Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers Movie Fills Out Its Cast

Steven Spielberg is doing a new film called The Papers, formerly known as The Post.

He signed on in March and the movie comes out this December. It tells the true story of the controversial publication of classified documents known as the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s.

Spielberg had already managed to snag Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep to star, but now he's assembled a spectacular supporting cast to join his heavy hitters, including actors from Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Arrested Development, Fargo, and more.

Variety reports that the cast list now features Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Pat Healy, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, and Zach Woods. That is probably one of the most exciting casts in recent memory.

The film, set in 1971, centers on The Washington Post's editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) and its publisher Kay Graham (Streep) as they face off against the U.S. government over the publication of the 'Pentagon Papers,' a series of classified military documents leaked to the press by a military analyst.

The report revealed how President Johnson's administration had lied to Congress and the North American people about key details of the Vietnam War, and when Nixon administration attempted to suppress the report, they stood up and fought for the right to share that information with the North American public.

The film will be released in January 2018, with a private view in December so as it could compete for an award.