Sean Penn will write and direct a movie tied to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, with Bradley Cooper eyeing lead role
Sean Penn will write and direct a movie tied to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, with Bradley Cooper eyeing lead role
Wesley StenzelTue, June 16, 2026 at 10:50 PM UTC
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Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper in Beverly Hills in 2018Credit: Jerod Harris/GettyKey points -
Sean Penn is writing and directing a new movie based on a real "unexpected story about friendship."
Bradley Cooper is in talks to play the lead role in the film.
The real-life figure at the center of the story was present for the Jan. 6 riots, but the Capitol insurrection reportedly won't be the film's primary focus.
Sean Penn is getting back into the director's chair.
The Milk star, who recently won his third Oscar for his supporting turn in Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, has written a screenplay for a film that he will direct. The project is described as "an unexpected story about friendship."
Bradley Cooper is in talks to star in the film. Cooper and Penn previously costarred in Anderson's 2021 comedy Licorice Pizza, though they did not share any scenes in the film.
Bradley Cooper in 'Licorice Pizza'; Sean Penn and Alana Haim in 'Licorice Pizza'Credit: MGM/Courtesy Everett; Melinda Sue Gordon/MGM/Courtesy Everett
John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth are producing the project alongside Penn under the trio's Projected Picture Works banner. Founded in 2021, Projected Picture Works previously produced Penn's 2023 documentary Superpower, his 2024 drama Daddio, and the 2024 historical thriller September 5.
Warner Bros. is in talks to acquire the film, which is aiming to enter production in mid-2027 after Cooper completes his duties directing, writing, and starring in the Ocean's Eleven prequel that also stars Margot Robbie.
Upon breaking the news of the project's existence, Deadline described Penn's film as revolving around "the early life of a cop who goes on to be caught up in the January 6th Capitol riots."
Entertainment Weekly has learned that the film is not primarily about the events of Jan. 6 and that the story centers on the central figure's early life.
EW has reached out to representatives for Penn and Cooper for clarification on the film's subject matter.
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Penn was previously seen attending a House Select Committee hearing about the attacks in 2022, per Esquire. He was seated in between D.C. Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, who both responded to the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Deadline reported that Penn's film has "buy-in" from the real figure whom it depicts, but that the man's identity is being kept under wraps. The outlet speculated that Fanone, who is six years younger than Cooper, could be the film's subject.
Fanone suffered a heart attack, burns, a traumatic brain injury, and a concussion as a result of injuries he sustained responding to the attacks. He retired from the D.C. Metropolitan Police at the end of 2021. He published the book Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul in 2022, and Joe Biden granted him the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2023.
Sean Penn in Lyon, France, in 2025Credit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty
Penn and Cooper's paths first crossed in 1999, when the Fast Times at Ridgemont High star participated in a Q&A with students at New York's Actors Studio Drama School for Inside the Actors Studio. During the event, Cooper, a second-year acting student, asked Penn a question about returning to his character in the 1998 film Hurlyburly after previously portraying the character in the play on which the film was based.
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"I really did wanna know, because I thought it was interesting: He had just made this movie, and I was just working on the scene that he had done the play of years ago," Cooper recalled in 2015 on The Howard Stern Show. "So I wanted to ask him, but everything inside me said, 'Just shut up and don't ask him anything.'"
Penn made his directorial debut with 1991's The Indian Runner. He went on to direct the Jack Nicholson dramas The Crossing Guard and The Pledge as well as 2007's Into the Wild, which was nominated for two Oscars. Penn later directed 2015's The Last Face and 2021's Flag Day.
on Entertainment Weekly
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