Penn to direct January 6 film with Cooper set to star
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- Sean Penn will write and direct an as-yet-untitled film about the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, described as a 'passion project.'
- Bradley Cooper is in talks to star as a police officer whose life becomes entangled in the insurrection; the film is being made in collaboration with the real-life officer, whose identity is being kept hidden.
- The project is being billed as an 'unexpected story about friendship,' per Deadline.
- Penn attended a January 6 House committee hearing in 2022, telling reporters he was 'just another citizen' observing, and has previously called Donald Trump 'an enemy of mankind' and a 'narcissist.'
- Penn most recently won his third Oscar for One Battle After Another — a ceremony he skipped because he was in Ukraine with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Cooper has 12 Oscar nominations and was last seen in Is This Thing On?; he is next attached to Bong Joon-ho's animated adventure Ally and an Ocean's Eleven prequel with Margot Robbie.
- Aaron Sorkin's upcoming Facebook sequel The Social Reckoning is also said to loosely cover January 6, examining social media's role in the events.
Why it matters: Two of Hollywood's most decorated figures — a three-time Oscar winner (Penn) and a 12-time nominee (Cooper) — are lending their prestige to dramatizing the 2021 Capitol attack, keeping January 6 alive as prestige-cinema subject matter. Penn's prior characterization of Trump as 'an enemy of mankind' and his personal attendance at the House committee hearing suggest the film will be pointedly political, not a neutral procedural.
