{"id":174704,"date":"2025-08-25T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174704\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:00:10","slug":"julia-schlaepfer-david-strathairn-join-kevin-willmotts-the-bard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174704\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Schlaepfer, David Strathairn Join Kevin Willmott’s The Bard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cThe Bard,\u201d Kevin Willmott<\/a>\u2018s upcoming drama about enslaved man and celebrated poet George Moses Horton, has rounded out its cast. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film \u2014\u00a0first announced by Variety earlier this month<\/a> and currently shooting in North Carolina \u2014\u00a0stars David Gyasi<\/a> (\u201cThe Diplomat\u201d) in the title role. Joining Gyasi in the feature are Julia Schlaepfer<\/a> (\u201c1923\u201d), Michael McElhatton (\u201cGame of Thrones\u201d) and David Straithairn (\u201cNomadland\u201d), plus Joseph Lee Anderson (\u201cYoung Rock\u201d), Jay R Ferguson (\u201cMad Men\u201d), Adina Porter (\u201cTrue Blood\u201d) and Dylan Arnold (\u201cAfter\u201d). <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Bard\u201d \u2014\u00a0being directed by Wilmott (an Oscar winner for co-writing \u201cBlackKklansman\u201d with Spike Lee) \u2014 will tell the true story of Horton, the first Black poet to be published in America while enslaved, a feat punishable by death. Horton (Gyasi) wrote love poems and anti-slavery protests, and was assisted by the white wife (Schlaepfer) of a UNC Chapel Hill professor, who eventually became an anti-abolitionist. Willmott is working from a script he wrote alongside E. Paul Edwards.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cThe Bard\u201d is being produced by Kim Zubick (\u201cThe Zookeeper\u2019s Wife,\u201d \u201cTogo\u201d), Lauren Vilchik (\u201cCabin Fever,\u201d \u201cA Little Prayer\u201d), Roland Waddell, Paul Edwards and Ksana Golod. Executive producer are Frigate Filmworks and Chase McNaughton while Bernice Miller is an associate producer.<\/p>\n

\n\tHorton\u2019s path from enslaved man to celebrated poet is a \u201cunique and powerful story, which sheds new light on what it means to be \u2018free,\u2019\u201d reads the logline.<\/p>\n

\n\tWillmott has also written and directed \u201cNinth Street,\u201d \u201cC.S.A.: The Confederate States of America\u201d and \u201cBunker Hill, while his other writing collaborations with Lee include \u201cDa 5 Bloods\u201d and \u201cChi-Raq.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Gersh Agency will be representing \u201cThe Bard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Bard,\u201d Kevin Willmott\u2018s upcoming drama about enslaved man and celebrated poet George Moses Horton, has rounded out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":174705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[99386,48268,171,99387,99388,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-174704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-david-gyasi","9":"tag-david-strathairn","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-julia-schlaepfer","12":"tag-kevin-willmott","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115090242101657038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}