‘Tulia’ to Bring Berry and Thorton Back Together

Three years after Halle Berry was named to topline LionsGate’s upcoming release Tulia, a co-star has finally signed on. Billy Bob Thorton was captivated enough by the screenplay to agree to what will amount to a Monster’s Ball reunion. The script was penned by Karen Croner and given a rewrite by Franklin. Filming is set to begin April 30 in and around New Orleans.

Berry, who signed on to the production in January 2004, will portray the key attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in a case involving the 1999 arrests of 10% of the black population of Tulia, Texas. The arrests did not produce drugs or money, causing prosecutors and civil rights groups to denounce the bust as racial profiling. The undercover agent who conducted the bust was indicted for perjury; Texas Gov. Rick Perry pardoned most of the 46 arrestees in 2003. The screenplay is an adaptation of the Nate Blakeslee tome Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town.

Tulia, which has been in development at Paramount-based Tollin/Robbins for several years was set to be directed by one of the partners, Mike Tollin or Brian Robbins, but recently tapped Carl Franklin to helm the project. The partners credit baseball icon Henry Aaron for getting the project off the ground. The producers had previously worked on a film documenting Aaron’s quest for Babe Ruth’s record, and were attending an NAACP meeting, which honored the Hall of Famer. “As part of the presentation about what the NAACP does, they were explaining the situation in Tulia,” Robbins recalled. “We both said, 'We have to do this movie because it's so compelling.' “

Franklin, who has received 5 awards for his work, including Cognac Festival du Film Policier, has a dozen credits under his belt, nearly 25 years of television acting, and a second project The Senator's Wife currently in pre-production with a 2008 release date. Tulia is a co-production between Element Films and Lift Films.