Chris Rock joins cast in biopic celebrating gay civil rights activist – Rolling Out

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Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, and Audra McDonald are to star in “Rustin.”

The movie is a biopic of the gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and is the first feature to be produced by Higher Ground, the production company set up by former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

George C. Wolfe, who previously helmed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, will direct the movie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Dustin Lance Black. The film will be released on Netflix as part of their deal with Higher Ground.

The project will look at the various obstacles that Rustin had to overcome to organize the March on Washington in 1963, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Domingo will play Rustin in the movie with Rock starring as NAACP leader Roy Wilkins. Turman will portray activist A. Philip Randolph and McDonald will star as civil rights icon Ella Baker.

Oscar-winner Bruce Cohen and Tonia Davis will produce the film.

Rock recently starred in and served as executive producer for Spiral, which marked his debut in the Saw franchise, and hopes that it can reinvigorate the series in a similar way to how the Creed movies brought new interest to the Rocky franchise.