Source: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0 / Carlos Gonzalez Santos, CC0 1.0 Sean Penn (cropped) / Bradley Cooper (cropped) Sean Penn has written and wil
Source: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0 / Carlos Gonzalez Santos, CC0 1.0
Sean Penn (cropped) / Bradley Cooper (cropped)
Sean Penn has written and will direct a drama about the early life of a police officer who was on duty during the attack on the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.
Bradley Cooper is understood to be in talks to star and Warner Bros has acquired the rights in a deal that would see the studio reunite with both Penn and Cooper.
Sources stress the project is not specifically about January 6, 2021; rather it follows the early life of “someone who was there” and is described as “an unexpected story about friendship”. Penn will produce with John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth of Projected Picture Works.
Penn attended the 2022 Congressional hearing into the riot that left five people dead, when he spoke to people caught up in the insurrection including Michael Fanone, who has since retired from the force and published a memoir in 2022 called Hold The Line.
The studio has earmarked a mid-2027 production start on the project, which comes at a sensitive time given the political circumstances of the January 6 insurrection.
Warner Bros Discovery is in the process of being acquired by Paramount and the $111bn transaction just secured approval from the US Department of Justice. Paramount CEO David Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are close to US president Donald Trump.
CAA Media Finance negotiated the deal with Warner Bros. Penn won the supporting Oscar this year for this role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, which Warner Bros released, and Cooper directed and starred in A Star Is Born for the studio. Cooper is in pre-production on Untitled Ocean’s Prequel which Warner Bros will distribute in the United States.
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