Jeremy Renner‘s turn as journalist Gary Webb in KILL THE MESSENGER will take him to a new place. We’ve been used to the action packed side of the actor, and this film will take him back to the drama genre.
HOMELAND’s Michael Cuesta directs Renner in a film about Webb, a former San Jose Mercury News journalist who dug up some allegations in 1996 citing that the C.I.A. played a role in importing cocaine to California with illegal funds going to the Nicaraguan Contra rebel army. When things got heated, Webb’s superiors wrote a backtracking editorial that crushed the journalist leaving him in the wake of an enormous backlash.
Our first look at Renner in the role of Webb comes via USA Today. The actor said this on Webb’s relentlessness, “Good investigative journalism ruffles feathers. From the reaction he got, Gary was doing something right.” Renner serves as executive producer and helped put together a cast which includes Ray Liotta, Rosemarie DeWitt, Michael Sheen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Paz Vega, Michael K. Williams, Andy Garcia, Tim Blake Nelson, Oliver Platt, and Richard Schiff.
Director Cuesta said this about the overall film, “I’m not thinking big message or an indictment film. I’m not Oliver Stone. The movie to me was much more about the burden Gary carries wanting to get to the truth. And what that does to you. I am more interested in seeing a man who goes out and fights what seems like an unwinnable war.”
KILL THE MESSENGER hits theaters some time in 2014.
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