Jack's Law
Flashlight Films has optioned the feature film rights to Jack’s Law: The Rise and Fall of Renegade Judge Jack Montgomery, a 1997 non-fiction book by Steve Joynt. The project is currently in pre-production, with principal photography scheduled to begin January 2009.
Following is a brief summary of the story:
Jack Montgomery was a star on the rise.
A district judge in Birmingham, Alabama, he ruled his courtroom in the manner of an old west-style justice of the peace—with horse sense, swagger and threats of bodily harm, when necessary. Montgomery engaged his public with charm and good looks that brought to mind a younger John Wayne, tall tales of his days as a Vietnam War POW (though he never set foot in Vietnam), colorful appearances on a local morning television show, a record-setting bond amount ($9 trillion) for a petty thief, political battles with Birmingham’s first African-American mayor, and eventually, his role atop a chain of corruption that involved fixed court cases, drug dealers and loads of cash.
Montgomery is brought to justice by Mark Hobbs, a green, undercover police detective who, while trying to outwit a shrewd drug dealer, unwittingly stumbles upon the dirty judge’s schemes. Hobbs is faced with a dilemma: to guard his life and protect his career by looking the other way, or to follow his conscience and attempt to bring down the judge and his entire criminal operation. Hobbs chooses to pursue Montgomery, but he—nor anyone else—could anticipate the lengths Montgomery would go to in an effort to avoid paying for his crimes.
The story takes place against the backdrop of 1980s Birmingham, Alabama; a city pursuing a new identity apart from its days as the focal point of Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s and 70s. The main character finds himself in conflict with an increasingly enlightened culture, the gender revolution, the onset of a frightening epidemic called AIDS, Birmingham’s newly empowered African-American community—and most of all, the law he claims to protect.
For more information about this project, email connect@flashlightfilms.com.