Helmers attached to Huey Newton film.
Deadline has learned that the husband and wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (‘Ruby Sparks,’ ‘Little Miss Sunshine’) have closed a deal to direct the based-in-fact film, ‘The Big Cigar.’
Acquired by producer Matt Tolmach (‘The Amazing Spider-Man’), the film is based on journalist Joshuah Bearman’s article in a recent issue of Playboy Magazine and details how ‘Easy Rider’ producer Bert Schneider conjured up a film to help smuggle Black Panthers co-founder Huey Newton out of the U.S. and into Cuba to avoid being tried for the murder of a 17-year-old prostitute and a second violent crime.
Bearman, whose 2007 Wired Magazine article inspired Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo,’ will write the screenplay with Jim Hecht.