'Straight Outta Compton' Star Jason Mitchell Joins Cast Of Detroit Riot Film
A movie based on the 1967 Detroit race riots is slowly coming into formation, with actor Jason Mitchell joining a cast that already includes John Boyega, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Algee Smith, Ben O'Toole, Jack Reynor, Kaitlyn Dever, Hannah Murray and Joseph David-Jones. Kathryn Bigelow will serve as director for the untitled film, which is being written by Mark Boal. Bigelow and Boal will also serve as producers alongside Megan Ellison, Matthew Budman and Colin Wilson, while Greg Shapiro will serve executive producer.
Character descriptions (as well other details on the movie) are being kept under wraps. All that's known about the film is that it's a crime drama set against the backdrop of Detroit's devastating riots that took place over five summer days in 1967. The film explores systemic racism in urban Detroit.
Although no studio is currently attached producers are targeting a release in 2017 — the 50th anniversary of the riots.
Mitchell was most recently seen in Straight Outta Compton where he portrayed Eazy-E. He was also a part of the Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key comedy Keanu, that was released earlier this year.
The 1967 Detroit race riots are considered one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in the history of the United States, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riots. The aftermath affected everyone, especially the city. In his autobiography Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor, stated that the city was the "heaviest casualty," adding:
"Detroit's losses went a hell of a lot deeper than the immediate toll of lives and buildings. The riot put Detroit on the fast track to economic desolation, mugging the city and making off with incalculable value in jobs, earnings taxes, corporate taxes, retail dollars, sales taxes, mortgages, interest, property taxes, development dollars, investment dollars, tourism dollars, and plain damn money. The money was carried out in the pockets of the businesses and the white people who fled as fast as they could. The white exodus from Detroit had been prodigiously steady prior to the riot, totaling twenty-two thousand in 1966, but afterwards it was frantic. In 1967, with less than half the year remaining after the summer explosion—the outward population migration reached sixty-seven thousand. In 1968 the figure hit eighty-thousand, followed by forty-six thousand in 1969."
Bigelow's adaptation seems to be the first of its kind, considering that there hasn't been another film to tackle the subject before. Although it's depicted in movies such as Across The Universe and Dreamgirls, this forthcoming film will solely focus on the incident.
Check back with us on the movie as more information is revealed.
