John Boyega Joins Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit Race Riots FIlm
John Boyega, who is in Star Wars: Episode VIII and was most recently announced as the lead of the Pacific Rim sequel, has been cast in Kathryn Bigelow’s next film Untitled Detroit Project, a crime drama written by Mark Boal for Annapurna. The picture that shoots this summer is set against the backdrop of Detroit in 1967 amid the city’s devastating riots that took place over five summer days. The film is about systemic racism in urban Detroit and it is being targeted for a 2017 release date for the 50th anniversary of the riots.
Bigelow is directing and will produce with Boal, Annapurna’s Megan Ellison and Matthew Budman. Colin Wilson, and Greg Shapiro will executive produce.
Boyega and business partner Femi Oguns will be co-producing the sequel to Pacific Rim under their joint production company, Upper Room Productions Ltd. The hotter than hot actor’s other upcoming projects include the Tom Hanks and Emma Watson starring The Circle as well as Imperial Dreams, and Watership Down alongside James McAvoy and Sir Ben Kingsley. He will also appear on stage next year in Woyzeck at The Old Vic in London.
Of course, he previously starred in the box office phenomenon Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Attack the Block. Boyega is represented by WME and Identity Agency Group in the UK
Bigelow and Boal worked together on the Oscar winner The Hurt Locker. Bigelow, Boal and Ellison’s previous collaboration, Zero Dark Thirty, received five Oscar nominations including best picture and best screenplay.
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