Haley Bennett Joins Whoopi Goldberg In ‘Till’ From MGM’s Orion Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Haley Bennett has joined the cast of Chinonye Chukwu’s and Orion Pictures‘ Till, starring opposite Whoopi Goldberg, Frankie Faison and Jalyn Hall. The film is currently shooting in Atlanta. Chukwu is writing and directing.

The film tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, whose pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. As Time Magazine reported, “…thanks to a mother’s determination to expose the barbarousness of the crime, the public could no longer pretend to ignore what they couldn’t see.” Mamie’s decision to have an open casket at Emmett’s funeral, and to have Jet magazine publish David Jackson’s funeral photos, was driven by her motivation to ensure people everywhere knew what had happened to her son.

The pic is based in part on the original research of Keith Beauchamp for his 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.

Bennett will next be seen starring opposite Peter Dinklage and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Cyrano for MGM. A re-imagining of Edmund Rostand’s classic play Cyrano de Bergerac with music by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National, the film recently debuted to critical acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival and will be released later this year.

Bennett is also set to star in Eli Roth’s Borderlands adaptation of the popular video game series of the same name co-starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jack Black. She will also star opposite Sam Riley in Jamie Adams’ improvisational romance She Is Love, about an estranged divorced couple as they revisit the treacherous path of their past together.

Bennett is represented by WME, Tavistock Wood Management and Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver Thompson.