Having won his second Oscar this year for Green Book, Mahershala Ali is jumping on to another based-on-truth tale, one he's hoping will be greeted with a little less controversy (even with Book's eventual success). He's gearing up to produce and potentially star in Solitary.
Fox Searchlight is in the middle of making a deal to adapt Albert Woodfox's eponymous memoir, subtitled Unbroken By Four Decades In Solitary Confinement, My Story Of Transformation And Hope, which chronicles the 43 years he spent in solitary confinement in Louisiana's Angola Prison. He was sentenced following a 1972 murder of a prison guard he denies committing and was released in 2016. With $90,0000 he received as reparation for the cruel and unusual punishment, Woodford bought a house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward and has lived there to this day.
Ali went to visit Woodfox after reading the book and will work with producers Jamie Patricof and Carolyn Govers to develop the movie, locking in a writer and director. The actor is aboard to appear in sci-fi thriller Sovereign and will lend his voice to animated series Invincible.
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