Tobey Maguire To Star In Brown V. Board Of Education Film

Tobey Maguire is attached to Universal's "The Crusaders," a drama about the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case.

Gary Ross is attached to direct, and U has hired "Recount" scribe Danny Strong to write the script.

Maguire would play Jack Greenberg, who, as an idealistic lawyer fresh out of law school, joined with NAACP Legal Defense Fund head and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to win a Supreme Court case that ruled segregation in American schools illegal.

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Comments

[Vern58]

As a person who attended the Topeka Public Schools, i applaud any effort to shed light on this landmark. I will always thank God that i was allowed to attend schools with a good racial balance- it prepared me to go on to a life unafraid of the world as it is.

[kentay305]

they just have to get some input from some of the real survivors of those long drawn out cour hearings through the naacp.

dont be like clint eastwood having 3 guys nodding their heads or staring at something like they are taking a JC Penny photo and say ....hey its got black folks in the movie ROFL... classic

[robXdion]

No, they'll have a fictional white character (Maguire) as the main protagonist in a historical depiction as if he single-handedly caused the ruling himself. Blacks will just be a sympathetic backdrop and dreary prop pieces bearing testimony to the heroic actions of this liberal, innocent and courageous white male who vicariously offers racial redemption to all those who can't relate or may feel indicted by a story exposing an ugly chapter in America's past. That's the only way to sell the such a movie: create the myth of a white savior from a deep moral issue whites had in the first place. But of course the racial outrage of "separate and not really equal" will be counterweighted with the bussing issue as if the former didn't caused the latter in the first place. Jim Webb has this view. That's the Hollywood mentality: sell Americans an alternative history pleasing to their fragile sensibilities, whitewash the past and call it "progress".

[uheardme]

You've nailed it.

[robXdion]

Oh, and I forgot the obligatory black girlfriend his character will undoubtedly have as proof of his non-racism and good intentions. (nevermind Maguire actually had a black GF and still slings around racial epithets).

[TruEngineHearing]

The story of the long, plotted, pathway to the Brown case is one of the most fantastic and glorious stories you will ever hear. If they do it right, we will all be introduced to the amazing group of people - spread out over a century, whose cleverness, brilliance, and motivation saved all of us - whites from an eternity of raw blame and guilt, and blacks from the bleak future of secondness.

I can't wait.

[TroubleNYC]

Will they be using the videotape of him and Leo D throwing N-bombs as footage?

[vmonter]

What a great opportunity for a while male to shine as an actor... they get so few chances.

[SeanGardner]

This is interesting.

Because right now, Kansas is in the news politically with Obama's mother being from there, and, with a potential VP pick for Obama, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, being from Kansas.

In fact, Gov. Sebelius' kids are products of the Topeka school system which was a flashpoint in the early Civil Rights Movement with the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Topeka, Kansas U.S. Supreme Court decision. This may not seem like much in any old year, but when you throw in the fact that Barack Obama will give the Democratic Presidential Address, in prime time, on the 45 anniversary of the March on Washington, then the Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court case takes on tremendous relevance.

Who knows: the movie about Brown vs. Board of Topeka movie might be coming along at a very opportune time.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Thanks.

[IQ]

WOW!! That will win a him an Oscar FOR SURE. I mean how will he pull off the portrayal of Thrurgood Marshall? If he can do that...WHAT? You say its a movie about the NAACP and the Brown v. Board of Education case and it's not about Thurgood Marshall??!!! It's about WHO?

I have a feeling this will turn the story of the case that changed America into some kind of 'Buddy Movie'. With Jack Greenberg's character as the lead Mel Gibson type character and Thurgood Marshall as his trusty old, 'wisecracking' sidekick.

[uheardme]

I agree. I'm tired of these revisionist make "de whyte folks" feel good movies.

Please.