Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell is set to have its world premiere at this year’s AFI Fest. The Gala will take place on Wednesday, November 20 at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
The movie is based on the true story of Richard Jewell, a security guard during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games who discovered a bomb and tried to evacuate the grounds before it would detonate. However, as the police started investigating the drama they started to realize that Jewell could be a suspect and, in fact, responsible for entire the bomb hoax.
Paul Walter Hauser (“I, Tonya”) plays Jewell, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Wilde complete the cast.
This is the third film from the legendary filmmaker to debut at AFI after 2011’s “J. Edgar” and 2014’s “American Sniper.” A west-coast source, who’s seen the film, tells me it is Eastwood’s “unrelenting condemnation of a corrupt FBI and a news media willing to go along with any narrative they deem click-worthy.” This same source tells me that for that very reason the film will no doubt “irk more than a few” people whom, as they watch the film, will realize Eastwood is drawing parallels to FBI corruption and “fake news” in the Trump-era.