Award-Winning Writer/Director Stephen Gyllenhaal To Pen And Direct THE KENNEDY DETAIL

As the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy approaches next year, award-winning director Stephen Gyllenhaal has signed on to the feature film The Kennedy Detail as Screenwriter and Director.  The motion picture focuses on the men of the Secret Service protective detail assigned to President John F. Kennedy. The project is targeted for a November, 2013 release, coinciding with the tragic anniversary.

“This is the project of a lifetime and I could not be more excited to be part of it,” said Gyllenhaal. “Everyone knows how this story ends, but the true stories told through the eyes of this extraordinary band of brothers, from JFK’s election to that awful day in Dallas, have never been told.  It is time to share their perspective with the world.”

Gyllenhaal has begun work on the script with his research including interviews with many of the surviving members of President Kennedy’s protective detail and their family members.  The film will be based on the New York Times best-selling book The Kennedy Detail by former agent Gerald Blaine and award-winning journalist Lisa McCubbin, with a foreword by former agent Clint Hill. Hill has signed as a special advisor to the project, and McCubbin and Hill will be associate producers.

“The plan is to go into production in late January, 2013,” according to producer Ken Atchity.

Gyllenhaal received a Director’s Guild of America (DGA) Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Specials for his work on Paris Trout.  In addition, his credits include Waterland, A Dangerous Woman, Losing Isaiah, and Homegrown. In 2012, he was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television by the DGA for Girl Fight.  Among his many television movie and mini-series credits are Living with the Dead, Time Bomb, and A Killing in a Small Town, for which he received an Emmy nomination for directing, and the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Family of Spies.  He has directed several episodes of prominent television series including The Mentalist, Numb3rs, Blue Bloods, Twin Peaks, and Homicide: Life on the Street.

Gyllenhaal has just released his recent feature film, Grassroots, which he wrote and directed, and is in post-production on a documentary about dream interpretation titled Exquisite Content.  He serves as Chair of the DGA’s Independent Director’s Committee. He’s repped by the Gersh Agency and Untitled Entertainment.

The Kennedy Detail is being produced by Atchity Entertainment International (AEI) of Los Angeles, Atchity and Chi-Li Wong producers, and Ramos & Sparks Group of Tallahassee, Florida, with Richard Ramos and Robert Sparks producers.  The option on the book was announced on April 13, 2012.