Paramount Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to director Elegance Bratton’s civil rights-era crime thriller “By Any Means,” starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg.
The studio has set the film’s theatrical release date as September 4.
Set in 1966 Mississippi and loosely based on true events, the film’s logline reads: “Either Way” follows an unstable partnership between a hardened Mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent as they are forced into an uneasy alliance to track down those responsible for the assassination of civil rights leaders – uncovering a conspiracy that tests the limits of justice, loyalty, and survival.
Nicole Beharie, David Strathairn, Giancarlo Esposito, Josh Lucas and Ethan Embree round out the top-tier cast.
Bratton said, “This is a story about unlikely alliances formed in impossible circumstances – where justice is not clean, and the truth has a price to pay.” “I wanted to explore what it means to confront violence not just as an act, but as a system – and what it demands of those caught up in it.”
Bratton directs from a screenplay by Sasha Penn. Producers include Alex Lebovici (for Hammerstone Studios); Chester Colonel Gordon and Bratton (Liberty Theory); Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (Thunder Road); and Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson (Municipal).
WME Independent handled the sale. North.Five.Six is handling international sales of the film.
more to come…
