Michael B. Jordan Battles for Justice in Moving First Trailer for JUST MERCY
Michael B. Jordan and Jaimie Foxx star in a powerful and thought-provoking film called Just Mercy which is based on an inspiring true story of a young lawyer who heads to Alabama to fight for justice for a man on death row who was wrongly accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
The first trailer for the film has been released today, and it looks like a great film that tells a moving and important story. This is one of those stories that needs to be told.
The film was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (The Glass Castle, Short Term 12) from a screenplay he co-wrote based on the award-winning nonfiction bestseller by Bryan Stevenson. Here’s the synopsis:
Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.
The main cast also includes Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Rob Morgan (Mudbound) as Herbert Richardson, a fellow prisoner who also sits on death row awaiting his fate; Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) as Ralph Myers, whose pivotal testimony against Walter McMillian is called into question; Rafe Spall as Tommy Chapman, the DA who is fighting to uphold Walter’s conviction and sentence; and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) as Anthony Ray Hinton, another wrongly convicted death row inmate whose cause is taken up by Bryan.
Just Mercy will be released in select theaters starting December 25th. Then it expands nationwide on January 10th, 2020.