Sacha Baron Cohen is in negotiations to lead the cast of political drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. According to The Hollywood Reporter, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has boarded the project as director. The feature will narrate the story of the 1969 trial in which anti-war activists such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden were accused of conspiracy and incitement to riot by the US government due to the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

If the deal goes through, Cohen, 47, will play Hoffman, the anarchic co-founder of the Youth International Party, who came to be known as Yippies. Sorkin has penned the screenplay. Earlier, veteran director Steven Spielberg was planning to helm but a writers' strike forced him to delay the film.