Clint Eastwood Could Direct Jonah Hill in Atlanta Olympics Bombing Drama
Clint Eastwood is figuring out his next project after directing the highest grossing film of 2014, American Sniper. So, with a huge success behind him, he’s got his pick of the litter, and he seems to be eyeing up Jonah Hill and Leonardo Di Caprio's Atlanta Olympics Bombing drama.
Currently unnamed, the drama is based on Marie Brenner’s 1997 Vanity Fair article “The Ballad of Richard Jewell.” Jewell is the man who heroically discovered a suspicious backpack during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and then was later vilified as a possible terrorist suspect. The project originated with Jonah Hill and Leonardo Di Caprio, who began developing it together with Hill, expected to play Jewell and Di Caprio possibly playing Jewell's lawyer.
Deadline reports that Eastwood is “seriously circling” the 20th Century Fox project, which has a screenplay by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips), but his attachment is complicated. Eastwood is a Warner Bros. mainstay, so reports suggest Warner Bros. and Fox are trying to figure out a way to “share” the director on the project should he sign on. It's a similar agreement that took place when Christopher Nolan directed Interstellar for Paramount — Paramount and Warner Bros. struck a deal that allowed Nolan to make the movie under the Paramount banner with Warner Bros. involved too.
No deal has been offered to Eastwood to make this movie yet.
