While most of the expected Oscar Season players are known, Clint Eastwood decided to join the fun. The directors latest movie, Richard Jewell, will have its world premiere at AFI Fest.
The movie joins the previously announced festival title Queen & Slim, a crime thriller from Lena Waithe and Melina Matsoukas, and The Banker, an Apple drama starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Richard Jewell is based on Marie Brenner’s story in Vanity Fair, and focuses on
Jewell, who was working as a security guard at the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta when he discovered a backpack containing pipe bombs. He then sounded the alarm and helped to clear the area.
Initially hailed as a hero, Jewell was soon the prime suspect. The FBI searched his home twice, and the media painted him as an overweight failed cop. Jewell was eventually cleared as the nation’s attention moved on to another topic. He died in 2007 at the age of 44.
Eastwood’s cast includes Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm, with Paul Walter Hauser playing Jewell.
