Rosemarie DeWitt is in negotiations to play the female lead in Kill the Messenger, alongside Jeremy Renner.

The project is based on the true story of Gary Webb, a San Jose Mercury News reporter who helped expose the CIA's involvement in a drug smuggling operation with Nicarauguan rebels in the 1980s. In an effort to discredit the writer, the agency launched a smear campaign before the journalist took his own life. No details were given for Rosemarie DeWitt's character. We reported earlier this week that Paz Vega is playing the girlfriend of a drug dealer, who seeks Gary's help in getting him out of jail.

Michael Cuesta is directing from a screenplay by Peter Landesman, which is adapted from Gary Webb's book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and Nick Schou's Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb. Shooting is scheduled to begin in August, with rehearsals starting next month.

Rosemarie DeWitt most recently starred in The Watch, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Promised Land, and the upcoming Touchy Feely.