‘J6’ is set to depict the events in a “harrowing and terrifying” feature film
The January 6 Capitol Hill riot that shook the US in 2021 is to be adapted into a Hollywood film called ‘J6’, and will retell the story from a ground-level perspective. According to entertainment-news outlet Deadline, it will be scripted and directed by Billy Ray, who worked on ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ and anti-Trump miniseries ‘The Comey Rule’, and produced by ‘Don’t Look Up’ and ‘The Big Short’ director Adam McKay.
Ray said he’d been inspired to tell the story of the police officers who responded to the riot after speaking to a number of law enforcement officials who had been on Capitol Hill during the unrest.
I know these men.
I’m going to be telling their story.
They deserve SO much better than this. https://t.co/Dn5UbmFRHg
— Billy Ray (@BillyRay5229) June 26, 2021
“The goal was to do a ground-level view of a momentous day,” Ray told Deadline. “It’s about protesters who became rioters, and cops who became defenders of democracy. Someone else can tell the story of the chaos at the White House on that day. I wanted to stay in the trenches.”
‘J6’ was originally planned as a five-episode miniseries for the US premium TV network Showtime, but Ray subsequently decided to turn the 300-page script into a 120-page feature, and it was this that captured the attention of McKay.
The director has described the script as “harrowing and terrifying,” and opined that it’s “sure to become the definitive cinematic document on that gut-wrenching day.”