Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’ Adds Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor and Mustafa Shakir to Cast
(“Soul Assassin,” “Cowboy Bebop,” “Marvel’s Luke Cage” and “The Deuce”) plays Cailloux, a free Black man who serves in the Union Army.The film is inspired by the famous photo circa 1863 known as “The Scourged Back.” The photo, taken during a Union Army medical examination, depicts a runaway slave dubbed “Whipped Peter” who became a symbol for the abolitionist movement when he was photographed in Harper’s Weekly with severe whipping scars all along his back.Smith, James Lassiter and Jon Mone are producing “Emancipation” through Westbrook Studios with McFarland Entertainment’s Joey McFarland and Escape Artists’ Todd Black.