Netflix is circling big deal to acquire domestic rights to Aaron Sorkin‘s movie The Trial of the Chicago 7 from Paramount Pictures and Cross Creek Pictures, which co-financed the film and produced along with Amblin Partners.
Sorkin penned the screenplay and will direct the project as well. Sorkin is best known for writing the screenplays for The Social Network, for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay, A Few Good Men, and The West Wing. He previously penned Molly’s Game, starring Jessca Chastain as the woman behind an underground poker empire. Sorkin had picked up an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows the Chicago Seven, a group of seven activists who were charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more, resulting in the infamous 1969 trial. This rose from the riots and countercultural, anti-Vietnam War protests that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Though the story is set in the late 1960s, it still sheds light on the divisiveness of today and how young people can take on power. It is especially timely with protests over racial injustice breaking out across the country and the upcoming presidential election.
Paramount had originally planned to release the movie in limited release on September 25, 2020, before going wide on October 16. The studio’s hope is that The Trial of the Chicago 7 will still be able to debut in 2020 before the presidential election in November.
This deal has been in the works for quite some time after it became clear that Paramount was backing out. However, this deal might not hold up since there are a handful of major international markets to unpick and Netflix has a tendency to acquire global rights to movies instead of just domestic.
The impressive cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7 includes includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton and Mark Rylance.
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