Anthony Mackie’s Johnnie Cochran bio draws “Mandela” helmer

PanARMENIAN.Net - British director Justin Chadwick is in negotiations to helm Anthony Mackie’s untitled Johnnie Cochran biopic, Variety reports.

Chadwick directed 2013’s “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” “The Other Boleyn Girl” and the upcoming “Tulip Fever.” David McMillan penned the script for the Cochran project.

The film will be centered on the 1981 wrongful death case of college football star Ron Settles. Signal Hill police ruled that Settles had hung himself in a city jail cell in despair over his arrest for speeding, but Cochran suspected foul play and persuaded the Settles family to request that the body be exhumed for an autopsy, which showed Settles had been choked to death.

The Settles family was subsequently awarded $1 million in a civil suit against the Southern California city. Cochran is best known for his defense of O.J. Simpson in the 1995 murder case in which Simpson was acquitted.

Robbie Brenner, The Firm’s president of film, will produce along with Mackie and Jason Spire. Jeff Kwatinetz will be exec producer, along with McMillan.

Mackie was most recently seen in “Captain America: Civil War.”