Joseph Gordon-Levitt Takes On the Ku Klux Klan in K Troop

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be starring in K Troop, a feature film that follows the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the South post-Civil War and its first fall in 1871. The film’s title comes from the Army unit that was assigned to take down the group. Gordon-Levitt will be playing the “enigmatic leader” of K Troop, Major Lewis Merrill.

For the time being, there aren’t any other names attached to the project. It currently lacks a writer, though it should be noted that the movie is based on a yet-to-be-published Slate article by Matthew Pearl. Gordon-Levitt’s hitRECord Films will be taking care of production, with Amazon Studios handling distribution.

The movie’s premise seems incredibly intriguing, and its timing is quite appropriate, given Donald Trump’s campaign and the current discussions going on in Hollywood around race and diversity. It’s also not the only film that crosses over the KKK. Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation (a direct reference to explicitly racist KKK-centric film Birth of a Nation) was one of the biggest film deals to come out of Sundance. Centered around a slave revolt in the American South, it lies in direct opposition to the original 1915 film’s racist aims and purposes.

There aren’t too many details out about K Troop, but I definitely feel the need to say that there’s something… unsettling about a movie based on a white person’s journey in resisting/stomping out the KKK. There are some very real “white savior” red flags popping up here, and it’s definitely got me on edge, because the hope is that this movie doesn’t just focus on the white experience of saving Black people.

As I’ve said already: we don’t have too many details yet, so it’s incredibly early to make a judgement call. But I can definitely say that there are some feels around this one, as well as no small amount of hope.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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