Ava DuVernay’s ‘Central Park Five’ Adds Joshua Jackson, ‘Hamilton’s Christopher Jackson, Adepero Oduye & More
EXCLUSIVE: There is a tremendous real-life tragedy and injustice at the heart of Central Park Five but there is also an extremely deep bench of talent for the Ava Duvernay directed Netflix limited series with Joshua Jackson, Christopher Jackson and 12 Years A Slave’s Adepero Oduye now onboard.
The Affair star, Hamilton’s George Washington and Bull regular and The Big Short actress are also joined by Queen Sugar’s Omar Dorsey, Emmy winner Blair Underwood and Famke Janssen in the four-episode series, I’ve learned.
Power‘s William Sadler and Into The Dark‘s Aurora Perrineau will be part of Central Park Five too. Respectively, the duo will play a NYPD detective and the girlfriend of the Freddy Miyares portrayed Raymond Santana Jr.
Also starring Michael K. Williams, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo and Felicity Huffman, Central Park Five runs from 1989 when five Harlem teens were incorrectly convicted first in the media and then twice in the courts for the brutal rape of a jogger in the NYC park to 2014 when Santana, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise saw their names finally cleared.
Joshua Jackson is set to portray McCray’s lawyer Mickey Joseph and Grammy winner and Tony nominee Christopher Jackson will play Santana’s attorney Peter Rivera. Oduye is taking on the role of Harlem activist Nomsa Brath. Her husband and fellow community leader Elombe Brath will be played by Dorsey, fresh off the Queen Sugar Season 3 finale earlier this week. The Blacklist’s Janssen will portray prosecutor Nancy Ryan, who ran the reinvestigation of the initially railroaded case.
A Wrinkle In Time and 13th director DuVernay, whose birthday it is today BTW, is writing and helming all four episodes of the limited series, which is currently in production in NYC. Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King from Participant Media, Oprah Winfrey/Harpo Films, Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh from Tribeca Productions and DuVernay will EP Central Park Five.
Joshua Jackson is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and the law firm of Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller. Christopher Jackson works with Paradigm, Liebman Entertainment, and Scheck Rose Dapello. Oduye is repped by ICM Partners and Washington Square Films. Sadler and Perrineau are repped by Insurge-Ent and CAA and Silver Lining Entertainment respectively. Janssen works with ICM Partners. Dorsey is repped by Innovative Artists and Aligned Management while Underwood works with ICM Partners and Thruline Entertainment.
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