Padilha to Direct Film Adaptation of Kevin Boyle’s Book “Arc of Justice”

José Padilha is forming his own Justice league…

The 49-year-old Brazilian television and film director, producer and screenwriter is at the center of a deal by The Mark Gordon Company to helm the film adaptation of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, the 2004 nonfiction National Book Award winner by historian Kevin Boyle.

José Padilha

The Mark Gordon Company will finance the Padilha-directed will adaptation, with a script by Max Borenstein and Rodney Barnes.

The book tells the true story of a racial incident in 1925 Detroit that put African American doctor Ossian Sweet on the stand for murder. His defense was funded by the nascent NAACP and was led by legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow.

There’s no start date yet, but the film will happen quickly.

Padilha, who directed Elite Squad and its sequel before taking on the acclaimed Netflix hunt for Pablo Escobar series Narcos, has wrapped Entebbe, which stars Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike.