"Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit" writer/director Gary Ross in the midst of filming his followup to "The Hunger Games," and it’s about as far away from the Districts as you can get.
"The Free State Of Jones" finds him teaming with Oscar-anointed Matthew McConaughey for a modest, $20-million budgeted true story Civil War drama. Here’s the official synopsis:
Set during the Civil War, The Free State of Jones tells the story of defiant Southern farmer Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers, and with the assistance of local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. His marriage to a former slave, Rachel, and his subsequent establishment of a mixed race community was unique in the post-war South. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, which distinguished him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.
The film is set for a March 11, 2016 release, but we wouldn’t be entirely shocked if the indie production sneaks onto the fall festival schedule somewhere. Check out the first look right up above. 4/23/15 Update: New photos from Time.
Shoot – I would watch ANYTHING McM does. I even watch those stupid car ads where he hardly says anything!
I hate movies that use a white hero to look at Africa or a non-white community. This isn\’t that because Newton Knight was real. I\’ve taught American history and read the Free State of Jones. To me, this is telling the story of the Southern unionist– a story much ignored and overshadowed by Confederate and Neo-Confederate BS. Examples: 32,000 Tennesseans fought on the Union side; 16,000 Arkansans (conservative estimates). Newton\’s story is about correcting the historical record. It just so happens he took a black wife.
And speaking of black historical figures who should have movies made about them. There is Brit Johnson. His story formed the basis of the John Ford classic "The Searchers". He was a freedman in Texas whose wife and children were kidnapped by the Comanches. His years\’ long search for them inspired the screenwriter who wrote the movie. He was ultimately reunited with them, and even used the knowledge he\’d acquired to help track down other kidnapped whites. But he was later murdered by the Kiowas. Fantastic story though, then again, it might run up against the issue of presenting native Americans in an unflattering light. Nevertheless, Johnson\’s is also a story worth telling (properly, without John Wayne literally \’whitewashing\’ him).
No, thanks for the heads up on Robert Small. Like you\’d never heard of Knight (I hadn\’t either before hearing about this movie and reading the book), I\’d never heard of Small either. Great story. They should make a movie about him. There are historical figures who are worth remembering like Small and Knight and they\’ve ended up as footnotes.
How come powerful actors like Will Smith and Denzel Washington haven\’t already made a movie about him? I personally love historical biopics (I realize that is more a British preoccupation than American largely because of the issues of racial hatred in the US\’s history) and he\’d be a worthy subject. I wonder why none of the black directors (Daniels, Lee, Fuqua, Du Vernay, etc.) haven\’t been interested in this? A white director would no doubt be criticized for appropriating black history, wouldn\’t they? I certainly would rather see Will Smith do this than bang some big Aussie blonde in a dumb popcorn flick or play some superhero or villain in a Marvel flick.
Knight\’s story is not centered on racial issues (though he and his wife had to deal with those after the war because she was black), his and the Knight Company\’s main issue was how badly the Confederate Army and authorities were treating poor white farmers who were used as cannon fodder while rich slaveowners sat out the war. For a time during the war and during Reconstruction, the poor whites and blacks had a common cause – both groups had been exploited by the planter class, one that has been glossed over and one that was suppressed largely because the US\’s federal government refused to give the means to the Reconstruction authorities (like the Gov. of Mississippi and Knight) the means to fight back attempts by the planter class (recycled into the KKK) to win back the war. It bookends Selma in fact. Voting rights were the first rights to be stolen from blacks during Reconstruction.
That\’s an issue that is almost totally unknown to all those deluded Lost Causers out there who keep hanging up Confederate flags and revere Gone with the Wind. This movie is going to be a lot less popular with them than with people claiming it\’s a "white savior" movie.
Jen, I did read the story about Newt Knight and it proves my point. How many films does one need about someone like Knight? Are you familair with Robert Small? He was a slave who commandeered a CSA vessel and sailed into Union waters. His bravery convinced whites to allow blacks into Union forces.
Like how does it completely escape you that this being about a white guy is entirely the reason it\’s getting made
Yeah the numerous Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas Hollywood movies made day in, day out, when is a movie about white men going to finally be made, cause that\’s what I think of when I think of the south during the time of slavery, white guys.
No never open your stupid mouth ever again.
I see your British race card, Film Runner, and I raise you the gender and transgender cards. Why is this movie not about any of the heroic women and transgendered persons who have instigated rebellions against an oppressive government? I ask you that.
And, above all, WHY is this role not being played by a British actor? Only British actor should be allowed to star in Oscar bait flicks. Ask Harvey Weinstein.
This really has the look of a white saviour movie about it.
The most surprising thing about this movie is that it hasn\’t \’already been
made. Amazing characters and story.
Correction: the budget\’s an immodest $65 million.
Gee, No, whenever I hear about some biopic, I don\’t automatically think "why is there a biopic about Stephen Hawking? I mean couldn\’t they have made it about Carl Sagan?"
Check out Knight on wikipedia. It\’s a fascinating story and it examines issues of race that arose in Reconstruction that people are still dealing with today.
Gee, as much as I like MaMc, why am I not surprised that this is story about such an individual I never heard while there\’s noting about the numerous slaves rebellions or story about Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass?