The assassination of John F. Kennedy was an incredibly tragic event and I don’t think you can properly understand the impact it had on the people of America (and the rest of the world) unless you were alive during that period. Obviously I wasn’t born yet, but being the child of two hippie parents I remember hearing them talk about it when I was younger, especially after the release of Oliver Stone‘s JFK. Men and women unable to stop themselves from crying in public. How shocked and confused people were about the death of a young and popular president.
Variety has news that a movie based on the events of November 22nd, 1963 called PARKLAND has added Rory Cochrane to its giant cast that also includes Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, Zac Efron, Marcia Gay Harden, Tom Welling, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Duplass, Jacki Weaver, Colin Hanks, Ron Livingston, and Jeremy Strong. Damn, that’s impressive. The film comes from first time director Peter Landesman who is primarily known for his work as an investigative journalist for New York Times Magazine. Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton are contributing to the project as producers.
The movie gets its title from the name of the hospital in Dallas that JFK was rushed to after being shot by assassian Lee Harvey Oswald. While there have been movies about JFK before and countless conspiracy theories involving his death, it looks like PARKLAND may be more about the feelings and emotions of the people at the hospital during the day of the shooting and not so much a story about “how did this happen?” This film has some great talent attached to it and I for one am very excited to see what comes of it.
PARKLAND is looking to be released in November of 2013 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.
