EXCLUSIVE: Armie Hammer has quietly left the star-studded cast of Gaslit, the Sam Esmail-produced Watergate series for UCP, which also stars Julia Roberts, Sean Penn and Joel Edgerton. According to sources, Hammer departed the project several weeks ago, before the current controversy over alleged disturbing private social media messages attributed to the actor, which led to his abrupt exit from the Lionsgate Jennifer Lopez movie Shotgun Wedding, announced earlier today. Hammer today denied the allegations, calling them “bullsh*t claims.”
I hear Hammer left Gaslit, to which he got attached in February, before the pandemic, due to a scheduling conflict with another series, The Offer. His role in Gaslit is being recast.
Deadline reported on Dec. 1 that Hammer had signed on to star as The Godfather producer Al Ruddy in the limited event series The Offer, a marque title on the inaugural original content slate of Paramount+, the scaled-up ViacomCBS streaming service which will succeed CBS All Access this year. The Offer is based on the Oscar-winning producer Ruddy’s never before revealed experiences of making the iconic 1972 Francis Coppola film. The series’ producer Paramount TV Studios has not responded to inquiries whether Hammer is still headlining the project.
Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal, from Nixon’s bumbling, opportunistic subordinates, to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes, to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down.
Hammer was to play John Dean, the young White House Counsel torn between his ambition and his struggle with whether he can lie to protect the President.