O’Shea Jackson Jr. will join Michael B. Jordan in Warner Bros. drama Just Mercy.
Brie Larson and Jamie Foxx are also set to star in the feature from Short Term 12 and The Glass Castle director Destin Cretton.
The movie is based on the New York Times best-selling memoir by Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, which fights on behalf of the wrongly condemned and death-row prisoners trapped in the criminal justice system. The film will follow Stevenson’s first case: that of Walter McMillian, a black man who was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit.
Originally set up at Broad Green Pictures, the project was moved to Warner Bros. Just Mercy is set to begin filming next month in Atlanta. Jordan will produce, along with Gil Netter and Asher Goldstein.
Jackson, who is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham, has worked steadily since his major feature debut in 2015’s Straight Outta Compton, grabbing roles in a range of projects from indies to tentpoles. He will next be seen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Flarsky, the Lionsgate film starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron.
