Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito announced that her book about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump is in production as a movie, saying it will release “next year” on The Sean Spicer Show Wednesday.
Zito’s new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland, was released last week. Trump praised it as a “powerful” eyewitness account of the historic moment in Butler, Pennsylvania. During her press tour promoting the book, Zito said her book is getting the film treatment.
“There was a production company, it’s called Pense, and they just asked to see an early copy of the book. They were interested, they thought ‘this was a really pivotal moment in history,’ then they read the book and went, like, crazy for it, and they optioned it as a movie!” Zito said on the show.
Zito said she doesn’t know who will star in this film yet, but joked that “everyone tells me” Marisa Tomei ought to be the lead actress. The actress’s most recent major role was playing Aunt May in the Spider-Man movies.
Scott Sander, the owner and co-founder of Pense Productions, told the Times of London he admired Zito’s work as a journalist and expressed an interest in adapting her life into a movie.
“She’s the living embodiment of the type of journalist that is desperately needed and swiftly dying. She’s very adept about interacting with people and finding the truth about the story,” Sander said.
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Zito said last week, Trump called her the day after the shooting to see if she and her relatives attending the rally were OK. During the seven calls they shared that day, she asked why Trump chanted, “fight, fight, fight,” after getting up from the stage.
He responded, “I wasn’t Donald Trump in that moment. I was representing the presidency.”
Trump reflected on almost losing his life with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Saturday, saying it’s “very dangerous” serving as president. He also said law enforcement at the rally “had a bad day,” saying “mistakes” were made that “shouldn’t have happened.”