Manuel here with some casting news. Kathryn Bigelow is readying her follow-up to Zero Dark Thirty. As we learned back in January, her next project will be centered on the Detroit riots of 1967. For the timely drama, the Oscar winner will be reteaming with Mark Boal (who also penned The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty). Well, now that the film is set to start shooting, we’re finally getting more details on the film’s cast (if little info on the actual narrative of the feature).
In addition to Star Wars standout John Boyega, the Bigelow-Boal “Untitled Detroit Project” as it’s being described has recruited a bevy of young up and coming stars...
The Revenant’s Will Poulter, as well as Sing Street’s Jack Reynor and The Water Diviner’s Ben O'Toole. I know what you’re thinking: wait, that sounds like a lot of young white boys added to the cast of a film about the Detroit riots. After all, the 1967 events got started when police raided an unlicensed weekend drinking club in the civil rights group United Community League for Civic Action’s office. Police found a group of over 80 African-Americans and the police’s decision to arrest them all served as the catalyst for the rioting and confrontations that followed.
Thankfully, since those early casting notices, we’ve also learned that Bigelow has cast Jacob Latimore (seen in Ride Along and in the upcoming Collateral Beauty) and Algee Smith (from Earth to Echo). But perhaps the most exciting name to be added to the cast is that of Anthony Mackie. It’ll be a nice Hurt Locker reunion and another exciting addition to Mackie’s filmography. While he’s been busy flying alongside Captain America as Falcon, Mackie has still found time to shoot meatier dramas like Our Brand Is Crisis, Triple 9, and All the Way. Up next for him: tackling the role of Johnnie Cochran (now indelibly tied to the incomparable Courtney B. Vance courtesy of The People vs. OJ) in Justin Chadwick’s Signal Hill.
Should we begin penciling in Bigelow & co. for Oscar nominations? The film is only now shooting and is clearly aiming fora 2017 release date so we have plenty of time to ruminate on whether this'll be the project that lands Bigelow that coveted second Best Director nomination—which, lest we need to be reminded, has yet to be achieved by any female director.