Sean Penn to direct film on January 6 Capitol assault, Bradley Cooper circling lead role

LOS ANGELES, June 17 — Three-time Oscar winner Sean Penn is to direct a film centring on a police officer caught up in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, entertainment media reported yesterday.

The film, which Penn has also reportedly written, is expected to star Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper in the role of the currently un-named officer, Deadline said.

Production is scheduled for next year, and is expected to be handled by Warner Bros., the studio behind the Oscar-winning One Battle After Another, for which Penn received his most recent golden statuette.

Representatives for the 65-year-old actor-director did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

The Capitol attack is a huge faultline in American public life, which came when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the building in a bid to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election, and has repeatedly called those who participated in the attack “patriots,” issuing pardons and commutations even to those who admitted assaulting police officers.

Penn, known for his left-of-centre politics and social activism, attended legislative hearings investigating the insurrection, where he was photographed sitting alongside officers who had were caught up in the incident, including Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

Fanone — a former Trump supporter — has spoken repeatedly about the trauma he experienced during the uprising, including in his 2022 memoir Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul.

Warner Bros. is on the verge of being swallowed by Paramount Skydance, whose CEO David Ellison is the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison. — AFP