in Chicago and New Jersey, and it’ll have quite a quick turnaround in post-production with Box Office Pro revealing that Paramount Pictures has set the movie for a limited release on September 25, 2020, followed by a wide release on October 2, 2020. With that kind of release date, the movie is likely to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festval, or maybe even at the Venice Film Festival or the smaller Telluride Film Festival. But either way, Paramount thinks they have an awards contender on their hands. We’re just hoping that this movie has been worth the long wait to see it get in front of a camera.

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