Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that we’ve just gotten our first look at one of this fall’s biggest awards contenders. Kill The Messenger, from director Michael Cuesta (Showtime’s Homeland and Dexter), first piqued our interest back in July of 2013 when Michael Sheen, Bary Pepper, Tim Blake Nelson and Andy Garcia joined the cast, and we started to realize just how talented an ensemble Cuesta was working with. Now, a first trailer for the Jeremy Renner-led film has hit the web, and it’s definitely a must-see.
Renner stars as Gary Webb, an American journalist who, in 1996, uncovered that the CIA had ties to a major crack cocaine smuggling operation in California and was using the profits from that operation to funnel arms to rebel fighters in Nicaragua. Webb’s investigation puts him and his family at risk, but he continues to dig, determined to bring the ugly truth to the American public.
It’s exciting, important and extremely politically relevant subject matter in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks, and the screenplay, by journalist Peter Landesman, seems appropriately sharp and engaging. Both of those factors, in addition to the terrific cast, which also includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Oliver Platt, Paz Vega, Michael Kenneth Williams and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, should make this one a force to be reckoned with on the awards circuit this fall.
Check out the trailer and the new poster for the film below, and let us know, are you excited about this film?
Kill the Messenger opens October 10th.
Two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (“The Bourne Legacy”) leads an all-star cast in a dramatic thriller based on the remarkable true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation’s streets…and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers who were smuggling cocaine into the U.S., and using the profits to arm rebels fighting in Nicaragua. Despite warnings from drug kingpins and CIA operatives to stop his investigation, Webb keeps digging to uncover a conspiracy with explosive implications. His journey takes him from the prisons of California to the villages of Nicaragua to the highest corridors of power in Washington, D.C. – and draws the kind of attention that threatens not just his career, but his family and his life.
