Congratulations are in order for All American‘s Jayln Hall as he has been tapped to lead Chinonye Chuku’s Emmett Till movie.
Fourteen-year-old Hall will star alongside Danielle Deadwyler and Whoopi Goldberg.
According to Deadline, Till tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), whose pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. Mamie’s decision to have an open casket at Emmett’s funeral, and to have Jet magazine publish David Jackson’s funeral photos, was driven by her motivation to ensure people everywhere knew what had happened to her son.
“We have waited a very long time to bring this historically necessary important film to people,” Academy Award winning actress Goldberg said to Variety in an interview. “And as we watch the repression of American History when it comes to people of color it makes it even that more important. I couldn’t be with better people: Fred, Barbara, Chinonye, Keith, Michael and Danielle.”
In the same interview, Danielle Deadwyler commented on the importance of portraying Till’s mother.
“It is a gift to learn the legacy and intimacies of our ancestors, those familial and communal, as is the life of Mamie Till-Mobley, a public leader and mother of the movement.”
Deadwyler continued, “I am charged with humility and great will to embody her life at such an integral moment of personal tragedy and political rebellion, a boon to the civil rights movement, and to represent the joy in the love and life shared between Mamie Till and her beloved Emmett Till. I am grateful for the women who support me as the one to carry the labor of this embodiment and as an inheritor of such a lineage. Much gratitude for Chinonye Chukwu, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Alana Mayo, and Pam Abdy, amongst many others, for the undertaking we seek to uplift and transfigure with this film.”
The upcoming film is partly based on the original research of Keith Beauchamp for his award-winning 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. Chukwu wrote the screenplay, based on a previous draft by Keith Beauchamp and Michael J P Reilly.
In addition to MGM’s Orion Pictures upcoming project, Hall was recently cast as a co-lead in The Crossover, a pilot for 20th Television Studios and Disney+. The Crossover is based on the Newbery Award-winning book.
Hall will also continue to portray Dillon James on The CW’s hit football drama as it heads into its fourth season.
