Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell are set to star in STXfilms ‘Best Of Enemies’ that will be released on April 5th.
Henson will portray Ann Atwater, a civil rights activist in Durham, North Carolina, who battled KKK leader C.P. Ellis (played by Sam Rockwell) for a decade until 1971, when the two agreed to co-chair a two-week community meeting to deal with a court-ordered school desegregation decree. That movie will take place at the event where both of their lives changed.
Babou Ceesay portrays Bill Riddick, who reluctantly persuaded Ellis and Atwater to head the community summit to try to reach a compromise. The cast also includes Anne Heche, Wes Bentley, Bruce McGill, John Gallagher Jr., and Nick Searcy.
‘Hunger Games’ producer Robin Bissell will make his directorial debut from his own script which has been inspired by the Osha Gray Davidson’s book “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South.”
Both Rockwell and Henson are esteemed Hollywood actors with Rockwell winning an Oscar last year for his supporting role in ‘3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’. Henson, of course, is the star of the hit TV show ‘Empire’ and has had her fair share of Oscar-worthy performances in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ and ‘Hidden Figures’.
With mid-term elections around the corner, this movie may get a lot of attention for its political theme. Personally, I’m kind of excited to see Taraji P. Henson yell at a KKK leader.
