Sean Penn to direct Warner Bros. movie about a police officer at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Sean Penn appears at the Hammond Cinema Vanguard Award ceremony as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2026. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK — Sean Penn will direct a movie about a police officer who was at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021, Warner Bros. announced Tuesday.

Following his Oscar-winning performance in “One Battle After Another,” Penn will direct the as-yet untitled film from his own script. Bradley Cooper is in talks to star, though no deal has been finalized.

Representatives for Penn and Warner Bros. didn’t comment Tuesday on the movie’s protagonist but said he’s based on a real person.

When Penn attended the 2022 hearings of the House Select Committee investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol, he sat between Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, both of whom responded to the attacks.

Fanone testified that he rushed to the scene and was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault, which stopped only when he said he had children, caused him to have a heart attack. Hodges also testified about his harrowing experience.

At the hearings, Penn said he was attending as “just another citizen” to observe and see if justice would be served.

The film is described as being about “an unexpected friendship.” Production is expected to start mid-2027.

The movie’s announcement comes just days after the U.S. Justice Department said it will not challenge Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The US$111 billion deal, agreed to in February, will put the Warner Bros. film studio under the control of David Ellison, Paramount’s chief executive.

Ellison and his father, the Oracle founder Larry Ellison, have strong ties to President Donald Trump. On Sunday, Ellison attended the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House.

“One Battle After Another,” hailed as a timely political film, won best picture at the Academy Awards in March. Penn won his third Oscar for his racist military zealot Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, but skipped the ceremony to instead visit Ukraine.

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press