After the racially-charged films Chi-Raq and Get Out, filmmakers Spike Lee and Jordan Peele are looking to provoke even more controversy with their next project as The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Lee will direct and Peele will produce the KKK thriller Black Klansman. Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington (Ballers), is in talks to star.
The film is the true story of how African-American police officer Ron Stallworth successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1978 Colorado Springs, Colorado. By pretending to be a white supremacist over the phone and sending a white officer in his place for in-person meetings, he was able to become the head of the local KKK chapter and sabotage their activities from within.
The film will be based on Stallworth’s own 2014 memoir Black Klansman, with the screenplay adapted by Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz as well as by Spike Lee and Kevin Willmont. Although the project sounds timely given the recent act of white terrorism in Charlottesville, Virginia, Peele and Lee have actually been working on it for over two years.
Lee will direct Black Klansman, producing alongside Peele through his Monkeypaw Productions banner. Sean McKittrick, Shaun Redick and Raymond Mansfield of QC Entertainment and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions will also produce.
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