Jon Hamm says 1977 hostage drama American Hostage feels politically relevant
Jon Hamm says a 1977 hostage case in Indianapolis still speaks to the present.
Speaking at The Hollywood Reporter's Studio at the 1 Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival, Hamm said his new drama American Hostage feels current despite being built on a 50-year-old true story. It "feels very relevant, given the current political climate," he told the outlet, in an interview published on 13 September, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Hamm plays Fred Heckman, a local radio news broadcaster pulled into a life-or-death crisis. A disgruntled borrower kidnaps a mortgage broker, then demands to be interviewed live on Heckman's radio news programme. The drama follows the tense three-day standoff that results.
Giovanni Ribisi, an Emmy Award nominee, co-stars as hostage-taker Tony Kiritsis, according to Amazon MGM Studios. Sony describes the project as a psychological thriller centred on Heckman being forced to keep broadcasting while lives are at risk.
The series is an eight-episode period drama set in the 1970s. It is made for MGM+ as an anthology series, meaning each season tells a standalone story, and was co-created by Shawn Ryan and Eileen Myers. The television version follows a narrative podcast of the same name that also starred Hamm and chronicled the 1977 case.
Hamm said the show carries thematic devices that resonate politically now. That includes the idea of a segment of the population feeling overlooked or under-addressed. The title was a fight. Producers pushed hard to keep American Hostage because it worked on several levels, Hamm said, including the question of whether Kiritsis was himself hostage to his idea of the American Dream.
What makes this stand out for viewers is the structure. One small radio studio becomes the centre of a city-wide crisis, with a broadcaster caught between police, a gunman and the public listening in.
