James Bond actor Daniel Craig is in talks to be in "Kings" and work with Mustang director and Turkish-French filmmaker Deniz Gamze Erguven. He will act opposite actress Halle Berry in Erguven's English language debut picture. The film is about the Rodney King trial in 1992 when tensions rose in Los Angeles and will have the mix of tough emotion and lightness Mustang is good at.
Craig will play Ollie who lives in South Central where white residents were few. He is a loner who befriends Berry's character, a protective mother looking after a group of kids. During the riots, Ollie helps Berry who has secret feelings for him, track down the kids from violence.
The riots in L.A. were triggered after policemen charged of beating Rodney King were acquitted in 1992. In 1991, three or four police officers beat an unarmed taxi driver King over drunk driving, an act captured on video that symbolized police brutality. The riots led to 55 deaths, $1 billion in property damage and injured more than 4,000.
Putting the film together is Insiders by Vincent Maraval and they sell it with CAA to handle domestic while Charles Gillibert is the lead producer, Deadline reported.
"Kings" has been the dream project of Erguven after she graduated from film school French Femis. She decided to have her directorial debut with Mustang. Her first project was about five young orphaned sisters in a remote Turkish village and their challenges growing up in a conservative society.
Erguven's first film impressed viewers and critics, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language film. It raked almost 500,000 admissions in France alone being a box office hit.
"Kings" is one of the two related projects to make its way to the big screen. It is also being worked by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning director of "12 Years a Slave" and "American Crime" creator, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Craig being James Bond is reportedly coming to an end and the actor is up for other projects. He was in talks to be in "Logan Lucky," a Steven Soderbergh's heist film that also stars Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Riley Keogh. The CAA and Independent Talent Group-repped actor also signed for "Purity," a Showtime Series with 20 episodes by writer-director Todd Field and producer Scott Rudin which is based on a Jonathan Franzen-novel about Purity or Pip, a young female activist who sets a worldwide search for her father.
Here is a video clip about the L.A. riots in 1992.