The Profile of ‘Post’ Screenwriter Liz Hannah Hints at What Film is About

Meet the ambitious Liz Hannah, Pratt and AFI graduate who has some great ideas about screenplays. You can find a profile of her in Vulture. Since what the upcoming Steven Spielberg’s film The Post is about is being kept under wraps (we know it’s about the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers but that’s it) here is the part about the screenplay:

As for the idea for The Post, “I read Graham’s memoir, Personal History, and I absolutely fell in love with her,” Hannah says. Given that Graham had enough drama in her life to make “10,000 movies,” the problem was how to write something more than a broad biopic. By using the Pentagon Papers as a turning point, Hannah could zoom in on Graham’s struggle to find her voice — at age 54 — “and to become the person she was really going to be for the rest of her life.”

During Pascal’s initial phone call, she told Hannah, “This is an important movie. We have to make this.” Both women believed Clinton would win and that Graham’s story would celebrate a powerful woman’s role in history. Pascal’s father had worked at the RAND Corporation, which created the report that Daniel Ellsberg leaked to the press, and her husband is Bernard Weinraub, a former New York Times journalist, so she had further connections to the story. When Trump won, Pascal says, “this movie took on a different urgency. It became even more relevant” — a reminder of the important role of the free press.

Hannah collaborated with Spotlight writer Josh Singer for the final script. She’s currently writing and also plans to direct. Looking forward to the film and her future endeavors.