Kevin Bacon to play FBI agent in Boston bombings film

Actor Kevin Bacon. Photo / Getty Images

Kevin Bacon will play an FBI agent in Mark Wahlberg's upcoming movie about the Boston Marathon bombings.

The US actor will portray FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers in Patriots Day, which will chronicle the events surrounding the tragic April, 2013 attacks - which cost three people their lives and left 264 others injured.

"Richard DesLauriers worked tirelessly as one of the key figures in an impossibly sophisticated investigation and Kevin Bacon possesses the intelligence and empathy to portray him," director Peter Berg said in a statement announcing the casting.

The film, based on the account of Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, will also feature John Goodman, JK Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, and Wahlberg, who will play Boston Police Sergeant Tommy Saunders.

Saunders was another officer central to the investigation and subsequent manhunt for brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Patriots Day, which reunites Wahlberg with his Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon director, Berg, is currently filming in Boston, Massachusetts, ahead of a planned December release.

Bacon's addition to the cast marks his latest turn as an FBI official after recently picking up the badge for Johnny Depp's crime drama Black Mass, another Boston-based movie, in which Depp played notorious gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger.

The actor also played a former FBI agent on cult TV series The Following.

Patriots Day is one of three movies in development about the Boston bombings. Jake Gyllenhaal is also working on Stronger, detailing the story of survivor Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the explosions.

Casey Affleck has been linked to the lead in Fox production Boston Strong.

- WENN