Clint Eastwood is busy putting all the pieces together for his J. Edgar Hoover biopic, which will star Leo Dicaprio in the lead role. First up it appears the title has changed from Hoover to J. Edgar. There’s no news on why the name has been altered, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it was because some idiot was afraid people would think it was about vacuum cleaners.
There’s also some casting news, with EW reporting that The Social Network’s Armie Hammer is in talks for the movie. He’ll play Clyde Tolson, a lawyer-turned-FBI-official who became one of Hoover’s closest friends and advisers, and some say his lover. It was Tolson, after all, who inherited Hoover’s estate and accepted the US flag draped over Hoover’s coffin. Hoover described Tolson as his alter-ego.
So are we gonna see Hammer and Dicaprio getting hot and steamy as Hoover sets up the FBI, fights organised crime and then gets involved in some very shady practices? Possibly, but it’s now known yet how the film will deal with allegations of Hoover’s homosexuality (which some suggest were political anyway, in retaliation for how Hoover kept people in Washington, including suspected gays, under his thumb due to secret files he kept on people).
Vulture suggests another name in the mix is Charlize Theron, who’s been offered the part of Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk Hoover selected as his personal secretary at the age of 21, and who wound up working for him for over 54 years.
Eastwood will direct from a script by Dustin Lance Black. Shooting will begin early next year.