Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the First Photo from Equality Drama Loving

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in the first image from the real-life equality drama

Big Beach and Raindog Films have released the first official image from the upcoming equality drama Loving, written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud), and starring Joel Edgerton (Black Mass, The Gift) and Ruth Negga (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, World War Z) as Richard and Mildred Loving. Check out the full image in the gallery below!

Inspired by the documentary The Loving Story (directed by Nancy Buirski), the film centers on Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who married in June 1958. They were arrested, thrown into jail, and exiled from the state. For the next nine years, the couple fought for their marriage and the right to return home as a family.

The film co-stars Michael Shannon (who previously worked with Nichols on Take Shelter), alongside Nick Kroll (“The League”), Marton Csokas (The Equalizer), Jon Bass (“Big Time in Hollywood, FL”) and Bill Camp (Black Mass).

Shooting is currently underway in Richmond, VA. The production team is comprised of producers Ged Doherty, Sarah Green, Nancy Buirski, Colin Firth, Peter Saraf, and Marc Turtletaub. Executive producers are Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Jack Turner, and Jared Ian Goldman.

The story was told previously in the 1996 film Mr. & Mrs. Loving, written and directed by Richard Friedenberg (The Education of Little Tree), and starring Lela Rochon and Timothy Hutton. It was not well received by Mildred Loving or the general public.

Nichols still has the Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller Midnight Special coming out on March 18, 2016. Set in the present day, it follows a father and son who are forced into going on the run when the eight-year-old boy develops some kind of extraordinary power. That film stars Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Shepard.