Russell Crowe is in negotiations to star in Arc Of Justice alongside David Oyelowo. Jose Padilha (Narcos) will direct the film, based on the 2004 book by Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age.
The book tells the true story of a racial incident in 1925 Detroit involving doctor Ossian Sweet (to be played by Oyelowo), who was charged with murder while famous lawyer Clarence Darrow took the case. The adaptation will be penned by Max Borestein and Rodney Barnes.
The official synopsis of the book is as follows:
“In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with the KKK in ascendance and violence rising. Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighbourhood.
Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes. And so it began a chain of events that brought America’s greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality.”
The book won the 2004 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and is prime for adaptation at a time where racial tensions are high in contemporary America. Crowe is yet to formally sign on, but it’s looking likely and once he does, production dates can be released and the crew can get rolling on what looks to be a very intriguing project.
#Peace.Love.ArcOfJustice
