Antoine Fuqua To Develop Movie About Black Panther Leader Fred Hampton

Antoine Fuqua is developing a film about Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton.

In a report from Variety, the Training Day director will develop a film based on Jeffrey Haas' book The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther, which has been adapted by Chris Smith.

The untitled movie will be a part of first-look deal Fuqua has signed with Sony.

"I started my feature film career almost 20 years ago at Columbia," Fuqua said. "Since then some of my biggest career achievements have been with the studio. I am proud of our work together and am very much looking forward to this new collaboration and our upcoming creative endeavors."

Hampton was an American activist and revolutionary, serving as the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. As a talented communicator and effective leader, Hampton attempted to bring together the Black Panther Party with other organizations, something that the Federal Bureau of Investigation saw as a threat.

Ultimately, Hampton was killed at the age of 21 during a raid performed by Chicago police and the FBI at his apartment. While sleeping alongside his pregnant fiancee, Hampton was shot in the shoulder by the police team, and ultimately shot two more times in the head.

His death was ruled as a justifiable homicide by the inquest. A civil lawsuit resulted in a settlement of $1.85 million in 1982.

Prior to this announcement, Fuqua was in talks to direct a remake of Scarface. However, he ended up leaving the film to work on the sequel to his Equalizer movie.

Fuqua will also be working on a multi-part documentary about Muhammad Ali, alongside LeBron James. The series will focus on Ali's life and career, with the documentary using everything from archival footage and cinematic recreations, to never before seen photos and footage from private collections of the Ali family and others.