Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Pat Healy, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford and Zach Woods have joined the cast for The Papers, the Steven Spielberg-directed movie about the Washington Post’s role in exposing the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and how the Post’s editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Kay Graham joined the New York Times in challenging the federal government over their right to publish them.

Production kicked off last week in New York on the fast track after Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep came aboard to play Bradlee and Kay Graham, and then Spielberg joined to direct Liz Hannah and Josh Singer’s script. – Deadline

It seems like Steven Spielberg has heard all of this ‘peak TV’ talk and decided to take ALL of the TV actors and put them in his movie about the Pentagon Papers. Per the history dot com website, the Pentagon Papers was the name given to a secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, prepared at the request of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. People weren’t so hot on the Vietnam War in the 70s, especially investigative journalists, and they had a severe distrust for the people in charge of our government. My, how the times have changed.

Back to this cast – it started with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, which is like putting together a basketball team and starting with Michael Jordan and Lebron James. The rest of the cast features stars from some of the best TV shows of the modern era.

Alison Brie – Community, Mad Men & the upcoming Netflix show GLOW

Carrie Coon – The Leftovers, Fargo

David Cross – Arrested Development

Bruce Greenwood – American Crime Story: OJ plus solid supporting roles in a ton of movies

Tracy Letts – Divorce, Homeland

Bob Odenkirk – HIMYM, Fargo, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul

Sarah Paulson – American Crime Story: OJ, American Horror Story

Jesse Plemons – Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Fargo

Matthew Rhys – The Americans

Michael Stuhlbarg – Boardwalk Empire, Fargo

Bradley Whitford – The West Wing and a haunting role as Dean Armitage in Get out (also Eric from Happy Gilmore)

Zach Woods – The Office, Silicon Valley, The League

That is a murderers row of performers. I know Spielberg movies are long, but I don’t know how he’s going to fit this entire cast into roles. I can’t wait to see how he does it.

-Ryan