Jeremy Renner-led thriller enlists two more.
Barry Pepper (‘The Lone Ranger,’ ‘Snitch’), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (‘The Spectacular Now,’ ‘Smashed’) and Josh Close (‘The Master,’ ‘Justified’) have become the latest additions to the cast of ‘Kill the Messenger,’ director Michael Cuesta’s fact-based drama starring Jeremy Renner.
Scripted by Peter Landesman the film is based on the true story of Gary Webb (Renner), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA’s role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California.
Deadline has Pepper set for the role of federal prosecutor Russell Dodson, who is tasked with keeping a lid on the agency’s connection to the massive influx of cocaine, while Winstead will Dawn Garcia, the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, where Webb worked. Variety adds that Close will be playing a fellow reporter who was a close friend of Webb.
As previously reported, Rosemarie DeWitt (‘Touchy Feely,’ ‘Promised Land,’ ‘Nobody Walks’) and Paz Vega (‘Grace of Monaco,’ ‘Sex and Lucia,’ ‘Spanglish’) are attached to co-star.