Nate Parker (The Birth Of A Nation) is set to begin production on Vancover, B.C.-based BRON’s newest drama, Solitary, starting next week. BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo (Selma) leads the cast along with Olivia Washington (The Butler), Emmy award winner Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) and Jimmie Fails (The Last Black Man in San Francisco).
In Solitary, Oyewolo plays a man who struggles to matriculate back into society after enduring seven years of wrongful imprisonment in solitary confinement. Irony kicks in upon realizing that self-isolation is the new normal, as he tries to rebuild a life with his fiancé (Washington) and son, while plagued by the deep-seated trauma which creates unimaginable danger for both him, and the family he’s battling to protect.
Solitary marks the latest project from BRON in what they deem as “their continuing mission to bring socially conscious and underrepresented stories to the forefront of cinema.”
Parker will also produce the pic with Oyewolo, BRON’s Aaron L. Gilbert (Bombshell), and Yoruba Saxon Productions’s Christina Lee Storm (The Least of These), with Jason Cloth (Joker) of Creative Wealth Media is exec producing.
Oyelowo’s credits include Golden Globe nominated performances in Selma and the HBO drama Nightingale, as well as mini-series Les Misérables, The Queen of Katwe, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler. His feature directorial debut, The Water Man, premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim.
Washington was most recently in The Public Theater’s presentation of Much Ado About Nothing. She is also known for her work in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and guest performances on Empire, Madoff, Mr. Robot, and Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. She will next be seen in Joel Coen’s upcoming Shakespeare adaptation, The Tragedy of Macbeth, from Scott Rudin and A24, as well as John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things from Warner Bros.
Pepper’s credits include Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, True Grit and Seven Pounds to name a few, as well as his Emmy-awarded portrayal of Bobby Kennedy in The Kennedys, and Golden Globe-nominated performance as Roger Maris in the HBO sports drama 61*. Pepper can recently be seen in the disaster horror film, Crawl.
Fails starred in the critically acclaimed The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which he co-wrote with best friend and longtime collaborator, Joe Talbot, and which won both the Directing Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award last year at Sundance. Fails will next be seen in Kornél Mundruczó’s latest Netflix acquisition, Pieces of a Woman, following its Venice premiere.
Casting directors are Mary Vernieu (Knives Out, Looper, Silver Linings Playbook) and Michelle Wade Byrd (Bird Box, Girls Trip). The production designer is two-time Oscar nominee Jan Roelfs (Gattaca, Orlando). The director of photography is Elliot Davis (Out of Sight, The Birth of a Nation). The costume designer is Emmy nominee Christopher Hargadon (Once Upon a Mattress, The Umbrella Academy), and Kate Weiss (Shooter) has joined as first AD.
Oyelowo is repped by CAA and Hamilton Hodell. Washington is repped by WME and Liebman Entertainment. Pepper is repped by The Kohner Agency and Untitled Entertainment. Fails is repped by CAA and Anonymous Content.