by Ben Miller
Steven Spielberg made news a few months back with word that his next film about the Pentagon Papers would bring together two American treasures in Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. The film, originally referred to as The Post and now titled The Papers, chronicles the Washington Post’s Vietnam War expose’ with Hanks and Streep as the Post’s editor and publisher, respectively.
The big news is who else has been cast in the supporting roles. Rather, who hasn’t been cast...
Sarah Paulson, Allison Brie, Carrie Coon and Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, Zach Woods, and Matthew Rhys have all joined up.
One or two of those names alone would be cause for excitement, but there is just too much to be excited about to focus on one name.
- Letts and Coon together on-screen
- Mr. Show reunion
- The inevitable stock villain role played by Bruce Greenwood
- Sarah Paulson acting the pants off everyone else
- Scene-stealing character actors of Plemons, Stuhlbarg, and Whitford
- Some much needed levity in the form of Brie and Woods
- Potential big-screen breakout for Rhys
Whew. It’s almost too much to handle! (This is also leading me to imagine a gender-swapped version of All the President’s Men with Paulson and Coon.)
Make sure to mind the floors as Oscar voters are beginning to drool (at least on paper). Newspaper and journalists chasing a story films have always been popular with the Academy, from Best Picture winners It Happened One Night (1934) all the way through recent champ Spotlight (2015).
The Papers drops on December 22 in limited release for an Oscar qualifying run and will expand January 12