David Brown Jr., Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo, Aidan Quinn and Susan Sarandon are set to star in an upcoming television movie version of the off-Broadway hit The Exonerated. The movie, currently filming in a New York studio, is expected to air on Court TV early in 2005, according to Variety.
Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank wrote The Exonerated based on interviews with wrongly accused death row inmates. The authors created the piece to expose a lesser known death penalty fact: as of the year 2000, 87 innocent people have been freed from death row since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
The Exonerated, directed by Bob Balaban who will also helm the Court TV version, opened at 45 Bleecker Street on October 10, 2002 to great acclaim. Late in 2003, as the show's rotating cast became less starry, The Exonerated's box office weakened. It moved to a smaller space downstairs at 45 Bleecker on December 9, 2003 and closed there on March 7, 2004.
While the play was done in reading format with actors sitting on stools, the television movie will be fully fleshed out and will feature numerous actors bringing each person's story to life.