Jack O’Connell and Laura Dern are set to star in the true story drama Trial by Fire based on David Grann’s award-winning New Yorker article.
The Last Samurai and Glory helmer Ed Zwick will direct the film about Cameron Todd Willingham (O’Connell), a poor and uneducated heavy metal devotee convicted of triple homicide in the arson deaths of his three small children.
Dern plays Elizabeth Gilbert, a Texas housewife who forms an unlikely bond with Willingham who is on death row. Facing staggering odds, he fights for his freedom on the grounds he was wrongly convicted.
Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious) penned the script and Zwick, Allyn Stewart, Kipp Nelson, and Alex Soros will produce. Film sales will be represented by Cinetic Media and CAA
Filming begins October 2nd in Atlanta.
