IN LATE FEBRUARY this year, newbie
screenwriter Liz Hannah received a life-changing
phone call. Her first-ever movie screenplay The
Post, written simply to secure an agent but
snapped up by producer Amy Pascal, was now
being circled by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks
and Meryl Streep. “I just went into a corner and
hid for a while,” she laughs. “I then realised it
wasn’t a big prank. They were actually
considering it.”
And they went for it, too. Directed by
Spielberg, The Post charts the relationship
between Washington Post publisher Katharine
Graham (Streep) and executive editor Ben
Bradlee (Hanks), filtered through the pair’s
history-changing decision in 1971 to publish
the Pentagon Papers, the leaked government
documents that exposed the escalating deaths
of US soldiers during the Vietnam War.
However, Spielberg wanted the film out by the
end of 2017, so Hannah was partnered with Josh
Singer, Oscar-winner for the journalistic-themed
Spotlight, to meet the deadline.
“We were doing this under a pretty big time
crunch,” says Singer. “I think I wrote more in
a shorter span of time than I have ever written
before. It’s daunting. You start with Steven,
whom you want to please. And then you have
all the acting talent. It’s a complicated state of
terror, but it’s also joyous.” Spielberg kept the
pair around during production, allowing both
Hannah and Singer to witness the acting legends
deliver their dialogue. “Not to be hyperbolic but
it is pretty magical to watch the two of them,”
says Hannah.
Though she wrote the screenplay before
the US Presidential Election, Hannah welcomes
the whole new aura of topicality that’s
surrounded the film since the ascension of
Donald Trump. “There is a necessity to asking
questions,” she says. “There is a necessity to
challenge authority. There is a necessity to not let
everything just go. There is something important
in being in the room that the public cannot be in.We try and portray that.”
If The Post plugs into the zeitgeist, it also
arrives in time for the 2018 Oscar Race. Given
the talent, real-life subject matter and relevance,
it became an Awards season frontrunner without
anyone seeing a frame. “You’ve got to take all
that with a grain of salt,” says Singer. “I only
hope our writing is up to the direction and the
acting.” Still, Spielberg, Hanks and Streep have
41 Oscar nominations between them. The smart
money is on The Post.THE POST IS IN CINEMAS FROM 11 JANUARYSteven Spielberg, Meryl Streep
and Tom Hanks form a dream team
for true-life dramaThe Post
WORDS IAN FREER
Washington Post
executive editor Ben
Bradlee (Tom Hanks)
with his editorial team.
Below: Publisher
Katharine Graham
(Meryl Streep).