Mountain Meadow Massacre Film Gets Release Date

May 4 will be the release date for the historical drama September Dawn. The film sports two particularly impressive names above the title with Jon Voight (also starring in this summer's Transformers) as a Mormon bishop and Terrence Stamp as Brigham Young. Apparently Black Diamond Pictures and Slo Hand Releasing have a fair amount of faith in the film's box office potential as it will be releasing the same weekend as Spider-man 3.

September Dawn, which is directed by Christopher Cain, also stars Lolita Davidovich, Dean Cain (the second actor in the cast, after Stamp, to have once played a survivor of the planet Krypton), Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Jon Gries, Taylor Handley, Krisinda Cain and Shaun Johnston. The film depicts the Mountain Meadow Massacre, which involved (according to Wikipedia) the deaths of over 100 California-bound Arkansas emigrants in southwestern Utah at the hands of Mormon settlers. There remains much debate about the actual details of the tragedy. The story was previously told in the 2004 documentary Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Director Cain told Variety that he was drawn to the project because the story reflects modern religious fanaticism. Ironically enough, the attack took place on September 11, 1857.