Free State of Jones is coming to theaters June 24, and if you’ve been interested in this film since word got out that it was even being made, look below to see some stills, behind-the-scenes photos, poster, and the trailer for the film.
Hollywood is beginning to catch up with the wave of inclusion, but even with this film, which is based on a true story, there will be questions that must be addressed. Number one: Is this just a re-jiggered “Good White Man” story with a new coat of “inclusion” polish? Perhaps. Will Gugu Mbatha-Raw have a fleshed-out character beyond being just Matthew McConaughey’s “exotic” love interest? One hopes so. Will this story be centered around the feelings of McConaughey’s character, with the feelings of the black characters who are in the most peril as the film’s remote satellites? I certainly hope not. I don’t want to feel like another Dances With Wolves situation, in which the white man is taken in by the darker people of the region and is, in some ways, made their proverbial king.
Anyways, I’m interested to see this little-told (or never told?) part of American history, if just to see how much the film tries to assert the “We’re the good white people!” storyline that has gotten told too many doggone times in slavery films. But, for all intents and purposes, the film looks good.
Written and directed by four-time Oscar® nominee Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), and starring Oscar® winner Matthew McConaughey, Free State of Jones is an epic action-drama set during the Civil War, and tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy.
Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones.
Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.
Genres: Epic Action-Drama
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Keri Russell, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali
Directed By: Gary Ross
Produced By: Scott Stuber, Jon Kilik, Gary Ross
EDIT: The latest trailer is shorter and mostly a recut of the original trailer:
