Coming To A Theater Near You: The Richard Jewell Story

ATLANTA: Five months ago, the only contact Richard Jewell had with movies was watching old John Wayne films on TV as he sat barricaded inside his apartment, a virtual prisoner of the reporters outside. Not any more. Jewell, initially suspected as the culprit in the July Olympic Park bombing, is going Hollywood. Peeved at reports that depicted him during the three month-media frenzy as a mama's boy misfit and "Unabubba" loner, the 33-year-old former security guard and deputy sheriff is more than ready to set the record straight. Negotiations are currently underway with Fox 2000, as well as what his attorneys describe as other "media entities" for a biopic, Jewell attorneys Wayne Grant and Lin Wood told TIME Online. While Daily Variety reported Monday that Fox 2000 has edged out competitors HBO and TriStar because of its willingness to pay more money up front, Wood contended that the financial side of the deal is "secondary." "The main consideration that Richard Jewell has had in mind is try to have the movie told by a reputable company, that, hopefully, will tell the story accurately." Wood also dismissed Daily Variety's report that the deal hovers in the mid-six-figure range, saying that figures are "significantly lower." Meanwhile, the soft-spoken Georgian, who lost his job as an AT&T security guard after being named as an FBI suspect, is hopeful that someone eventually will hire him again for law enforcement work. But even lawyer Wayne Grant concedes: "whether that's realistic in the light of his notoriety is doubtful."