Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Billy Ray.

Paul Walter Hauser stars as Jewell,[10] supported by Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Wilde.

However, several journalists criticized the film's portrayal of the reporter who first accused Jewell, Kathy Scruggs, specifically its depiction of her trading sex for stories.

[13] In 1986 in Atlanta, Georgia, Richard Jewell is working as an office supply clerk at the Small Business Administration, where he builds a rapport with attorney Watson Bryant before leaving to pursue a law enforcement career.

Early in the morning on July 27, 1996, after chasing off some drunken teens during a Jack Mack and the Heart Attack concert, Jewell notices a stray backpack beneath a bench.

The security team is still working to move concert attendees away from the bomb when it detonates, and, though there are many injuries and one fatality, Jewell is heralded as a hero, as his vigilance is believed to have saved many lives.

Shaw is approached by journalist Kathy Scruggs of The Atlanta Journal, and, in exchange for the promise of sexual favors, he reveals Jewell is a suspect in the bombing.

Though initially cooperative, he becomes suspicious when asked to sign an acknowledgement that he has been read his Miranda rights and phones Bryant, who he had just contacted to handle a proposed book deal.

After a disastrous The Today Show interview, and still not completely convinced of Jewell's innocence, Bryant and his secretary, Nadya, time how long it takes to travel the distance between the phone booth used to make a bomb threat shortly before the explosion and Centennial Park.

The FBI searches Jewell's home and seizes property, including his mother's Tupperware, his true crime books, and a cache of firearms.

Scruggs, though initially brash and confident in her reporting, is troubled to learn the FBI have begun to look for someone who may have called in the bomb threat for Jewell, since having an accomplice would not fit the "lone bomber" profile.

In April 2003, Jewell, now a police officer in Luthersville, Georgia, is visited by Bryant, who tells him that Eric Rudolph has been captured and confessed to the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.

[32][33][34][35] In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Jumanji: The Next Level and Black Christmas, and was initially projected to gross around $10 million from 2,502 theaters over its opening weekend.

[50][51] Olivia Wilde, who plays Scruggs in the film, defended her role and stated there was a sexist double standard, in that Jon Hamm's portrayal of the FBI agent was not held to the same scrutiny.