After a storied, perhaps divisive career in screenwriting, Aaron Sorkin delivered in his directorial debut Molly’s Game a few years back and now he’s returning with his follow-up behind the camera, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong, the film depicts a peaceful protest turned violent clash at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the intense trial that followed.
Once set to be a theatrical release from Paramount, they sold it to Netflix amidst the pandemic and now ahead of an October release, the first images have arrived. “We didn’t need it to get more relevant, but it did,” Sorkin tells Vanity Fair. “The polarization, the militarization of the police, the fear of Black activists, even the intramural battle between the left and the far left. To say nothing about [Black Panther] Fred Hampton being murdered by the police during the trial. At this performance the role of Mayor Daley is being played by Donald Trump.”
Check out the images in the gallery below for the film also starring Noah Robbins, Danny Flahery, Ben Skenkman, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, John Doman, J.C. MacKenzie, Damien Young, Wayne Duvall, and C.J. Wilson.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 arrives on Netflix on October 16, 2020.