The Paper (1994) on Netflix
Henry Hackett edits a New York City tabloid with long hours and low pay. His pregnant wife Martha wants him in a steadier job. A murder case lands in the newsroom.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/1017,559 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Cutbacks are squeezing The New York Sun, a New York City tabloid, and metro editor Henry Hackett feels them in the newsroom he runs. The publisher, Bernie White, is short of money, and managing editor Alicia Clark, Henry's rival, is trimming costs. Henry's pregnant wife Martha, on leave from her own reporting job at the Sun, wants him to take an editor's post at the New York Sentinel offered by Paul Bladden. That morning two businessmen are found murdered in a parked car in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and two teenagers are arrested for the crime. Henry sends his staff after the case while he weighs the job offer and the paper's budget.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Paper (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michael Keaton's character Henry Hackett was modeled directly on Richie Esposito, a real metro editor at the New York Daily News whom Howard described as rumpled, overworked and fast-talking.
- Randy Quaid's character was based on real New York columnist Mike McAlary, who along with fellow journalist Pete Hamill appears in a cameo and told Howard about reporters using illegal emergency police lights to beat traffic, a trick the film's characters also use.
- Screenwriting brothers David and Stephen Koepp created a subplot about a reporter character, played by Marisa Tomei, who is pregnant while married to the metro editor, and both of the Koepps' own wives became pregnant around the same time.
