Sean Penn to direct film on Jan 6 US Capitol assault

It will focus on a police officer caught up in chaos caused by Trump supporters

LOS ANGELES:

Three-time Oscar winner Sean Penn is to direct a film centering on a police officer caught up in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, entertainment media reported Tuesday.

The film, which Penn has also reportedly written, is expected to star Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper in the role of the currently un-named officer, Deadline said.

Production is scheduled for next year, and is expected to be handled by Warner Bros., the studio behind the Oscar-winning "One Battle After Another," for which Penn received his most recent golden statuette.

Representatives for the 65-year-old actor-director did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

The Capitol attack is a huge fautline in American public life, which came when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the building in a bid to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidential election victory.

Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election, and has repeatedly called those who participated in the attack "patriots," issuing pardons and commutations even to those who admitted assaulting police officers.

Penn, known for his left-of-center politics and social activism, attended legislative hearings investigating the insurrection, where he was photographed sitting alongside officers who had were caught up in the incident, including Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

Fanone -- a former Trump supporter -- has spoken repeatedly about the trauma he experienced during the uprising, including in his 2022 memoir "Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul."

Warner Bros. is on the verge of being swallowed by Paramount Skydance, whose CEO David Ellison is the son of Trump ally Larry Ellison.

Penn made his directorial film debut with the crime drama The Indian Runner (1991), followed by The Crossing Guard (1995), The Pledge (2001), and Into the Wild (2007). On stage, he acted in the Broadway plays Heartland (1981) and Slab Boys (1983). On television, he portrayed an astronaut in the Hulu drama series The First (2018) and John N. Mitchell in the Starz political thriller miniseries Gaslit (2022).

Penn has also engaged in political and social activism, including his criticism of the George W. Bush administration, his contact with the presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, his humanitarian work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and his support for Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy amidst the Russian-Ukrainian war.