Lots of inspirational moments in time have been replayed on the movie screen, reminding us of their importance. Add the landmark court case of Brown v. Board of Education to that list. The 1954 trial, which brought an end to segregation in schools, will be brought to the screen by New Line in the form of The Crusaders.
According to Variety, currently in talks to star in The Crusaders are Topher Grace and Terrence Howard, both personal favorites of mine. Howard seems to be the go-to guy for African American roles right now. Fine by me since I’ve been tired of Denzel for a while now. He would be portraying Thurgood Marshall, who served as the head of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and eventually became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Grace would be playing Jack Greenberg who was a recent graduate of law school at the time and whose memoir, Crusaders in the Courts is being used as the basis for the film.
While the actors are in initial talks about starring in the film, changes have already happened behind the scenes. The initial draft of the script was written by Paul Redford and Lawrence O’Donnell (both from “The West Wing”), however John Romano (“American Dreams”)has been brought in to either rewrite or tweak the existing script (the Variety story is unclear as to Romano’s actual assignment). Also Alex Graves (also from “The West Wing”) is replacing previous director Brad Silberling (Moonlight Mile) to head up the picture.
