Sony has dated Denzel Washington’s directorial A Journal for Jordan for Dec. 10 in New York and LA with a wide break on Dec. 22.
The film is based on Dana Canedy’s New York Times best-selling memoir of the same title, which was published in 2008. Washington directs Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams off a screenplay by Academy Award nominee Virgil Williams. The drama follows 1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King (Jordan), who before he is killed in action in Baghdad, authors a journal for his son intended to tell him how to live a decent life despite growing up without a father.
Washington will direct from a script by Virgil Williams, the Oscar-nominated writer of Mudbound, who adapted Canedy’s bestselling 2008 memoir. Jordan is in talks to play First Sergeant King and produce via his Outlier Society banner, while Washington will also produce alongside Todd Black and his Escape Artists partners Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch.
Jordan is coming off the stunning success of Marvel’s Black Panther, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide before earning seven Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. Regardless of what happens on Sunday night, Black Panther’s place in the history books of cinema is secure. Jordan also recently starred in Creed II, which became the highest-grossing live-action film to ever open over Thanksgiving weekend. And, he earned a PGA Award and his first Emmy nomination as an executive producer on the HBO movie Fahrenheit 451, in which he starred opposite Michael Shannon.
Jordan next stars in Destin Daniel Cretton’s legal drama Just Mercy as a world-renowned civil rights defense attorney who fights to free a condemned death row prisoner. It’s the kind of role that could thrust him into the Oscar race next year. Jordan is also assembling a strong development slate that includes Lionsgate’s action-thriller The Silver Bear, which just landed an intriguing new director on Wednesday, as well as a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair and an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, which is being eyed as a potential franchise at Paramount.
Pic is produced by Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, Washington, Jordan, and Aaron L. Gilbert. EP is Jason Cloth.
A Journal for Jordan will open on the Wednesday before Christmas Eve Friday. Three other titles are opening on that Wednesday: Warner Bros/HBO Max’s The Matrix 4, Universal/Illumination’s Sing 2, and 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man.