Trending 
Three-time Oscar winner Sean Penn will direct and write a feature film centring on the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to industry media reports on Tuesday.
The upcoming project will focus on a police officer caught up in the violent insurrection launched by supporters of Donald Trump.
Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper will reportedly star as the unnamed officer, with Warner Bros. scheduling production to begin next year.
The film tackles one of the most volatile events in modern American history, which saw thousands of rioters storm the Capitol building to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.
Trump continues to deny his election loss and regularly pardons or praises the rioters as “patriots,” even those who confessed to assaulting police officers.
Penn, a long-time progressive activist, closely followed the political fallout of the attack.
He previously attended the congressional hearings investigating the riot, where he sat alongside officers like Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone.
Fanone, a former Trump supporter, heavily criticised the insurrectionists and documented his own severe trauma from that day in his 2022 memoir, “Hold the Line.”
The high-profile project arrives at a complex corporate moment for the producing studio. Paramount Skydance is currently acquiring Warner Bros., which will place the studio under the control of CEO David Ellison.
Ellison’s father, billionaire Larry Ellison, stands as a prominent financial ally of Donald Trump.
