Jamie Foxx Joining Michael B. Jordan For JUST MERCY

Jamie Foxx, who will next be seen starring in ‘Robin Hood’ when it hits Irish cinemas in November, is set to join Michael B. Jordan in the courtroom drama ‘Just Mercy,’ Variety has learned.

With Destin Cretton (‘Short Term 12,’ ‘The Glass Castle’) directing, the film is based on Bryan Stevenson’s bestselling memoir and tells the story of the gifted young lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned and women and children.

Per the trade’s report, Foxx would play Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he did not commit. The case was one of Stevenson’s first cases, and it drew him into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

In addition to directing, Cretton co-wrote the script with Andrew Lanham.