When Oscar-winning duo Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal announce a new collaboration, the film industry tends to stand up and take notice. Hardly surprising, given they’ve produced two cracking, prescient thrillers in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. For their latest creative venture, though, Bigelow and Boal are circling back in time – all the way back to the ’60s, to be specific.
Though it’s currently without an official title, the pair’s new feature centers on the Detroit Riots that engulfed the Motor City during the blistering hot summer of ’67. It’s a tantalizing pitch considering the talent on board, and The Hollywood Reporter brings word today that Kathryn Bigelow’s true-life thriller has added one more to its stacked ensemble.
Best known for his breakout turn as Eazy-E in F. Gary Gray’s musical biopic Straight Outta Compton, it is Jason Mitchell that has landed a role in Bigelow’s riots picture, joining Will Poulter (We’re the Millers), Jacob Latimore, Algee Smith, Ben O’Toole, Jack Reynor, Kaitlyn Dever, and Hannah Murray.
Directing from her own screenplay – one penned alongside Boal, which is a creative process that has yielded great, award-winning results in the past – this is a feature that screams awards credentials. Currently in production, plot details are scarce; all we know for sure is that Bigelow’s drama will take a deep dive into the systemic racism that had a marked effect on urban Detroit circa 1967, along with the social upheaval that followed.
Fast-tracked by Annapurna Pictures to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the devastating Detroit Riots, we understand that Kathryn Bigelow’s racial drama is being angled for release some time in 2017. We’ll let you know if and when the studio zeros in on a specific date.
