For those unfamiliar with the story, a film entitled Chappaquiddick might seem charmingly Harry Potter-esque. Well, it’s not: Chappaquiddick deals with a dark 1960s political scandal, and it’s just recruited two new cast members in the form of Kate Mara and Ed Helms.
The Chappaquiddick of the title refers to Chappaquiddick Island, a small island near Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, which played host to a national political scandal in 1969 when senator Ted Kennedy (brother of John F.) accidentally drove his car off a bridge, leaving his assistant, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown.
Kennedy did not report the accident until the next morning, and later received a two-month suspended jail sentence; the scandal was thought to have influenced Kennedy’s decision not to run for President.
Jason Clarke is already on board to play Kennedy in the indie film. Mara will play Kopechne, while Helms (in a rare non-comedic role) will play Kennedy’s cousin Joe Gargan, who pressured Kennedy to call the police.
The scandal still stings the high-profile Kennedy dynasty: there were reports that the most famous of political families had attempted to quash the film. Those who have read the script claim it refuses to pull punches with the story. Ted Kennedy, incidentally, died in 2009.
John Curran, who directed 2013’s well-recieved Australian drama Tracks, is in the director’s chair for this one.