Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Chicago 7’ Adds Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

EXCLUSIVE: After pre-production was put on pause in December, we can reveal that Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is now heading to market with an all-star cast including Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jonathan Majors and Alex Sharp.

Rocket Science has boarded international sales and CAA Media Finance will handle U.S. with shoot now slated for late summer. The anticipated project instantly becomes a red-hot prospect at the EFM next week and its revival in the open market should be a major boon for buyers.

Based on Oscar-winner Sorkin’s screenplay, The Social Network and West Wing scribe will also direct the film which is based on the infamous 1969 trial of seven defendants charged by the federal government with conspiracy and more, arising from the countercultural protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The story is set in 1968 and 1969, but speaks to the divisiveness of our times and how young people can take on power and change the world.

Redmayne will play Tom Hayden, Baron Cohen is Abbie Hoffman, Rogen will be Jerry Rubin, Gordon-Levitt has been set to play Richard Schultz, Jonathan Majors stars as Bobby Seale, and Alex Sharp will be Rennie Davis. I hear more A-list cast may be coming. Michael Keaton has been coveted for the role of William Kunstler.

Now on board to produce with Amblin are La La Land, The Girl On The Train and Bridge Of Spies producer Marc Platt and Matt Jackson, producer on Molly’s Game and End of Watch.

Chicago 7 has long been a passion project for Sorkin and will mark his second film as director after he made his feature directorial debut in 2017 with Molly’s Game, which he also wrote. The supremo scribe recently opened Broadway show To Kill A Mockingbird to rave reviews.

Sorkin said, “I’m thrilled to be making a movie about one of one of the craziest, funniest, most intense, most tragic and most triumphant trials in American history. C-7 may take place in the late ’60’s, but there’s no better time to tell this story than today.”

Sorkin, Baron Cohen, Redmayne, Majors and Sharp are represented by CAA. Gordon-Levitt is represented by WME and Rogen by UTA.