Spielberg to debut movie about the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers

Stephen Colbert premiered the first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s newest directorial effort The Post on The Late Show Tuesday night. Starring Tom Hanks as Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep as publisher Katharine Graham, the film tells the story of that newspaper’s efforts to publish the Pentagon Papers against intense pressure from the Nixon administration. As Colbert put it, “In 1971, a man named Daniel Ellsberg leaked a classified Defense Department report revealing that the previous three administrations had secretly expanded the war in Vietnam, then knowingly lied to the American people, which today is astonishing. Just imagine having a president that knows he's lying.” The Post will be released in theaters Dec. 22, just before the cutoff for the 2018 Oscars, which may feel compelled to reward a film that heralds journalistic fortitude in the face of a corrupt administration.