Reclaiming Parkland

An eye-opening exposé of the CIA, Hollywood, and Tom Hanks’s failed HBO series about JFK’s assassination. In 2007, Academy Award–winning actor Tom Hanks purchased the film rights to Vincent Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History. His plan was to adapt the mammoth book about John F. Kennedy’s assassination into a miniseries for HBO. Despite the best efforts of Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman, the adaptation fizzled and stalled. In the aftermath, James DiEugenio’s details their failed attempts, exposing the myriad problems with Bugliosi’s book and the role the mainstream press played in concealing its failings. The media’s lack of scrutiny, in turn, led Hanks and Goetzman’s Playtone production company to option the book. In a bravado work of investigative journalism, DiEugenio reveals the longstanding connections between Washington, DC, and Hollywood. Named in part for the movie Hanks made instead, Reclaiming Parkland sheds light on the Kennedy assassination, Hollywood, and the government’s continuing power over American media today.