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Anthony Mackie will star in an untitled film about American lawyer Johnnie Cochran (who you’d be familiar with lately if you watched the FX series “The People V O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”).
David McMillan wrote the script for the film which will focus on Cochran’s role in the Signal Hill police brutality case of 1981.
While Cochran would go on to represent celebrities from Simpson to Michael Jackson and Jim Brown, his rise to fame as an advocate for blacks suffering in police brutality cases was galvanized by his work in the landmark Signal Hill case. He represented a football player, Cal State Long Beach star Ron Settles, who had been picked up for speeding in Signal Hill, in Los Angeles County. Shortly after his arrest, he was found hanged in his cell. The police called it a suicide, but an autopsy — performed after Cochran persuaded Settles’ family to exhume the body — showed that he had been choked to death. The family was awarded $760,000 in a civil suit, the police chief resigned, and reforms were mandated. Cochran died in 2005. – via Deadline.
Mackie and Jason Spire will produce the film with The Firm’s Robbie Brenner. Kevin McKeon will also produce and Jeff Kwatinetz will be exec producer along with McMillan.
