Jeremy Renner Stars in New KILL THE MESSENGER Clips

Focus Features’ upcoming film, KILL THE MESSENGER, opens in theaters this Friday.

With another powerful performance, two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner could very well see another Oscar nomination for his role as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb.

Fans of ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) will appreciate this new political thriller about investigative journalism.

From director Michael Cuesta (“Homeland”) and writers Peter Landesman, based upon the books Dark Alliance, by Gary Webb, and Kill the Messenger, by Nick Schou, the movie also stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Tim Blake Nelson, Barry Pepper, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Paz Vega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Andy Garcia.

Based on Webb’s remarkable true story, watch the new featurette and 4 new clips from the film.

Incarnated on-screen by Jeremy Renner – also a producer of the movie – Webb was a respected, hard-charging investigative journalist who longed to land a career-making story. KILL THE MESSENGER tracks Webb as he uncovers the “Dark Alliance” between drug dealers, a rebel army, and their Central Intelligence Agency handlers – and also tracks Webb himself, a flawed and vulnerable man and a tireless reporter who fiercely believed that his job was to shine a spotlight on even the darkest corners of the world so that the public good was served, no matter how it impacted him.

Journalist Nick Schou, the author of Kill the Messenger, one of the books on which the film is based, came into contact with Webb soon after the “Dark Alliance” series was published, since their investigative work overlapped. He explains, “I wrote follow-up stories tied to the police beat that I was covering at the time. Gary read my material and called me to thank me for pursuing the related stories.”

Although they remained in touch, the two would meet only once. When they did, Webb inscribed his book Dark Alliance – the other of the books on which the film is based – to Schou: From one newsman to another, keep the faith.

KILL THE MESSENGER opens in theaters October 10

Check back for Jim Batts’ review of the film and Melissa Howland’s conversation with the filmmakers.

http://www.focusfeatures.com/kill_the_messenger