Matt Damon in Talks to Play Bobby Kennedy

Here's a pretty good cluster of movie stuff: A Bobby Kennedy bio starring Matt Damon and directed by Gary Ross. It's close to happening, so says Deadline, with the only stumbling block being the unwritten script, which Damon could ultimately turn down. The movie would be based on Robert Kennedy: His Life, the biography by Evan Thomas. It's been optioned by Landscape Entertainment, and this would represent a swift step forward for the production company responsible for John Tucker Must Die, Sleepover, and very little else. As you might expect, "The film will trace RFK's transformation from the younger brother in the shadow brother President John F. Kennedy to a strong national leader in his own right before he was gunned down in 1968." Why now and not, say, two years ago when it would have been the 40th anniversary of the assassination? It just couldn't come together before. Ross had once before optioned this book, first released in 2002. Plus, it would have been released on the heels of the Emilio Estevez ensemble piece, Bobby, which came out in the fall of 2006. Now, however, it appears that it faces direct competition from Chris Columbus and his film about the RFK campaign in '68. I like the idea of Damon for this role, although if you ever saw Thirteen Days, the work by Steven Culp as RFK was very memorable.

Comments

[SEAN]

Jeezzz Damon just keeps on racking in the roles these day....

he'll see Oscar gold sooner or later, he must, he's very deserving & really likeable I've been a fan since I saw one of my all time favorite movies of all time Good Will hunting

[W]

He sees Oscar gold daily...he already has one.

[Lisa]

I heard he said he lost eh Oscar in one of his many moves--he said it's in a storage room somewhere - guess he really didn't care about it~!