TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, THE "The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed (At Least Until October)"

Peter Sobczynski says... "“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” a docudrama based on the conspiracy trial of a group of anti-Vietnam War protestors whose conspiracy trial related to charge that they incited riots at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago became the focus of worldwide attention, is a project that has come close to being made several times over the last decade or so without ever quite making it before the cameras. Written by Aaron Sorkin, for whom the combination of courtroom drama and politics must have been artistic catnip, the film was originally set to be directed by Steven Spielberg with Sacha Baron Cohen as Yippie agitator Abbie Hoffman, Will Smith as Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale and the late Heath Ledger as SDS co-founder Tom Hayden. A Writers Guild strike shut that iteration down and when Spielberg moved on to other things, other filmmakers like Paul Greenglass and Ben Stiller were mentioned as possibilities to film Sorkin’s script but these versions failed to pan out as well. After all this time, the film has finally been made, with Sorkin himself tapped to direct his screenplay, and it is a supreme irony that after so many years in which it might have been looked upon simply as a period piece, it arrives in theaters (albeit briefly, though it will be on Netflix, who bought the film from Paramount once Covid-19 tanked the theatrical release schedule, beginning October 16) with themes and ideas that seem as if it was specifically cultivated to come out at this precise moment in time, one at least as tumultuous as the period that it documents." (more)