“Clemency” director Chinonye Chukwu writes and directs “Till,” an upcoming biopic about Mamie Till Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler), an American educator and activist who pursues justice after the 1955 lynching of her 14-year-old son Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) when he was visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Per the official logline, “In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother’s ability to change the world.”
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The film utilizes decades worth of research by filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, whose documentary “The Untold story of Emmett Till” in part led to the U.S. Department of Justice reopening the case in 2004. Beauchamp co-wrote the screenplay for “Till” with Michael Reilly and Chukwu, whose 2019 film “Clemency” landed lead star Alfre Woodard a BAFTA nomination and the film the U.S. Grand Jury Dramatic Prize at Sundance.
Whoopi Goldberg, Frankie Faison, and Haley Bennett also star in the historical drama, in select theaters October 14 and playing everywhere October 28 from United Artists Releasing. The film will premiere at 2022 New York Film Festival.
Famed “James Bond” producer Barbara Broccoli produces “Till,” along with co-screenwriter Beauchamp, star Goldberg, Thomas Levine, Michael Reilly, and Frederick Zollo. Writer-director Chukwu serves as an executive producer along with Preston Holmes.
Lead star Deadwyler has appeared in “Station Eleven,” “P-Valley,” and “The Harder They Fall,” which won a 2021 Gotham Award. “Till” has already been making awards season buzz leading into the fall prime Oscars contender season.
Whoopi Goldberg was originally set to direct Till’s story when the project was first announced in 2016. The list of projects centered around Till that have stalled in Hollywood include one produced by Chaz Ebert based on the book, “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America,” co-written by Mamie Till-Mobley and journalist Christopher Benson.
Another film was once set to be based on the play, “The Face of Emmett Till,” which James Moll was attached to direct, also co-written by Till’s mother, along with David Barr III. There was also an HBO miniseries, from a producing team that included Will Smith and Jay-Z, based on Devery Anderson’s 2015 biography, “Emmett Till,” which Steven Caple was on board to write; and finally, Taraji P. Henson was set to play Till-Mobley in a big-screen biopic of the matriarch before director John Singleton died in 2019.
Check out the trailer below.
“Till” will premiere in theaters October 2022.
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