The January 6th assault on the Capitol will be the subject for J6, a feature film scripted and to be directed by Billy Ray, his follow-up to his successful miniseries on Showtime The Comey Rule. Adam McKay, who is on the Oscar hunt now for his Netflix film, Don’t Look Up, will produce with Todd Schulman, Josh McLaughlin, Cullen Hoback, and Shane Salerno, the latter of whom was the executive producer on The Comey Rule. 

The J6 script will be shopped to streamers and studios imminently, according to Deadline, and conversations with equity financiers have already begun. 

Originally, Ray was expecting to look at the events in the form of another limited miniseries. While he was deeply affected by the attack, he traveled to Washington, D.C. just mere days after the attack, interviewing key principals while the attack was still fresh. This included Capitol police officers Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn who were trapped inside the Capitol when the violent siege occurred. Fanone has consulted on the screenplay throughout the process. 

McKay, who was preparing for the release of Don’t Look Up, read the script and was moved by Ray’s material, and his passion for the project ended up being enough for McKay to agree to come abroad the project with Schulman as a producer. 

“Billy has written a screenplay that is not only harrowing and terrifying but is sure to become the definitive cinematic document on that gut-wrenching day,” McKay said.

Ray’s other fact-based films are Captain Phillips, Breach, Shattered Glass, and Richard Jewell.