Miss Sloane

Elizabeth Sloane is a workaholic cutthroat lobbyist who has been called before a congressional hearing led by Senator Ronald Sperling to answer questions about possible violations of Senate ethics rules during her tenure at Washington D.C. lobbying firm Cole Kravitz & Waterman.

Three months and one week earlier, Sloane's firm is approached by gun manufacturing representative Bill Sanford to lead the opposition to the proposed Heaton-Harris bill that would expand background checks on gun purchases, specifically by targeting female voters. Sloane ridicules Sanford's idea and is later approached by Rodolfo Schmidt, the head of rival lobbying firm Peterson Wyatt, to instead lead the effort in support of the bill. Sloane agrees and takes most of her staff along with her, though her closest associate Jane Molloy refuses to leave.

At Peterson Wyatt, Sloane selects Esme Manucharian to conduct the majority of the firm's media appearances, and they begin to make significant progress in garnering votes for the bill. Sloane confronts Esme with knowledge of her background as having survived a school shooting. Even though Esme does not want to disclose the information, Sloane reveals Esme's secret during a live television debate. Later, Esme is held up at gunpoint while leaving her office, but her attacker is shot dead by another civilian who is legally carrying a gun. Gun rights supporters capitalize on this event, which causes the Heaton-Harris bill to lose support in the Senate. This is compounded by the news of the Senate inquiry into Sloane's lobbying practices.

Returning to the congressional hearing, Senator Sperling produces a form requesting approval of overseas travel for a Senator. It was filed by a non-profit organization but completed in Sloane's handwriting, indicating she violated Senate ethics rules with her involvement, as a lobbyist, in arranging the travel. In answer to other questions, Sloane swears under oath that she has never practiced illegal wiretapping.

In her final statement at the hearing, Sloane admits she anticipated the opposition might attack her personally if Peterson Wyatt made too much progress with the Heaton-Harris bill. She reveals that she had someone (Molloy, her former assistant) secretly working for her, and that she did use a wiretap – which recorded Senator Sperling accepting bribes from her former boss George Dupont.

Ten months later, Sloane is visited by her lawyer in prison. The bill passed, Dupont and Sperling are under investigation and he has petitioned for her early release. He asks if it was worth career suicide, she answers: better than suicide by career.

The film was written by Jonathan Perera, a lawyer and first time screenwriter. Perera was inspired after watching an interview with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.[7] In September 2015, it was announced that Jessica Chastain had been set to star in the film, with John Madden directing. Ben Browning produced, under his FilmNation Entertainment banner, and Patrick Chu executive produced, while EuropaCorp produced and financed the film, and handles worldwide distribution.[8] In January 2016, it was announced that Alison Pill,[9] Jake Lacy, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw had joined the cast.[10][11] In February 2016, Douglas Smith, Mark Strong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow, and Enis Esmer also joined,[12][13][14] and in March 2016, Meghann Fahy joined the cast of the film as well.[15] Max Richter composed the film's score.[16]

To prepare for her role, Chastain read books by Jack Abramoff and met women lobbyists in Washington, DC to get a sense of what they do.[17] Perera used his own mother as the basis of the Sloane character.[18]

Principal photography began on February 12, 2016, in Toronto.[19][20] Production in Toronto wrapped on March 30, 2016.[21] In April 2016, additional shooting took place in Washington, D.C.[22][23] Principal photography concluded on April 6, 2016.[24]

In August 2016, two images of Chastain were released.[25][26] The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 11, 2016,[27] and also screened at the Napa Valley Film Festival on November 13, 2016.[28] The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 9, 2016,[29] and was later moved up to November 25.[6]

• Miss Sloane at IMDb
• Miss Sloane at Box Office Mojo