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 "Kill the Messenger," which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday,
is based on the true story of the late American journalist Gary
Webb who wrote about links between drug traffickers, Nicaraguan
rebels and the CIA.
Renner plays Webb, whose three-part series in 1996 about the CIA
arming Nicaraguan Contra rebels in the 1980s as crack cocaine
was flooding poor urban areas, caused a storm of controversy at
the time.
"There are a lot of parallels that we have as people, even
though we are very different. There is a rebellious quality to
him," Renner, a double Oscar nominee for "The Town" and "The
Hurt Locker," said about Webb.
Renner, 43, knew little about him when he first came across the
script, which is based on Webb's book "Dark Alliance" and "Kill
the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed
Journalist Gary Webb" by Nick Schou.
Webb committed suicide in 2004
"I kept researching a little bit more and realized this is a
story that I want to tell. And the more I researched it, it
became a story I had to tell," he said.
Webb's reports for California's San Jose Mercury News put him
and the newspaper on the national map, led to protests by
African Americans convinced that the CIA had fueled the crack
epidemic among black Americans and left bigger, more influential
news organizations embarrassed for not having the story.
Other newspapers picked holes in his reporting, questioned his
facts and discredited him.
"I knew the story. I remember it, him being discredited," said
director Michael Cuesta, who also directed episodes of the spy
thriller TV series "Homeland."
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"It was just devastating. I felt for him and I saw that as an
injustice."
The film follows Webb from when he stumbles upon the story when he
is contacted by the girlfriend of an accused drug dealer, to a
Nicaraguan jail to question a drug kingpin and to Los Angeles and
Washington to track down leads and sources.
Despite warnings and intimidation, Webb pursued the story although
it put tremendous strains on him, his family and everyone around
him.
Renner leads a star cast including Michael Sheen ("Frost/Nixon"),
Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas") and Andy Garcia ("Ocean's Twelve").
"Jeremy inhabits the character just by being in front of the
camera," Cuesta said. "I see him as a guy that just understands it
instinctively."
"Kill the Messenger" is the first film made by Renner's production
company, Combine, which he sees as a way of ensuring quality control
for his career.
"Nobody is trying to make these types of movies anymore," he said.
"Ultimately I think the take-away message, for me going through the
journey I have been through, is how important the First Amendment is
and the freedom of speech."
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney, Editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia
Osterman)
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