Found innocent in his criminal trial but guilty in a civil suit brought by the families of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman, O.J. Simpson's case will be cross-examined on the big screen next year.
Director Joshua Newton is set to begin production on a movie called An American Mystery, which promises "startling" new facts about the case of the murders of Brown-Simpson and Goldman, a source close to the production tells BuzzFeed.
The film, which is being made on a massive $65 million budget from private backers (double what Simpson lost in the civil case), will present "flaws in the prosecution's case juxtaposed against a revolving backdrop of individual suspects with a wider range of motives and opportunities to commit the crime," according to an official description for the movie.
In short, the movie will argue that Simpson did not murder Brown-Simpson and Goldman.
Executive producing An American Mystery is former California Congresswoman Diane Watson, who served in the State Senate from 1978-1998 and then in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003-2011. She was close friends with Simpson's defense attorney, Johnny Cochran.
Also behind the project is former NBA All-Star Bo Kimble.
Lending support is NAACP leader Ron Hasson, who is the president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood chapter of the organization. The group is described as "supporting the effort to re-examine the facts and circumstances of the Brentwood murders."
Rosey Grier, the former NFL star and TV host who served as a bodyguard for Senator Robert F. Kennedy on the night he died, has also put his name behind the movie..
Brown-Simpson and Goldman were found murdered on June 13, 1994. Simpson was named a suspect and asked to surrender to authorities four days later. Instead, he led a low-speed highway chase that was ultimately viewed live on television by 95 million Americans. He finally surrendered, and his trial, which lasted from November of that year to the next October, became one of the most widely watched and hotly debated events of the decade.
Newton has one big screen director's credit to his name, a World War II drama titled Iron Cross. It starred iconic Jaws star Roy Scheider, who died during its production. It is set for wide release, after necessary visual effects work to compensate for Scheider's loss, in October under the title Justice/Vengeance.
The search for an actor to play Simpson has begun, but his late ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, will be played by Charlotte Kirk, who is set to play supporting roles in the Liam Neeson-Julianne Moore action film Non-Stop, and James Franco's anthology movie Black Dog, Red Dog.
