Actress joins the Gary Webb biopic.
Rosemarie DeWitt (‘Touchy Feely,’ ‘Promised Land,’ ‘Nobody Walks’) has scored the female lead opposite Jeremy Renner (‘The Bourne Legacy,’ ‘Avengers Assemble’) on the fact-based drama ‘Kill the Messenger.’
Based on the book by Nick Schou, the film sees Renner playing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb who, through his reporting, linked the CIA to a scheme to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California during the 1980s. Smeared by the agency and fired by his paper, Webb “committed suicide,” though with two bullets in his head.
THR adds that Paz Vega (‘Grace of Monaco,’ ‘Sex and Lucia,’ ‘Spanglish’) will co-star, playing “the girlfriend of a wealthy dealer who is in jail and hopes that Webb can get him out.”
Production is scheduled to commence in August with Michael Cuesta behind the camera. Renner’s The Combine and Scott Stuber’s Bluegrass Films are producing.