Dee Rees, director of Bessie, is back behind the camera for Mudbound – a film about a city worker moving from a country destroyed by WWII to a Mississippi farm.
The protagonist moves his family to a failing farm in rural Mississippi and has to overcome many struggles and hardships while his brother comes home from war. The actors currently rumored to be in talks as the main cast are Garret Hedlund, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, and Jason Mitchell.
This is an interesting choice for Rees after her Outstanding Television movie win for Bessie at the Emmy Awards last year. Straight Outta Compton star, Jason Mitchell is the only person of color in talks so far in the casting debate, but only time will tell if there are any other leads of color added to the cast in the time before production starts.
The screenplay was written by Virgil Williams, who also worked on Criminal Minds and 24 as a writer and producer. Poppy Hanks is the executive producer, and the other producers on the film are Cassian Elwes, Charles King, Kim Roth, Sally Jo Effenson Chris Lemole, Tim Zajaros and Carl Effenson.
This is still an independent film as there is no distributor attached currently, but Charles King’s media company MACRO, focused on Black, Latino, and other multicultural audiences is doing the backing right now. The producers of the movie are in talks to showcase Mudbound in the next few weeks.
What do you think about Rees directing Mudbound? Let us know in the comments.
