Left to right, Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Danny Flaherty as John
Froines, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin,
Mark Rylance as William Kuntsler. Photo by Niko Tavernise/Netflix.
Photo by Niko Tavernise/Netflix.
VANITY FAIR published a wonderful article by David Ansen about Aaron
Sorkin’s upcoming movie The Trial of the Chicago 7. We also got a glimpse
at Kelvin Harrison Jr, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
in the movie, which Netflix will release on October 16.
Some of my favorite parts/quotes from the article:
Sorkin has boiled down the trial into a movie that will run just short of two
hours. “For me that’s a short!” he says. “It’s a great courtroom drama.”
But the trial was just one of three stories he wanted to tell with the movie.
The second was the evolution of the riot. “How did we go from what was
supposed to be a peaceful anti-war demonstration to this incredibly bloody
and violent confrontation?” The third, “more personal and emotional”
strand is a kind of love story, the bond that developed between Abbie Hoffman
and Tom Hayden, “two people who didn’t get along very well at the beginning
and came to have a lot of respect for each other.” You can expect comedy,
but, says Sorkin, “in our movie we use that humor to fool you for a second
before we punch you in the gut.”
Marveling at his cast, Sorkin says, “It was like driving a Ferrari.
My one job was making sure they were all in the same movie.”
...On Chicago 7, the entire cast and 300 extras were packed into a simulated
courtroom in Paterson, New Jersey, watching one another’s every move.
“It was fantastic,” Baron Cohen recalls. “We’d do a take and when we
stopped, 300 extras were cheering and applauding. I felt like I was
watching a brilliant Broadway production.”...
...Langella was amazed by Redmayne’s focus: For three weeks he sat in the
courtroom without a single line to say, but never lost his concentration...
“Working with Aaron was on my bucket list,” - says Eddie.
“The words are so brilliant. They’re gold dust,” says Redmayne,
who says he felt great sadness when the shoot was over, as
he’d never get to speak his lines again.
You can also read about the timeliness of this film.
