Kathy Bates joins Clint Eastwood's The Ballad of Richard Jewell

Kathy Bates has joined the cast of Clint Eastwood's upcoming drama The Ballad of Richard Jewell.

According to editors at Deadline, the Misery actress has been cast in the role of insurance claims adjuster Bobi Jewell, the mother of Richard Jewell, a security guard who was wrongly accused of planting the bombs he found in a bag during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her casting comes days after it was revealed Vice actor Sam Rockwell would be playing the lawyer who defended Jewell in court, and Paul Walter Hauser, who recently had roles in I, Tonya and BlacKkKlansman, would be portraying Jewell.

In 1996, Jewell was hailed a hero for being the first to discover the suspicious abandoned backpack containing three pipe bombs and alerting the authorities, saving hundreds of lives. That soon changed when he was accused of planting it in the first place. He maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal and was finally cleared by FBI investigators after 88 days, but his reputation and health were forever damaged. Jewell, who became a police officer, died in 2007 at the age of 44 after suffering from severe heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes.

The project will be directed and produced by Eastwood, while other producers include The Wolf of Wall Street co-stars Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio, who had both originally been attached to appear in the drama.

Billy Ray, who penned the screenplays for Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games, will write the script based on a Vanity Fair magazine article by Marie Brenner.

In addition to Eastwood's film, Bates, who was most recently seen in Bonnie and Clyde drama The Highwaymen, has also been cast alongside Lil Rel Howery in Home, a drama about an ex-felon who returns home from prison and has to confront his past.