Having originally written the screenplay more than a decade ago, Aaron Sorkin has now signed on to direct The Trial of the Chicago 7 for Amblin Entertainment, with Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Who Is America?) in early talks to star.
Deadline reports that the project is based upon the 1969 federal conspiracy trial which arose out of the the police-vs-protesters riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Steven Spielberg was originally attached to direct back in 2007, with Sacha Baron Cohen on board to play activist Abbie Hoffman. However, the filmmaker left the project after it was pushed back due fears of a Screen Actors Guild strike and it then passed through the hands of Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips) and Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder) before Sorkin moved on to write The Social Network.
Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and The Newsroom, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network, and went on to make his feature directorial debut with last year’s Molly’s Game.
