According to Deadline, a Hurt Locker reunion is in the making as that Best Picture-winning film’s star Anthony Mackie (Captain America: Civil War, All the Way) has been added to the cast of director Kathryn Bigelow’s upcoming untitled Detroit riots movie. He will join John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Attack the Block), Ben O’Toole (The Water Diviner, Hacksaw Ridge), Will Poulter (The Revenant, We’re the Millers) and Jack Reynor (Sing Street, Macbeth) in the Annapurna Pictures ensemble. The Detroit riots movie is set to reteam the two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty with screenwriter Mark Boal.
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Although full details about the Detroit riots movie are not being revealed at this time, the film is said to be a crime drama set against the backdrop of Detroit’s devastating riots that took place over five haunting summer days in 1967. Boal has been researching and working on the project, which explores systemic racism in urban Detroit, for more than a year. Although no studio is yet attached, a release date is being targeted for 2017, the 50th anniversary of the riots.
The project marks Boal’s first screenplay centering around domestic conflicts. His The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, both directed by Bigelow, were set in the Middle East.
Bigelow and Boal are also producing the Detroit riots movie alongside Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Matthew Budman, and Colin Wilson. Greg Shapiro is set to serve as executive producer.
Mackie is next set to portray famed lawyer Johnnie Cochran in director Justin Chadwick’s Signal Hill. Although it has not been made official yet, he is also expected to reprise his role as Sam Wilson/The Falcon in a future Marvel Studios movie, with the upcoming MCU-wide team-up Avengers: Infinity War a near-certainty.
What do you think of the cast that Kathryn Bigelow has assembled so far? Is there anyone else you’d like to see join the ensemble? Let us know in the comments below and check back for updates on the Detroit riots movie as they become available.
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