Exclusive: Director Aaron Sorkin On Including Bobby Seale’s Story In ‘The Trial Of The Chicago 7’

Hitting Netflix on October 16 is Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7, featuring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Oscar-nominee Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman, Jeremy Strong as as Jerry Rubin, Golden Globe-nominee Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Alex Sharp as Rennie Davis and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Fred Hampton. It will also star Michael Keaton, William Hurt, Thomas Middleditch, John Carroll Lynch, Daniel Flaherty, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, J.C. MacKenzie and Max Adler, who also serves as an executive producer.

Based on a true story, The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.

After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money. The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.

Best known for acclaimed screenplays for A Few Good Men, Malice, The American President, The Social Network, for which an Academy Award, Moneyball and Steve Jobs, this is Sorkin’s second directorial effort following Molly's Game. In speaking exclusively with BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales, Sorkin talks about including Bobby Seal’s story in the film.

Seal is being playing by recent Emmy Award-winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.