Fresh off the massive success of the socially relevant Get Out, Jordan Peele is set to team up with another director known for tackling race in contemporary society, Spike Lee, on a very exciting project.
The duo are teaming up to tackle the true story of a black police officer who infiltrated the KKK, with Denzel Washington‘s son, John David Washington, in negotiations to star. The film is being billed as a dramatic crime thriller and production is set to begin this autumn.
The film will be based on the memoir of Ron Stallworth, titled Black Klansman, which tells his story beginning in 1978 when he answered an ad in the local newspaper seeking new KKK members. Stallworth began posing as a white supremacist over the phone and through other correspondence, even rising through the ranks to become the head of the local chapter.
Stallworth managed to keep up the ruse and hide his race by sending a fellow officer, who was white, in his place for face-to-face meetings, allowing him to sabotage cross-burnings and other horrific acts by the hate group.
The film will be written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmont and Lee himself. Peele and Lee have reportedly been quietly pushing the project forward for around two years.
This sounds like a perfect project for two of the most prominent black filmmakers to tackle right now, and it’ll be very exciting to see what the duo can do with some stranger-than-fiction material in a society where, unfortunately, Stallworth’s 1978 tale remains as relevant as ever.
#Peace.Love.BlackKlansman
1 comment