The upcoming film “September 5” promises to explore one of the most pivotal moments in media history through a unique lens: the American broadcasting team that found themselves at the intersection of sports coverage and breaking news during the tragic events of the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Rising star John Magaro (“Past Lives”) leads the cast as Geoff, an ambitious young producer who must navigate the uncharted waters of live crisis coverage when the sporting event he’s covering becomes the center of a terrorist attack. Peter Sarsgaard (“Memory”) brings his considerable talent to the role of legendary TV executive Roone Arledge, while German sensation Leonie Benesch (“The Crown”) joins as Marianne, a German interpreter crucial to the unfolding coverage. Veteran actor Ben Chaplin (“The Father”) rounds out the main cast as Marvin Bader, the experienced mentor guiding Geoff through the crisis.
While the Munich Olympics hostage crisis has been depicted in various films before (most notably in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich”), “September 5” takes a fresh approach by focusing on the media perspective. The film examines how this event fundamentally transformed live news coverage, setting precedents that continue to influence modern broadcasting. With an estimated one billion viewers watching globally at the time, the pressure on these accidental chroniclers of history was unprecedented.