FBI corruption on display. For all to witness. Thanks to Clint Eastwood and Richard Jewell.
Clint Eastwood points a stern finger at FBI investigators and the media in the first trailer for his new fact-based drama “Richard Jewell,” which explores the security guard who reported finding an explosive device at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics — and then was falsely accused of planting it himself.
Paul Walter Hauser (“I, Tonya”) stars as Jewell, joined by Kathy Bates as his mother, Sam Rockwell as his attorney, Jon Hamm as the lead FBI investigator and Olivia Wilde as Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs.
“They want to fry you,” Rockwell’s attorney tells Jewell as the trailer suggests that FBI agents and the media pushed a false narrative of his culpability.
“Jewell fits the profile of the lone bomber, a frustrated white man who is a police wannabe who seeks to become a hero,” Wilde’s reporter says at one point, while Hamm and another investigator press Jewell to make incriminating statements on tape “to clear your name.”
The film follows the true story of Jewell, whose fame as the hero who reported an explosive device at Atlanta’s Centennial Park was followed just days later by headlines identifying him as the FBI’s No. 1 suspect.
