In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow made history by becoming the first woman to win a Best Director Academy Award for her work on the acclaimed Iraq War film The Hurt Locker. Bigelow followed that film up with the equally acclaimed Zero Dark Thirty which saw five Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture. The filmmaker appears to be sticking to topical points of interest with her latest film, an untitled fact-based drama centering around riots that took place in the city in of Detroit in the mid-1960s.

Mark Boal, who won an Oscar for writing The Hurt Locker and received a second nomination for his screenplay for Zero Dark Thirty, will collaborate with Bigelow for the third consecutive time on the project, now simply called “Untitled Detroit Project.” The film is set around the violent riots that shook the city of Detroit over five long summer days in 1967. Boal has been working on the script and researching for the film for well over a year now, which will explore systemic racism that permeated through the riots, a theme perhaps just as timely and topical today.

No distributor is set yet, though hopes are the film will be ready in time for a 2017 release which would mark the 50th anniversary of the riots themselves. As with Zero Dark Thirty, mega-producer Megan Ellison (and her AnnaPurna banner) will produce the upcoming project; Bigelow and Boal will serve as producers as well.

We will stay tuned to the latest developments regarding this upcoming drama.