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“The Trial of the Chicago 7″ has been selected for the inaugural ensemble tribute by the Independent Filmmaker Project at the upcoming Gotham Awards on Jan. 11, 2021.

The film, directed by Aaron Sorkin from his own script, follows the story of the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters who were charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film began streaming on Netflix in October.

The ensemble cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, Michael Keaton as Ramsey Clark, John Carroll Lynch as defendant David Dellinger, Alex Sharp as defendant Rennie Davis and Frank Langella as presiding judge Julius Hoffman. Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Fred Hampton, Caitlin Fitzgerald portrays FBI agent Daphne O’Connor, Alice Kremelberg...

You’d think that a bunch of Yippies nominating a 145-pound pig, cheekily dubbed “Pigasus,” for president would need showcasing, but Aaron Sorkin is of a different mind. The venerable writer/director’s criminally pigless picture, The Trial of the Chicago 7, focuses instead on the eponymous group’s protracted trial following its heavy involvement in anti-war protests in ’60s Chicago.

Fiery bellies and a gravitational pull toward positive change drove these men to become ardent faces of a festering distaste for the United States’ wartime priorities. And Sorkin’s searing film does a decent job driving that earnestness home. It may skimp on necessary emotional beats and become more innocuous than it intends, but there’s an undeniable relevance to Sorkin’s latest effort that ultimately makes it a worthy expenditure of cognitive juice.

As one of its respective era’s most critical moments, the 1968 Democratic Convention cranked patriotic...

DreamWorks is moving forward on their production of the Aaron Sorkin-scripted film The Trial of the Chicago 7. Steven Spielberg has been looking to direct it since 2008, but according to an inside source, no movement has been made. The source explains that “every two months it’s been revisited. The title would come up in conversation at production meetings. But it’s just been hanging.”

Not anymore. The studio is pushing it forward, and according to Deadline, they are looking to hire Paul Greengrass (Bourne franchise) to direct it. Greengrass was also looking to direct it back in 2008 when Spielberg's plate started to fill up with other projects. It's funny to see this news pop up again five years later.

The movie is "based on the infamous 1969 federal conspiracy trial arising out of the protesters vs police violent rioting at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that transfixed the nation...

• Director Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) is a fast and voracious talker - he didn’t allow for many questions to be asked by the fellow journalists who met him last Monday in New York during promotion of his Sundance opener, Chicago 10. He seems to be preoccupied with sending out the right message about his latest project, a special documentary that mixes original animation and archival footage to explore the build-up of the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, its consequences and its lessons. He wants to make sure that nobody mistakes it for one of those 'too often boring' and 'very serious historical documentaries that play on PBS' because his movie, he says, is meant to be entertaining, although he hopes young people can learn some lessons about what to do with their political lives today.Eight activists were put on trial by the government after the

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• It was the opening doc at Sundance, and got a very mix reaction – the word was “too long”. The folks at Roadside Attractions see enough promise in Brett Morgen’s docu-feature and have picked up the distrib rights for a 2008 release. The issue of the runtime will be addressed as they plan to trim Chicago 10 to an appropriate length. The doc explores the build-up and aftermath of the week-long anti-war demonstrations staged during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, during which protesters clashed with the Chicago Police Department and the National Guard. Following the protest, eight of the most vocal activists were held accountable for the violence and brought to trial in 1969. The defendants represented a broad cross-section of the anti-war movement, from counter-culture icons Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin to renowned pacifist David Dellinger. Seven of the defendants were represented by Leonard Weinglass and famed liberal attorney,

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• Quick Links  Chicago 10  Brett Morgen  The Kid Stays in the Picture  ioncinema.com's Sundance 2007 coverage The upcoming edition of the Sundance Film Festival will open with a documentary film from the filmmaker who wowed audiences with the visually engaging, critically acclaimed The Kid Stays in the Picture. This will be the third visit for Brett Morgen, who also showcased the Robert Evans docu biopic and the 1999 Sundance Film Festival On the Ropes. Written and directed by Morgen, Chicago 10 is an innovative documentary that combines historical storytelling, archival footage, interviews, animation and music to tell the story about the 1968 anti-war protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that resulted in the famous Chicago Conspiracy Trial in 1969. Chicago 10 explores the build-up and aftermath of the week-long anti-war demonstrations staged during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, during which protesters clashed with the Chicago Police Department and the National Guard.

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