Paramount Pictures has acquired the U.S. rights to “By Any Means,” a civil rights-era crime thriller directed by Elegance Bratton and starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg.
The studio announced the film’s theatrical release date as September 4th.
Set in Mississippi in 1966 and inspired by real events, the film’s logline describes “By Any Means” as “an uneasy partnership between a burly Mafia hitman and a young black FBI agent who are forced into an uneasy alliance to track down the murderer of a civil rights leader, uncovering a conspiracy that tests the limits of justice, loyalty, and survival.”
Nicole Beharie, David Strathairn, Giancarlo Esposito, Josh Lucas, and Ethan Embry round out the top-notch cast.
“This is a story about unlikely alliances forged under impossible circumstances, where justice is unclean and truth has a price,” Bratton said. “I wanted to explore what it means to confront violence not just as an act, but as a system, and what is required of those trapped within it.”
Bratton will direct from a script by Sasha Penn. He and Chester Aljournal Gordon produced the project under the Freedom Principles banner, along with Alex Lebovich of Hammerstone Studios. Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road. and Mr. Wahlberg and Mr. Stephen Levinson of Local Government.
The high-profile project follows Bratton’s feature directorial debut, The Inspection, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The film, starring Jeremy Pope and Gabriel Union, is based on Bratton’s own experiences as a young gay man in the Marine Corps during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era and his fractured relationship with his mother. Bratton also directed 2019’s acclaimed documentary “Peer Kids,” which won Film Independent’s True Than Fiction award, and last year’s “Move Ya Body: Birth of House.”
WME Independent handled sales. North.five.six is handling international sales for the film.
