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26th Annual Palm Springs Internationall Film Festival Awards Gala - Ballroom

Source: Michael Buckner / Getty

It was recently announced during the 2015 Cannes Film Festival that a biopic on the life of Emmett Till, the black Chicago teenager whose death in 1955 kick-started the American Civil Rights Movement, is in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Shatterglass Films and Chaz Ebert, the former wife of late Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, are set to adapt the award-winning book Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America into the feature based on Till’s life.

2015 marks 60 years since Emmett Till’s death, which came at the expense of flirting with a white woman in Money, Miss.

“Till’s murder, which was the focus of international press coverage, inspired Americans in their quest for justice and equality and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement that ultimately led to federal legislation and extensive legal and social progress,” the partners said in a statement.

“The full Emmett Till story needs to be told now and told well as a narrative for our times, given all that is happening on American streets today and Shatterglass Films are the people to tell it,” Chaz Ebert said.

Journalist Christopher Benson, who co-wrote the aforementioned book with Till’s late mother Mamie Till-Mobley said, “This is not an African American story, it is an American story.”

Luke Boyce, Brett Hays, Jen Shelby and Christopher Benson are producing the film for Shatterglass. Ebert and Nate Kohn are executive producing the picture.

“We are proud to play a vital role in bringing this compelling story to a wide audience at this critical time in our history,” Hays said. “The film will fill in the gaps in public awareness regarding the significance of Till’s death, particularly in light of recent slayings of Black youth in American cities under questionable circumstances.”

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Roger Ebert’s Widow Will Bring Emmett Till’s Story To The Big Screen  was originally published on theurbandaily.com