*Chadwick Boseman is taking on another real-life icon in director Reginald Hudlin’s courtroom thriller about Thurgood Marshall.
Boseman, who previously played Jackie Robinson and James Brownstar, will star as the legendary attorney in “Marshall,” a film that focuses on a case early in the career of the Supreme Court justice.
Via the press announcement:
“As the nation teeters on the brink of WWII, a nearly bankrupt NAACP sends 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.”
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“Marshall” will also features Sterling K. Brown as Joseph Spell, the defendant at the center of the case; Keesha Sharp will play Thurgood’s wife; and Josh Gad will play Samuel Friedman, the Jewish lawyer who partners with Marshall on the case.
Jussie Smollett is also part of the cast, playing Langston Hughes.
Shadow and Act reports that “the film is being produced with the full cooperation of the Thurgood Marshall and Samuel Friedman estates.”
Open Road Films has acquired U.S. rights, but there’s no release date announced yet.
Meanwhile, “Captain America: Civil War” introduced audiences to Boseman’s Black Panther, and a “Black Panther” movie is planned for a 2018 release.
When asked by the Los Angeles Times how much he knew about Black Panther going into ‘Civil War,’ Boseman replied:
“I mainly knew the Reginald Hudlin run on “Black Panther,” and I knew the original Jack Kirby-Stan Lee version. So, so good. Reading for the movie, though, I basically tried to cover everything. Going over the original versions, Hudlin, the Christopher Priest versions … I read as much as I could at the time. Pretty extensive research.”
