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Movie About Michael Brown's Death, Ferguson Protests Reportedly In The Works
A protestor in St. Louis, MO in 2014. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A movie based on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in 2014 is now in the works at Warner Bros.
The Tracking Board reports that Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil, a memoir by Brown's mother, Lezley McSpadden. The book was published last year, after which several studios showed interest in adapting it to screen. The memoir, co-written with novelist Lyah Beth LeFlore, recounts McSpadden's experience raising Brown as a single mother, up until his death and the lack of indictment against the officer who killed him.
The Tracking Board says Warner Bros. "aims to develop a drama that is tonally and thematically similar to Crash," the winner of the 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture. They also suggest the studio is looking to hire a writer of color to pen the script based off the memoir. Hopefully this writer will make a way better movie than Crash.
Television has touched on the rise in public consciousness around police brutality in recent years, from Black-ish to Scandal, but the topic has been missing from mainstream cinema (a strong exception is 2013's Fruitvale Station). Unfortunately, the subject is still as pressing today as ever: the officer who fatally shot Philando Castile in 2016 was found not guilty on Friday.
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