Well, this should be interesting. THR is reporting that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Amazon Studios will be teaming up to tackle a movie, titled K Troop, about the surge in power that the Klu Klux Klan achieved following the Civil War, set to be produced under Gordon-Levitt’s hitRECord Films division.
The film will follow the United States Army’s elite K Troop that made a mission out of shutting down chapters of the group across the country, eventually stomping it out in 1871 before it reformed in the early 1900s, and yet again in the turbulent period of the 1950s and 1960s. Gordon-Levitt plans to star as the leader of the troop, Major Lewis Merrill.
Here’s a brief description of the real-life Merrill:
An enigmatic man and brilliant military strategist, Merrill built an sprawling network of informants, including a number of local African-Americans, who risked their lives to piece together the secretive workings of the KKK.
Interestingly, K Troop will be based on an article that hasn’t yet been published by Slate writer Matthew Pearl, which is set to detail the history of the hate group as it evolved to focus its vitriol on different minorities over time. The film adaptation of the unpublished article has yet to find a writer of its own. Even though it’s in such early stages, it’s easy to see the attention-grabbing headlines that the movie’s content will gain once production starts moving along.
Tell us, what do you think of the potential for K Troop? Let us know in the comments.
