By James White | Posted 6 Jun 2017

You know that Steven Spielberg just has to whisper quietly to himself in his office that he's thinking of directing a new film and the actors' headshots and CVs come rolling in. He's gathered a wonderful ensemble around stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep for his new film about the Pentagon Papers, once known as The Post and now called The Papers.

Spielberg has just started the cameras rolling on the film, but here's the list of people he's added to the cast. Ready? Deep breath... Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Pat Healy, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford and Zach Woods are all aboard the movie, meaning that the director has added people from every TV series going. All right, not exactly. But that is a lot of great folk signing on to the new movie.

The plot for this one, written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, will follow the role the Washington Post played in exposing the Papers, unreported facts about a secret aim to escalate the Vietnam War in 1971. Fighting the government (including the Nixon administration) for the right to report on the contents of the studies in the papers, the Post won a legal challenge in the Supreme Court. Hanks is playing the paper's editor, Ben Bradlee, with Streep as publisher Kay Graham.

As of right now, the film is taking aim at a 22 December awards-ready launch in the US, with a wider release awaiting it on 12 January. The Papers will make it over to the UK on 26 January.

Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks And Meryl Streep Team Up For The Post