Paramount’s ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7,’ now has Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in final talks to play Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party co-founder who was one of the original eight men that were charged by the federal government with conspiracy and inciting to riot. He would replace Jonathan Majors (‘White Boy Rick,’ ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’), who was cast back in February.
Abdul-Mateen was recently in the smash hit ‘Aquaman’ and Jordan Peele’s ‘Us.’ He was also in ‘Striking Vipers,’ one of the season five installments of Netflix’s ‘Black Mirror.’ Next, he has Damon Lindelof’s ‘Watchmen’ series, premiering October 20th, and Nia DaCosta ‘Candyman’ spiritual sequel, releasing June 12, 2020.
Moreover, the rest of the cast and their roles:
- Sacha Baron Cohen (‘Alice Through the Looking Glass,’ ‘Who is America?’) as Abbie Hoffman
- Frank Langella (‘The Americans,’ ‘Kidding’) as Julius Hoffman
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt (‘Snowden,’ ‘Comrade Detective’) as Richard Schultz
- Eddie Redmayne (‘The Danish Girl,’ ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’) as Tom Hayden
- Mark Rylance (‘Bridge of Spies,’ ‘Dunkirk’) as William Kunstler
- Alex Sharp (‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties,’ ‘The Hustle’) as Rennie Davis
- Jeremy Strong (‘Molly’s Game,’ ‘Succession’) as Jerry Rubin
Meanwhile, Sorkin not only wrote the screenplay, but he will also direct the movie. He is most famous for writing NBC’s ‘The West Wing,’ David Fincher’s ‘The Social Network,’ and Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs.’
Sorkin’s previous statement about this passion project:
“I’m thrilled to be making a movie about one of one of the craziest, funniest, most intense, most tragic and most triumphant trials in American history. C-7 may take place in the late ’60’s, but there’s no better time to tell this story than today.”
Further, filming will begin this month, in Chicago and Toronto, Canada.
However, there is currently no release date yet.
Source: Variety