Film - Patriots Day

Oscar winner J K Simmons joins the cast of Patriots Day...

CBS Films and Lionsgate have announced that Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Zootopia) will join Academy Award-nominee Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, Lone Survivor) in Patriots Day.

Patriots Day chronicles the events surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Simmons will play Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese of the Watertown Police Department who distinguished himself in combat with Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Wahlberg will play a composite Boston Police Department officer who is central to the investigation and manhunt.

"Beyond his considerable talents, J.K. Simmons is a person who respects the solemn trust that these real life heroes are putting in our hands," commented Berg, who continued. "This is an actor who will represent the role in the best way possible."

Simmons won his Oscar last year for Whiplash, and has since been on a roll with new projects, with his name currently attached to 10 different projects. These include The Accountant with Ben Affleck, Bastards with Owen Wilson and Ed Helms and The Snowman with Michael Fassbender. He will also reunite with Whiplash writer-director Damien Chazelle for his next film, La La Land. 

Written by Oscar-nominated Bridge Of Spies co-scribe Matt Charman, Patriots Day will be directed by Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon, Lone Survivor) and produced by Scott Stuber, Mark Wahlberg, Hutch Parker, Dylan Clark, Stephen Levinson and Michael Radutzky. Radutzky is the 60 Minutes senior producer who leads the broadcast’s creative development unit, 60 Minutes Productions. The movie will benefit from the research done for the memorable segment that the newsmagazine generated right after the bombing.

Patriots Day starts filming in Boston next month.

Image - CBS Films