"I remember the morning he was shot"

Okay, so his daddy plays The Pres on a pretty successful TV show. But just how did Emilio settle on the subject matter of his Robert Kennedy biopic Bobby? Well, after seeing his buddy Roger Avary base bloody siege-flick Killing Zoe in one principal location (a Parisian bank), Estevez decided to do the same. Now all he needed was a place… a story… and a script.

“In 2000, I found myself at the Ambassador Hotel and I remember calling Roger going, ‘I think I found it. I'm not sure what the story is, but I think it's going to be about the day Bobby Kennedy was shot,’” explains Estevez. “I started to do the research and started writing. I finished it about a week before 9/11.”

Estevez met Kennedy during his 1967 campaign for senate – his father Martin Sheen was helping out – and has vivid memories to build on. “I remember the morning he was shot,” he says. “I woke up my father and told him the news. The first stop we made when we moved to LA in 1969 was the Ambassador Hotel.”

Sharon Stone has this week joined a cast that is already bursting with talent such as Elijah Wood, Anthony Hopkins and old flame Demi Moore. And the story? It’ll revolve around the separate lives of everyday people either staying at or working in the Ambassador…

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