Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett are both attached to star in Truth, an adaptation of Mary Mapes’ book Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, Deadline reports. The film will be a political drama about the firestorm and backlash that followed a 60 Minutes II report by Dan Rather detailing George W. Bush’s placement in the National Guard – with the help of his powerful father – as a means to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Redford will play the legendary anchor Rather, while Blanchett is set to play Mary Mapes, his producer at the time. The report, which came just as Bush was readying for re-election, resulted in Mapes losing her job, and left Rather with a tarnished public image.
The script is being penned by James Vanderbilt, who previously wrote Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man, and White House Down. Vanderbilt is also set to make his directorial debut on the film, which will be produced by Mythology Entertainment, with filming set to take place this fall.
For Redford, exploring the relationship between the news media and politics is a familiar one, having famously played Bob Woodward alongside Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein in the 1976 film All the President’s Men. That film similarly dealt with the uncovering of a major political story (Watergate) that gripped the country, though Woodward and Bernstein faced a very different public reaction than the one that greeted Rather and Mapes.
Redford has also starred in other politically themed films such as Lions for Lambs and The Candidate. Blanchett, fresh off her Oscar-winning performance in last year’s Blue Jasmine, has been busy of late, taking roles in not one, but two Terrence Malick films, as well as Disney’s live-action version of Cinderella.
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