‘Shameless’ Writer LaToya Morgan’s Script For Angela Davis Biopic Picked Up The FirmPosted by Wilson Morales
May 5, 2016
Source: Deadline
Deadline is reporting that Jeff Kwatinetz’s The Firm has acquired an untitled script by Shameless writer LaToya Morgan for a biopic on Black Panthers member and 60s radical Angela Davis.
The company’s division president Robbie Brenner will produce with Kwatinetz and Kevin McKeon.
Davis, accused of murdering a federal judge, became the first woman on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, became an iconic symbol of an era. After fleeing from authorities, she is eventually captured and must exonerate herself from an all white jury during the racially turbulent early 1970’s.
In 2012, Shola Lynch directed the critically acclaimed documentary, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.
Besides Shameless, Morgan has also written for AMC’s Turn: Washington’s Spies, which she was nominated for an 2015 NAACP Image Award. Morgan, who was recently hired to adapt the Robert Crais novel The Two Minute Rule for Original Film and Story Mining & Supply
“Although the events of this film take place three decades ago, Angela Davis’s story holds a strong relevance in today’s political and social landscape, and we are excited and honored to tell it along with LaToya.” said Brenner.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, LaToya Morgan is an alumna of the American Film Institute Conservatory where she received a MFA in Screenwriting. Post-graduate school, she was selected as a Fellow in Film Independent’s Project: Involve and later had her feature script place in the distinguished Nicholl Fellowship. She is also a 2011 alumna of the prestigious Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2013 she was a Finalist for the Austin Film Festival pilot writing competition, was selected to Film Independent Producer’s Lab and a participant in the Producers Guild of America’s Power of Diversity Workshop.
