Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers Movie Re-Titled ‘The Post’

Fox and Amblin Entertainment have re-named their Pentagon Papers movie “The Post,” directed by Steven Spielberg with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep starring.

The film, formerly called “The Papers,” centers on the Washington Post’s decision to publish the classified Pentagon Papers in 1971. The movie, expected to contend during awards season, will see a limited release on Dec. 22 and go wide on Jan. 12, 2018.

“The Post” is co-financed by Fox and Amblin Entertainment with Fox handling domestic distribution. Amblin will handle international through its output deals with Universal, eOne, Reliance, and others.

Hanks is portraying the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee and Streep is playing publisher Katherine Graham. In 1971, the paper decided to publish revelations from the 47-volume Pentagon Papers study after President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell got a federal court injunction forcing the New York Times to cease publication of the papers after three installments.

The New York Times and Washington Post jointly appealed to the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds and the high court ruled 6-3 that the government failed to prove a harm to national security and that publication was justified by the First Amendment.

The cast includes Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Rhys, Bradley Whitford, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Alison Brie, Bruce Greenwood, Tracy Letts, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Fox also announced Friday that it has moved the release of Dylan O’Brien’s sci-fi actioner “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” forward two weeks from Feb. 9 to Jan. 26.

It’s the third and final movie in the franchise. The release was originally set for Feb. 17, 2017, but was delayed after O’Brien was injured during shooting in 2016.

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