Legendary Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood is at the top of a short list to direct “The Ballad of Richard Jewell” for Disney/Fox, according to media reports. Eastwood had previously shown interest in the script when it was in development at 20th Century Fox.
The adapted screenplay is by Billy Ray (“The Hunger Games,” “Captain Phillips”) and is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair profile story of the same name by Marie Brenner about Jewell, who was a security guard at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics. He was initially hailed as a hero after he recognized a backpack under a bench as being suspicious, notified Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers in the park and helped clear the area.
Soon after, however, he was splashed on news pages as a potential suspect in the July 27 bombing before being cleared of any wrongdoing.
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