Amazon, Ridley Scott’s Scott Free and Epic are teaming on a feature about the true story of poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts.
Betts, who was charged with a carjacking at a Virginia mall when he was 16 and tried as an adult, spent nearly a decade in prison. Now, according to the project’s description, “he’s an acclaimed poet, author and Yale law grad whose application to the Connecticut state bar had been rejected, even after he passed the test, and after several years of battle he finally has been admitted to practice law.”
Betts, who was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, also recently launched a nonprofit, Freedom Reads, to give incarcerated people access to the power of literature.
Veteran television director Zetna Fuentes (This Is Us, Ray Donovan) will direct from a script by Aurin Squire, who currently acts as co-executive producer on Evil and The Good Fight.
Scott and Kevin Walsh will produce for Free. Arthur Spector and Josh Davis will produce for Epic, a part of Vox Media Studios. Executive producers include Betts, Free’s Sam Roston and Epic’s Josh Bearman.
Betts is represented by CAA. Fuentes is represented by UTA, Range Media Partners and Ziffren Brittenham. Aurin is represented by Grandview, UTA and Jackoway Austen. Epic is represented by CAA, Anonymous Content and Lichter Grossman.
