In a year when both a TV mini-series and a seven-hour documentary about O.J. Simpson have riveted audiences, it’s hard to argue that there’s no room out there for two separate movies about the 1992 L.A. riots. Still, the battle that’s shaping up between two in-development projects—one from 12 Years a Slave screenwriter John Ridley, the other from Turkish breakout director Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang)—should be a fascinating one.
It’s Ergüven’s project, titled Kings, making news at the moment, having cast Daniel Craig and Halle Berry in two central roles, as residents of South Central who aim to protect a group of kids when the riots break out. The last we heard from Ridley’s film was in October, when he set it up with upstart indie outfit Broad Green Pictures; at the time production was set to begin this spring, but there have been no updates on the project since.
In the time since Ridley’s film was announced, Ergüven has seen her star rise considerably; Mustang premiered at Cannes in 2015 and was France’s submission for best foreign-language film at the Oscars, where it was a dark-horse favorite against the eventual winner, Son of Saul. An intimate, dark but sometimes hilarious story about five sisters growing up in a strict household in a small Turkish village, Mustang is a striking debut feature from a young, undeniable talent. And even though she’ll be working with two top-tier stars in Berry and Craig, Kings is not just a Hollywood project absorbing the name of the moment; Ergüven has been developing the film as her passion project for years, first presented at the Cannes co-production in 2011.
The way that Mustang balances the political and the personal—it is a clear condemnation of the streak of conservatism that has had a visible presence in Turkey in the last few years—makes Ergüven a fascinating, natural fit for an L.A.-riots story. Then again Ridley, an American who was living in Los Angeles at the time of the riots and has written extensively about race in the U.S., has his own strong claim on the material. If both movies wind up happening, it could make for a fascinating discussion about identity politics behind the camera—or, as in the case of the O.J. Simpson show and movie, just two worthy takes on one complex, endlessly rich story.
