Busting out of The Hurt Locker and onto the ravaged streets of Detroit, Deadline brings word that Captain America: Civil War star Anthony Mackie has agreed terms to reteam with Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal for their as-yet-untitled Detroit riots picture.
Word of Mackie’s casting comes only 24 hours after we brought you the news that Will Poulter (The Revenant), Ben O’Toole (Hacksaw Ridge), and Jack Reynor (Macbeth, Transformers: Age Of Extinction) had all climbed aboard the true-life drama, fleshing out an ensemble that already features Star Wars: The Force Awakens breakout John Boyega.
Deadline’s scoop reveals that Mackie will be playing a Vietnam war veteran, who descends on home turf to find the Motor City engulfed in societal upheaval across five blisteringly hot days in the summer of 1967. It’s a key role, too, and the outlet notes that Annapurna is aiming to fast-track Bigelow’s explosive project to conicide with the 50th anniversary of said riots.
Production is set to get underway in the coming weeks, and as this is acting as Bigelow’s first foray behind the lens since acclaimed war drama Zero Dark Thirty four years ago, there’s already a crackle of excitement among moviegoers.
In terms of the actual event itself, at the time, Detroit’s racial tensions bubbled during the late ’60s, resulting in a historic clash that left 43 people dead and some 1,100 injured. It’s a remarkably timely story what with the Black Lives Matter movement gripping America at the moment, and with Kathryn Bigelow and Boal attached, we can readily expect this one to jostle for a place in next year’s Oscar race.