The career of Chadwick Boseman continues to go from strength to strength, as he lines up another high profile role to tackle post-Captain America: Civil War. The actor, who will debut the much anticipated character of Black Panther in that tent-pole movie, has been cast as Supreme Justice Thurgood Marshall in the film Marshall, which will be something of a biopic of the legendary legal icon, who became the first African American judge appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.
The film is to be directed by Reginald Hudlin, who has focused mainly on producing and television directing for over a decade, and will be working from a script by Michael and Jacob Koskoff (MacBeth). Rather than attempting to encompass the entirety of what was a stellar career, the film will instead centre on a specific case – making the project essentially a period drama.
“As the nation teeters on the brink of WWII, a nearly bankrupt NAACP sends [Thurgood] Marshall to conservative Connecticut to defend a black chauffeur against his wealthy socialite employer in a sexual assault and attempted murder trial that quickly became tabloid fodder. In need of a high profile victory but muzzled by a segregationist court, Marshall is partnered with Samuel Friedman, a young Jewish lawyer who has never tried a case. Marshall and Friedman struggle against a hostile storm of fear and prejudice, driven to discover the truth in the sensationalized trial which helped set the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement to come.”
Marshall, who died in 1993, would go on to be instrumental in the desegregation of public schools, be appointed to the Court Of Appeals by President Kennedy, and then appointed to the U.S Supreme Court by President Johnson. His family are said to support the film, and are undoubtedly as keen as audiences are to see the work of Chadwick Boseman, when Marshall finally arrives in theatres.
With production due to begin imminently, the wait should not be too long.
