You might remember Easy Rawlins and Mouse, the private eye and the killer who helps him out, from 1995’s Devil In A Blue Dress. Back then they were played by Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle.
But now they’re back. Only this time, in Little Scarlet, they’ll be played by Mos Def and Jeffrey Wright. Or Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def. Depending on when they decide…
The man behind the new film is Walter Mosley, the novelist who penned both Devil and Scarlet. The canny writer had an option to hold the rights to his characters written into his deal for Devil with Columbia TriStar, so that if they ever became dormant, he’d get them back. Guess what happened… Now HBO Films and Picturehouse have approached him, and he’s busy writing the script with Wright and Def attached to play the roles, as soon as they work out which they want.
The story sees Rawlins and Moose dealing with LA just after the 1965 Watts race riots. They investigate the murder of a black woman – with the top suspect being the white man she helped – in the racially sensitive time.