Forest Whitaker will helm Codeblack Films’ upcoming Angela Davis biopic movie project as an executive producer. The untitled biopic will be based on Davis’ book Angela Davis: An Autobiography.
Whitaker’s involvement with the film will align with his childhood growing up in Compton, Calif., and seeing the Black Panther Party doing its work in the community.
“My memory of the Panthers, for instance, is very different from most people’s because as a kid I remember them on my street, and how nice they treated me,” Whitaker said in a 2013 interview with The Guardian. “Free breakfast program, free schools, outreach and community work, gang members working hand in hand, Crips and Bloods.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, other producers on board for the biopic include Davis; Nina Yang Bongiovi, whose credits include Fruitvale Station; Sidra Smith, a producer on the 2012 documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners; and Codeblack Enterprises CEO Jeff Clanagan.