Michael B. Jordan has flitted between both sides of the law on screen in the last few years, what with wrong 'un Killmonger in Black Panther and Creed II's heroic Adonis Johnson. He's now taking it on directly with new based-on-truth tale Just Mercy, which features Short Term 12's Destin Daniel Cretton in the director's chair. See the first trailer...
Just Mercy is the story of real-life legal crusader and defence attorney Bryan Stevenson, who graduated from Harvard but eschewed the usual high-profile, big-payday jobs for a gig defending those who were wrongly condemned or suffered at the hands of the local justice system in Alabama. One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal (Tim Blake Nelson) with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds – and the system – stacked against them.
With Brie Larson as advocate Eva Ansley and O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing Anthony Ray Hinton, another death row inmate whose conviction is called into question, Just Mercy will be out in the UK on 24 January. For an exclusive interview with Cretton about the film and Jordan, head here.