Jamie Foxx and Elizabeth Banks have become the latest additions to ‘Signal Hill,’ the upcoming police brutality drama that has Anthony Mackie in the lead. The film reteams Foxx with his ‘Ray’ director Taylor Hackford.
Featuring a script by David McMillan, the film focuses on famed attorney Johnnie Cochran (Mackie) as he takes on the case of Ron Settles, a young college student, who had been picked up for speeding in Signal Hill, in Los Angeles County.
Shortly after his arrest, Settles 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.
According to Deadline, Foxx will play Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, a former Black Panther party leader and Vietnam veteran, while Banks will take on the role of Mary Neiswender, an investigative newspaper reporter for the Long Beach Press-Telegram who investigated and broke stories on the cover-up.
Hackford and his team of producers are aiming to have cameras rolling in January.