CATE BLANCHETT, Robert Redford and director James Vanderbilt have hit Sydney for the start of production on the “Rathergate” biopic “Truth,” which is scheduled for an eight-week shoot there over the Australian spring.

    The film is expected to spend more than US$9.6 million in direct production expenditure in the state.

    In “Truth,” based on Mary Mapes’ memoir, “Truth and Duty,” Redford plays veteran CBS newsman Dan Rather while Blanchett plays Mapes, his producer. The film centers on the firestorm that erupted in September of 2004 after Rather reported that George W. Bush had received special treatment while serving in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

    It marks the directorial debut of Vanderbilt.(SD-Agencies)