Netflix is reportedly negotiating a deal to acquire the global distribution rights to Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” from Paramount Pictures and Cross Creek Pictures.
The feature follows the Chicago Seven, a group of seven activists charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges stemming from anti-Vietnam War protests.
Those protests broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and devolved from peaceful protests to a violent clash with police and the National Guard.
The trial of the organisers became one of the most notorious in history. Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton and Mark Rylance all star in the film.
Paramount Pictures originally planned to release the film in limited release on September 25th before going wide on October 16th. Foreign rights were pre-sold so the deal requires careful negotiations to unwind those before Netflix takes the whole film globally.
Netflix has acquired Paramount product before from “The Cloverfield Paradox” to “Annihilation”. If ‘Trial’ lands there it will join numerous other potential awards contenders including David Fincher’s “Mank,” Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and the recently released Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods”.
Source: Variety
