Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow to helm crime drama about Detroit riots

PanARMENIAN.Net - Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow will direct an untitled true crime drama set in Detroit for Annapurna Pictures, whose Megan Ellison and Matthew Budman will produce with Bigelow and Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal, TheWrap reports.

The “Untitled Detroit Project” will be Bigelow and Boal’s next film, as well as her 10th feature as a director. Production will start this summer, with Annapurna financing the project.

Although details about the Detroit project are not being revealed at this time, the crime drama is set against the backdrop of Detroit’s devastating riots that took place over five haunting summer days in 1967. Boal has been researching and working on the project, which explores systemic racism in urban Detroit, for more than a year.

Although no studio is yet attached, a release date is being targeted for 2017 — the 50th anniversary of the riots.

The project marks Boal’s first screenplay centering around domestic conflicts. His scripts “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” both directed by Bigelow, were set in the Middle East.

Bigelow and Boal are two-time Oscar winners for “The Hurt Locker,” and their previous collaboration with Ellison, “Zero Dark Thirty,” was nominated for five Oscars including best picture and best screenplay.

Additionally, Annapurna is partners with Boal in Page One, the company that produces the second season of the hit podcast “Serial,” which chronicles the case of Bowe Bergdahl. Bigelow and Boal were developing a movie about Bergdahl, though that project has been pushed in favor of the “Untitled Detroit Project.”

Annapurna’s most recent release, David O. Russell‘s “Joy,” earned an Oscar nomination for star Jennifer Lawrence. Annapurna also produced Richard Linklater‘s “Everybody Wants Some,” which Paramount will release in April, as well as Todd Solondz’s “Wiener-Dog,” which Amazon Studios just acquired at the Sundance Film Festival.

Annapurna is currently in post-production on Ana Lily Amirpour‘s “The Bad Batch,” Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s raunchy animated movie “Sausage Party.” The company is also developing Linklater’s adaptation of Maria Semple’s book “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”