OSCAR WINNING DIRECTOR KATHRYN BIGELOW’S untitled new feature about the violent five-day Detroit riots in the summer of 1967 is now filming in Brockton, Michigan, turning that city in a war zone, with an angry mob, Army encampment, tanks and riot squads.
Plot details haven’t been revealed, but it was described as “a crime drama that explores systemic racism in urban Detroit,” in a press release from Annapurna Pictures, one of the film’s investors.
Some scenes are set on a main street where a row of old-run-down city-held properties in August were transformed into storefronts and sites to resemble what Michigan looked like 50 years ago, reports The Enterprise.
In scenes filmed Wednesday, a charred pile of rubble and partially constructed walls, made to look like a building left in ruins, was set on fire several times as fake smoke filled the entire block. On the side of the road, a vintage car was engulfed in flames.
Army equipment was stationed on the Brockton Fairgrounds amid a group of men in military uniforms. One man was operating a Vietnam-era Army tank.
The ’67 riots left 43 people dead, more than 1,000 injured and more than 7,000 arrested. Several thousand structures were also damaged.
Starring are John Krasinski (“The Office”) alongside (Jason Mitchell (“Straight Outta Compton”), Joseph David-Jones, John Boyega, Will Poulter, Anthony Mackie and Jack Reynor.
The film has been shooting mainly in Massachusetts, including Dorchester and Lynn.
It will be released in 2017, the 50th anniversary of the riots.
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