“The Bard,” Kevin Willmott‘s upcoming drama about enslaved man and celebrated poet George Moses Horton, has rounded out its cast.
The film — first announced by Variety earlier this month and currently shooting in North Carolina — stars David Gyasi (“The Diplomat”) in the title role. Joining Gyasi in the feature are Julia Schlaepfer (“1923”), Michael McElhatton (“Game of Thrones”) and David Straithairn (“Nomadland”), plus Joseph Lee Anderson (“Young Rock”), Jay R Ferguson (“Mad Men”), Adina Porter (“True Blood”) and Dylan Arnold (“After”).
“The Bard” — being directed by Wilmott (an Oscar winner for co-writing “BlackKklansman” with Spike Lee) — will tell the true story of Horton, the first Black poet to be published in America while enslaved, a feat punishable by death. Horton (Gyasi) wrote love poems and anti-slavery protests, and was assisted by the white wife (Schlaepfer) of a UNC Chapel Hill professor, who eventually became an anti-abolitionist. Willmott is working from a script he wrote alongside E. Paul Edwards.
“The Bard” is being produced by Kim Zubick (“The Zookeeper’s Wife,” “Togo”), Lauren Vilchik (“Cabin Fever,” “A Little Prayer”), Roland Waddell, Paul Edwards and Ksana Golod. Executive producer are Frigate Filmworks and Chase McNaughton while Bernice Miller is an associate producer.
Horton’s path from enslaved man to celebrated poet is a “unique and powerful story, which sheds new light on what it means to be ‘free,’” reads the logline.
Willmott has also written and directed “Ninth Street,” “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America” and “Bunker Hill, while his other writing collaborations with Lee include “Da 5 Bloods” and “Chi-Raq.”
The Gersh Agency will be representing “The Bard.”