Aaron Sorkin Felt Scared About Directing 'The Trial Of The Chicago 7'

Screenwriter-turned-director Aaron Sorkin revealed that it was really scary for him to direct his upcoming movie “The Trial Of The Chicago 7” due to the caliber of the cast.

Talking via a video link in the Conversations section of the Basque Festival’s industry program, the 59-year-old playwright opened up about his second feature film as a director and noted that he has never helmed a movie that featured 11 major characters as well as “riots and teargas scenes,” Variety reported.

He also admitted that just writing the words for the screenplay made him “dizzy.”

“It was scary directing ‘Chicago 7.’ I only have one movie under my belt, ‘Molly’s Game,’ which had three principal characters. This film has 11 stars, most of whom are leads in their own movies and it has riots and teargas scenes. That’s not part of the puppy crate. Just writing the words exterior scene on a screenplay makes me dizzy,” Variety quoted Sorkin, as saying.

The film features Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and John Carroll Lynch in pivotal roles.

“The Trial Of The Chicago 7” tells the story of the infamous 1969 trial of seven men who were charged by the government with conspiracy and inciting a riot. All seven men were charged because of the counterculture protests in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Talking further about the project, the Academy Award-winning writer confessed that he did not know about the incident and just said “yes” because he was approached for the project by none other than Steven Spielberg.

“When I left his house, I called my father because I didn't know about the events Steven was referring to. I said yes because it was Steven and he said there was a trial, so I thought courtroom, and that was enough,” Sorkin said during the discussion.

Before “The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Sorkin directed the critically-acclaimed film “Molly’s Game” in 2017. The film had Jessica Chastain in the lead role and also featured Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, and Michael Cera in pivotal roles.

Sorkin is considered to be one of the greatest screenwriters in Hollywood right now. He started his professional career as a writer in 1992 with the movie “A Few Good Men.” Sorkin was nominated for a Golden Globe and was praised for writing an engaging screenplay at the time.

Since then, he has penned various projects like “The American President” (1993), “The West Wing” (1999-2006), “The Social Network” (2010), “Moneyball” (2011), and “The Newsroom” (2012-2014).

Sorkin has been nominated for three Oscars and emerged victorious in 2011 for writing David Fincher’s “The Social Network.”

"The Trial of the Chicago 7" is arriving on Netflix on Oct. 16.