Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Trial of the Chicago 7: First trailer for Netflix film features an unrecognisable Sacha Baron Cohen

‘Borat’ actor sports wild hair in Aaron Sorkin’s true-life legal drama

Adam White
Monday 14 September 2020 11:02 BST
Comments
Trailer for Netflix's The Trial of the Chicago 7

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

An unrecognisable Sacha Baron Cohen steals the show in the first trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7.

The legal drama, which will debut on Netflix, casts Cohen as one of seven real-life activists who were controversially arrested and put on trial after protesting against the Vietnam war in 1968.

The group, known collectively as the Chicago Seven, were charged with conspiracy by the US federal government and alleged to have crossed state lines in order to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Cohen, who sports wild hair in his role, appears alongside a starry ensemble that includes Succession’s Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Rylance and Michael Keaton.

The film has been in development for almost 15 years, with Aaron Sorkin writing the script in 2007 and Steven Spielberg attached to direct.

When Spielberg dropped out of the project, both Ben Stiller and Paul Greengrass were approached to replace him, until Sorkin himself was elected to direct the film from his own script.

Netflix bought the film from Paramount Pictures this summer, Paramount having off-loaded a number of projects to streaming services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 can be streamed on Netflix from 16 October.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in