After working with him on her break-out movie Short Term 12, Brie Larson is in final negotiations for Destin Cretton’s planned Just Mercy, so reports Variety.
Also amongst the cast of the film are Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. The trade says that the film, written by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, is based on the book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.” The film tells the true story of Bryan Stevenson (Jordan), a gifted young lawyer fighting for equal justice in a flawed legal system.
Here’s the full synopsis from the source material:
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
Larson recently completed work on her first Marvel movie Captain Marvel, and also has her directorial debut Unicorn Store (reviewed by us at TIFF 2017) still to receive a release date.
