Capitol Hill Riot The Mini-Series Slated for Showtime
“The Comey Rule” executive producers Billy Ray and Shane Salerno are developing an as-yet untitled limited run series on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Ray is slated to write and direct the seres, with Salerno serving as an executive producer.
Josh McLaughlin, who has heada of Focus Films oversaw the production of “BlackKlansman,” among other noteworthy films, will also executive produce, with Showtime itself also serving as a producter.
A spokesman for Showtime confirmed for The Well News that it has ordered three scripts for a one-hour limited series on the incident.
The series will examine and explore multiple points of view of the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including the final days of the Trump administration, and culminate with the attack itself, the aftermath, and the FBI and Congressional investigations.
The deadly riot, which injured more than 140 people and killed five, occurred when former President Trump’s supporters and insurrectionists attempted to overthrow the election by breaking into the Capitol building while Congress was in the process of confirming the electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.
Lawmakers were evacuated as the rioters breached barricades. Thousands of protesters, waving “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and shouting “stop the steal,” flooded Capitol Hill and paraded through National Statuary Hall, creating a tense standoff with law enforcement that dissolved into violence.
Tear gas was deployed in the Rotunda and shots were fired. Video from the scene showed the demonstrators smashing windows and climbing into the building. Police inside the House chamber were seen with their guns drawn as people forced their way inside.
As lawmakers, Capitol staff and reporters hid behind locked doors, several of the riots knocked on doors and said “all clear” in an attempt to draw the hidden into the melie.
Ray and Salerno’s “The Comey Rule” aired over two nights last September on Showtime. The limited series was based on former FBI director James Comey’s memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” which was released in April 2018 by Flatiron Books.
It got its title from Trump’s reported desire for Comey to give him a loyalty pledge. Comey was first appointed FBI director by former President Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump less than a year into his presidency.
The series starred Jeff Daniels as Comey and Brendan Gleeson as Trump, along with Holly Hunter as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Michael Kelly as former FBI director Andrew McCabe, Scoot McNairy as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Peter Coyote as Robert Mueller and Kingsley Ben-Adir as former President Barack Obama.
