Shout! Studios Acquires Rights To Drama ‘I’m Charlie Walker’ Starring Mike Colter:

EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to FAMM Films’ topical drama I’m Charlie Walker, starring Mike Colter (Evil, Marvel’s Luke Cage), following a competitive bidding situation. Shout! Factory’s multi-platform entertainment distribution and production arm plans to release the film across all major entertainment platforms, beginning with a theatrical day-and-date launch later this year.

The film based on a true story picks up in 1971, as two oil tankers violently collide off the San Francisco coast, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil and creating an environmental disaster. Against all odds, trucking and construction entrepreneur Charlie Walker (Colter) is then able to secure one of the most lucrative contracts to clean the coastline threatening much of the San Francisco Bay, with only three trucks, an incredible work ethic and a whole lot of heart. Pic recounts the racial discrimination Walker endured as he tries to save the coastline, all while fighting institutional racism from the very company that hired him in the first place.

I’m Charlie Walker was written and directed by Patrick Gilles (Olive). Dylan Baker (Hunters), Safiya Fredericks (Sorry to Bother You), Mark Leslie Ford (Jamojaya), Steven Wiig (Milk), Emma Caulfield Ford (WandaVision), Greg Cipes (The Fast & the Furious), Monica Barbaro (Top Gun: Maverick) and Carl Lumbly (The Falcon & the Winter Soldier) round out the cast of the film, featuring a special appearance by former San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. Charlie Walker and Mike Regen produced, with William O’Keeffe exec producing. Mark Harris, Jordan Fields and John Rotella served as associate producers.

“I’m Charlie Walker is the equally charming and profound true story of one courageous and resourceful man’s triumph over racial prejudice,” said Shout! Studios’ Vice President of Acquisitions, Jordan Fields. “Mike Colter, Dylan Baker and Safiya Fredericks deliver undeniably winning performances, and we’re eager to share this story with audiences at a time when it’s needed most.”

“I was a witness to Charlie Walker’s amazing story of grit and determination in the face of adversity as it unfolded in San Francisco back in 1971,” added the Honorable Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. “To finally see his triumphant life story hit the big screen with a major motion picture brings a huge smile to my face.”

FAMM Films is a San Francisco and Los Angeles based multi-media company that focuses on content inspired by the City by The Bay. Up next from the company is Walter The Great, penned by San Francisco-based writer and journalist Andrew Chamings.

Recent releases from Shout! Studios include the critically acclaimed Western Old Henry, starring Tim Blake Nelson; the action thriller Castle Falls, directed by Dolph Lundgren and starring Scott Adkins and Lundgren; the dramedy Language Lessons, directed by Natalie Morales and starring Morales and Mark Duplass; the dramedy Misbehaviour, starring Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Standing Up, Falling Down, starring Ben Schwartz and Billy Crystal; the action-thriller Take Back, starring Mickey Rourke and Michael Jai White; and the documentary features A Crime on the Bayou and Women In Motion: Nichelle Nichols Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA.

Fields and Vice President of Business Affairs Steven Katz negotiated the deal for I’m Charlie Walker on behalf of Shout! Studios, with Mike Regen on behalf of FAMM Films and Sean Pope of Ramo Law.

View this article at Deadline.