Steven Spielberg still excited about ‘Chicago 7’ film possibility

A movie based on the “Chicago 7” trial has been on Steven Spielberg’s to-do list for at least eight years, and the Oscar winner says he still hopes to get it made.

While Spielberg told me Sunday in Manhattan that the project “is not on my calendar” right now, “it is always a possibility to do someday, because the Aaron Sorkin script [for the film] is really wonderful. We’re kind of hanging on to it. We do want to make it someday. I may produce it but not direct it, but we still have it inside our company.”

Spielberg’s interest in the trial, that resulted from the protests and violence that occurred during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, remains quite intense.

“It was quite an amazing time in our history,” said Spielberg, whose next film “Bridge of Spies” comes out Oct. 16. “It really was about the last time we almost could have had a revolution in this country.”

As a side note, I told Spielberg about a very special original drawing I have in my Sun-Times office: a sketch from the trial created by longtime Chicago courtroom artist Verna Sadock. “Please send a copy of that to me,” said the three-time Oscar winner. “I’d really like to see that.”

Today a photo of the drawing made its way to Team Spielberg. Let’s hope he does put that film about the “Chicago 7” back on his filmmaking schedule soon.