Chadwick Boseman to Portray Thurgood Marshall in New Biopic

By Sameer Rao Dec 18, 2015

"Get On Up" and "Captain America: Civil War" star Chadwick Boseman is set to star as Thurgood Marshall in an upcoming biopic on the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Black justice. 

"Marshall" focuses on an early case in Marshall’s career as a lawyer for the NAACP, nearly a decade before he successfully argued Brown v. Board of EducationDeadline quoted director Reginald Hudlin’s announcement and description of the film as follows:

As the nation teeters on the brink of WWII, a nearly bankrupt NAACP sends Marshall to conservative Connecticut to defend a black chauffeur against his wealthy socialite employer in a sexual assault and attempted murder trial that quickly became tabloid fodder. In need of a high profile victory but muzzled by a segregationist court, Marshall is partnered with Samuel Friedman, a young Jewish lawyer who has never tried a case. Marshall and Friedman struggle against a hostile storm of fear and prejudice, driven to discover the truth in the sensationalized trial which helped set the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement to come.

Hudlin, who previously directed "House Party" and served as BET’s president of entertainment from 2005 to 2008, described Marshall as "a cowboy who used his law books as guns" in his announcement. The film is being produced with support from the estates of Thurgood Marshall and Samuel Friedman, and does not yet have a release date.

(H/t Deadline, The Root