It’s often said that movies come in twos, as (shakily) evidenced by pairs like Armageddon/Deep Impact and The Illusionist/The Prestige, and according to Mike Fleming at Deadline Hollywood, we’ll be having a small run on Robert F. Kennedy bio-pics in the near future.
Matt Damon, currently coasting on an Oscar Nomination for Invictus, may potentially take on the role of Bobby Kennedy, if Gary Ross (director of Pleasantville and Seabiscuit) and Steven Knight (writer of Eastern Promises and upcoming The Lost Symbol) put together a project he is happy with. Knight was hired by virtue of his recent script work on the Bobby Fischer film Columbia is producing (along with Tobey Maguire, who could possibly star). Director Gary Ross and biographer Evan Thomas have a relationship already from their work on a Brown Vs. Board of Education story which has found a home as an HBO film.
Their approach to a Kennedy biography will be based off the book His Life by Evan Thomas, which is apparently a detailed sweeping look at his political career. This could make for an epic style biography that covers a wide span of time, or perhaps they’ll mine the details of a more specific time period, as other projects have done.
Also mentioned is the potentially competing biography from Chris Columbus called The Last Campaign that would presumably focus on RFK’s presidential bid until it’s tragic end. Who knows how the timing will shake out with these two projects (or if they’ll even both happen) so it’s entirely possible that they’ll be released with no proximity to one another.
Look for more news in the future if Matt digs that Knight script.