Writer/Director James Vanderbilt on Turning Recent History Into Truth

In Truth, opening Friday, writer and first time director James Vanderbilt, who wrote, among other scripts, the screenplay for Zodiac, has taken a tough, hard, look at the behind-the-scenes story of the CBS 60 Minutes II news staff that reported on President George W. Bush’s late 60’s and early 70’s National Guard duty in the run up to his re-election in 2004. It’s a compelling procedural which dramatizes the personal and professional costs of news reporting in the already fast paced TV news cycle at the historical moment when Internet blogging entered the political and cultural arena.

New Truth Trailer Recalls the Scandal That Rocked Washington

“Why did you get into journalism?” young reporter Mike Smith (Topher Grace) asks Dan Rather (Robert Redford). “Curiosity” he replies, the trait that would serve him well on a remarkable career that would end, abruptly, in disgrace.

Truth is based on the book “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power” by his producer Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett). It delves into the drama surrounding CBS’s handling of a incendiary investigative report in 2004 detailing George W.