Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) have signed on to the John F. Kennedy assassination themed feature film Parkland, from writer/director Peter Landesman, with Tom Hanks set to produce.
The film will be based on Vincent Bugliosi’s book, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which is follows the dramatic true story of the chaotic events that occurred at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Parkland was where JFK was taken after he was shot. Doctors worked feverishly to save him, although it was pretty much a foregone conclusion the wounds were fatal (it was also where Lee Harvey Oswald and his assassin, Jack Ruby, died).
It hasn’t been revealed exactly who the three actors will play. The movie will shoot in Austin, Texas with for release around the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting in November 2013. (Source: Variety)
The real Parkland Hospital has gone down the tubes recently. In fact, it may be the worst hospital in the history of the U.S.
They’ve been sued multiple times by the US government for Medicare fraud, fined a million dollars by state health care agencies for repeated patient safety violations, and kicked out of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. They’ve had to fire all their top senior leadership and replace almost their entire board.
You can read more about the horrors of Parkland and UT Southwestern on “The Parkland House of Horrors” at http://theparklandhouseofhorrors.blogspot.com .