LaKeith Stanfield’s latest film Crown Heights will bring you to your knees.
We all know and love the 25-year old actor from his hilarious portrayal of Darius in FX’s Atlanta, and most recently as Sunken Place Logan in Jordan Peele’s astounding Get Out. However, Stanfield’s latest flick Crown Heights is something else entirely. Based on a true story adapted from a segment on the acclaimed NPR show, This American Life, Crown Heights is a devastating story about humanity, race, our broken criminal justice system and friendship.
Set in the summer of 1980 in Flatbush, Brooklyn, Colin Warner (Stanfield) an 18-year-old kid from nearby Crown Heights, is wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Based on a child witness who incorrectly pointed him out as the killer, Warner’s life is snatched away from him. However, his childhood friend Carl ‘KC’ King (Nnamdi Asomugha) devotes his life to fighting for Colin’s freedom.
Acting tirelessly, King works on appeals, takes out loans for lawyer fees and becomes a legal courier to learn the court system in the desperate hope that one day he can help secure his friend his freedom. Natalie Paul, Bill Camp, Nestor Carbonell and Amari Cheatom also star in the film.
Director Matt Ruskin said he was inspired to make the film after hearing Warner and King’s story on This American Life. He told Filmmaker Magazine, “After hearing Colin and Carl’s piece on This America Life, I was really blown away by them. I couldn’t get their voices out of my head. For Carl King to have such a sense of injustice that he would never give up on his friend, even after 20 years, it really stuck with me.”
Crown Heights premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and it’s finally going to be released in theaters on August 25, 2017.
There is no trailer just yet, but we’ll let you know when we have one.
