brown v board Tagged Articles at Cinematical

At first blush, this has all the marks of the sort of tepid, respectful, boring prestige picture that's normally a huge turn-off. Director Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) will reteam with Tobey Maguire for The Crusaders, a film about the lawyers who litigated the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (of Topeka, but who keeps track?). That, of course, was when the Court unanimously held that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

Maguire will play idealistic young lawyer Jack Greenberg, who teamed with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall (Terrence Howard was rumored for that role, but that seems to have gone away) to fight the segregationists. This project has been kicking around for a while, and Topher Grace was previously attached to star in what is now Maguire's role.

Ross and Maguire's Seabiscuit, which I thought was precisely the sort of unimaginative, tediously reverent historical Oscar-bait that the Academy loves but anyone with any taste can't stand, bored the pants off me. This sounds like a similar sort of project -- though on the other hand, having spent significant time venerating Brown v. Board in law school, I'm curious to see what Hollywood will do with this story. Sort of in the same way a geologist might be fascinated with The Core, y'know?

We reported about six months ago that Terrence Howard was in talks to play Thurgood Marshall in New Line's The Crusaders, a film about the 1954 Brown v Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court struck down the concept of "separate but equal." And, if Variety's report this morning is reliable ... they're still talking. Great work, New Line -- way to hustle that movie into production! Now, at least, they're talking someone else, too: Topher Grace is in negotiations to star with Howard as Jack Greenberg, the naive young white guy who teamed with Marshall (then the head of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund) "to help end segregation in schools." New Line has also brought in John Romano to rewrite the script, which is based on Crusaders in the Courts, Greenberg's memoir of his experience working on Brown v Board and with Marshall. In addition to a new writer, the film also has a new director, with West Wing and Sports Night (YAY!) veteran Alex Graves replacing the previously-announced Brad Silberling. God only knows when this one will finally get going -- the major changes combined with the endless negotiations with Howard make it clear it's not exactly on the fast-track.