Take a good long look at the silly picture of the familiar face on the left. Can you, in a million years, imagine him directing a serious political movie? No way, right? Stiller is known for helming gigs like Zoolander and the recent Tropic Thunder, hell I think he’s pretty good at that genre, why on earth would he wanna switch to drama?
According to Hollywood Reporter, THE TRIAL OF CHICAGO 7, the project which Dreamworks has always wanted to bring to the big screen at one point had the name Steven Spielberg attached as the director but that’s not the case anymore. I remember that was around the same time there were rumors that Sacha Baren Cohen and Will Smith might be cast as some of the main protestors. But none of those were true. Shortly after that, director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) was said to be considered as the director as well.
By the way, for those who might be historically challenged, the story is based on the true bloody event of the messy riot that happened at the Democratic Convention back in 1968
Dreamworks’ discussions for Stiller to helm the film are very much at the exploratory. No actual negotiation has been made yet between two parties. I hope this doesn’t really take place because a movie of this intensity (script written by Aaron Sorkin) should be in the hands of a director who’s done a few dramatic movies in the past as part of his resume,.. not someone who’s never done it before and just jumps into unknown territory. Many people are expect him to fail.
Here’s an interesting fact from the past… back in the 80s, Ben Stiller was in the movie The Empire of The Sun, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring the teenager Christian Bale.
Do you think Ben Stiller has what it takes to direct drama movies?
[...] previously announced, Ben Stiller who directed the comedy sensation Tropic Thunder is also in talks with Dreamworks to [...]