Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Kyle Chandler is the latest name to join the ensemble of the untitled Kathryn Bigelow-directed drama about the Navy SEAL Team 6′s long hunt for Osama bin Laden. That hunt culminated with the fatal shooting last year of the Al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I’ve heard that Chandler will be playing a CIA agent, but nobody has confirmed any of the cast Deadline has revealed on the film, so you’ll have to take my word for it. The Mark Boal-scripted drama for Sony Pictures and Annapurna Pictures stars Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez. The picture is moving forward even as the Pentagon announced it is investigating charges made by Rep. Peter King that Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker tandem Bigelow and Boal somehow got inside information about the mission from the Obama administration in preparing the script. Sony Pictures has dated the film for release on December 19, deliberately steering clear of the presidential elections.

Chandler most recently starred in the JJ Abrams-directed Super 8, and wrapped the Mark Wahlberg-Russell Crowe drama Broken City and the Ben Affleck-directed Argo. He has been offered a ton of series but hasn’t made a move to return to the small screen since wrapping Friday Night Lights, which Peter Berg hopes to turn into a feature film. Chandler’s reticence is understandable; that series is almost an impossible act to follow, and he won the Best Actor Drama Emmy for it this year. Chandler is repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.