CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There is a new film in the works about Reality Winner, the Kingsville native who was sent to prison for leaking a classified document about Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to a report by Deadline.
Sydney Sweeney, who has major roles in HBO's 'Euphoria' and 'White Lotus', will reportedly portray Winner on the big screen.
The film, directed by Tina Satter, will be based on Satter's Broadway play about the FBI interrogation of Winner called 'Is This A Room', according to the Deadline report.
The former Air Force translator worked as a contractor at a National Security Agency office in Augusta, Georgia, when she printed a classified report and left the building with it tucked into her pantyhose, an report by the Associated Press said. Winner told the FBI she mailed the document to an online news outlet.
She was arrested in 2017 and convicted in 2018 of a single count of transmitting national security information. She was sentenced to five years in prison under the Espionage Act, the longest sentence ever imposed for a whistleblower.
Winner was released from prison in June 2021 but is still on probation.
Her release was hailed as a cause for celebration after advocates had spent years fighting for her release or a pardon. Her lawyer, Alison Grinter Allen, said in a statement when she was released that Winner and her family are working to “heal the trauma of incarceration and build back the years lost.”
There is no word on when the film will start production or when it may be released.
