Trailer
Plot summary
In 1996, Richard Jewell works security at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta and patrols Centennial Olympic Park, bringing his mother, Bobi, to a concert there. When he spots an abandoned backpack under a bench and insists that officers follow protocol, a bomb is found inside. It detonates before everyone is clear, injuring many and killing a woman, and Richard is celebrated as a hero for clearing the area. The FBI hears from a college dean that Richard, dismissed from earlier posts, had long wanted to work in law enforcement, and its agents decide he matches the profile of a man who engineers a crisis so he can be the one to answer it. Reporter Kathy Scruggs learns of their interest, and Richard calls the only lawyer he knows, Watson Bryant.
Cast
- Ryan Bozas Student
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Richard Jewell (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was criticized for showing Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs offering sex to an FBI agent in return for information; the paper's editor-in-chief called the depicted incident 'entirely false and malicious' in an open letter.
- Clint Eastwood kept working on the film through the November 10 Barham Brush Fire near Warner Bros.; while the lot was evacuated over bad air quality, he and his crew stayed on a sound stage and kept shooting.
- Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill set the film up in 2014 with Hill to play Richard Jewell and DiCaprio his lawyer, and Paul Greengrass in talks to direct; neither actor appeared once Clint Eastwood took over.
- Richard Jewell opened to $4.7 million, one of the 50 worst wide openings ever and Clint Eastwood's worst opening weekend since Bronco Billy in 1980.
