'Just Mercy' Trailer: Michael B. Jordan And Brie Larson Fight For Justice

Before Destin Daniel Cretton heads to Marvel to helm the highly anticipated Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Short Term 12 director is squeezing in one last dramatic stunner. This time, Cretton teams up with Michael B. Jordan to tell the true story of attorney Bryan Stevenson's fight for justice for a criminal on death row (Jamie Foxx), in Just Mercy. Watch the Just Mercy trailer below.

Cretton came out the gate running with his directorial debut Short Term 12, an acclaimed 2013 drama starring Brie Larson that swept the festival circuit and won the director and his star accolades. However, his second film, The Glass Castle was a bit of a stumble commercially and critically, despite his reuniting with Larson. But it looks like he could pull himself out of that small rut with Just Mercy, a powerful true-life drama about Harvard-educated Bryan Stevenson and his mission to defend the wrongly condemned. The story follows Stevenson as he heads to Alabama to work a case of death row inmate Walter McMillian (Foxx), who proclaims his innocence for the 1987 murder of an 18-year-old girl.

Just Mercy reunites Cretton again with Larson, who puts on a strong Southern accent and a bad wig to play local advocate Eva Ansley, but the film is all about Jordan, fresh off Creed II and making his case to be Hollywood's next big movie star. The movie looks like a great vehicle for Jordan and a shoo-in for awards buzz for its supporting players come Oscar season.

Directed and co-written by Destin with Andrew Lanham, Just Mercy is based on the memoir by Bryan Stevenson. It also stars Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rafe Spall.

Here is the Just Mercy synopsis:

A powerful and thought-provoking true story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley. One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian, who in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.

Just Mercy opens in theaters on December 25, 2019.