Kathryn Bigelow has finally set her next project. She will work with writer Mark Boal and Annapurna Pictures producer Megan Ellison once again on a film about the 1967 Detroit riots.
Boal wrote an original screenplay based on the riots that devastated Detroit during the summer of 1967. According to Variety, Boal spent over a year doing research on the project and will co-produce with Boal, Ellison and Matthew Budman.
Producers hope to get the film out by 2017, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the riots.
This is a big change for Boal and Bigelow, whose past collaborations - The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty - were set in the Middle East. Annapurna also worked on Zero Dark Thirty.
Bigelow, who remains the only woman to ever win the Best Picture Director Oscar thanks to her work on The Hurt Locker, was also reportedly working on a film about Bowe Bergdahl. Boal told Deadline this week that the Bergdahl project will be put on hold until Bergdahl’s court martial trial is finished.
“Nobody in Washington predicted that Bowe’s journey would take so many twists and turns and would continue to be unresolved,” Boal told the site. “I certainly didn’t see it coming and I was working on this other story at the same time. It’s also a very timely tale that deals with systemic racism in a way I think is relevant to contemporary audiences. It felt like the right thing to do to go ahead with the Detroit project, which was finished, and tell that story now. We will circle back to Bergdahl when the military proceedings are resolved.”