“Star Wars” actor Adam Driver is attached to star in Spike Lee’s “Black Klansman,” a crime thriller about the KKK.
Laura Harrier of “Spider-Man: Homecoming” has also been cast. Lee will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Kevin Willmott.
Lee is producing with Jordan Peele along with Sean McKittrick, Shaun Redick, and Raymond Mansfield of QC Entertainment, and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Productions companies are Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, QC Entertainment, and Blumhouse. Focus Features is releasing.
The movie follows Ron Stallworth, a detective in Colorado Springs, Colo., who in 1978 answered an ad in the local newspaper seeking new Klan members. John David Washington was announced last month for that role. Stallworth rose through the ranks to become the head of the local chapter — even though he’s African-American. He sent a white officer in his place for any in-person meetings.
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Driver will play the role of an undercover police officer who is the best of the Colorado Springs police force. He is known on the force for being anti-social, and he’s a perfectionist, critical of others’ mistakes, but brave and dedicated.
QC’s Edward H. Hamm Jr. will serve as executive producer on “Black Klansman.” Focus President of Production Josh McLaughlin will supervise the project.
Driver next appears in Disney’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” as the villain Kylo Ren. He is repped by the Gersh Agency. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
