Here's a project we have been following since September of 2011. The Suspect, a feature debut by Stuart Connelly, stars Mekhi Phifer and Sterling K. Brown.
According to the film's synopsis, Pfifer and Brown will play two African American social scientists who "pose as bank robbers in an effort to understand the racial dynamics of small-town law enforcement. However, their experiment takes an unplanned, deadly turn."
Here's more about the film from the film's website:
A small southern town — close-knit and all-white — suffers its first-ever armed bank robbery. The thief is masked, but the video surveillance seems to indicate the criminal is African American.
Within a half-hour of the crime, a lone black man is found walking along one of the town’s rural roads. No ID, wearing a dirt-streaked undershirt as if he’s recently buried something. No explanation for his behavior, and little cooperation. Case closed? Maybe.
Or maybe it’s just the beginning. From the moment the sheriff locks his suspect in the town’s lone jail cell, the balance of power shifts. As it becomes clear he’s sitting exactly where he wants to be, this mysterious man calls the motivation of everyone he encounters into question. Who’s behind the robbery, and why? The answers will be so much more than you can possibly imagine.
The Suspect — an up-to-the-minute thriller where nothing is black and white — stars Mekhi Phifer (ER, 8 Mile), William Sadler (Roswell, The Shawshank Redemption), James McCaffrey (Rescue Me, Compliance), Rebecca Creskoff (Hung, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Sterling K. Brown (Army Wives, My Idiot Brother).
The original score was composed by Stephen Coates and performed by his band, The Real Tuesday Weld (featuring the new song "Happy Endings," available soon wherever digital music is sold).
The Suspect is the feature film debut of writer / director Stuart Connelly, acclaimed co-author of the Martin Luther King, Jr. biography Behind The Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation.
Watch the intriguing trailer below:
