Exclusive: Director Elegance Bratton talks By Any Means and working with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Hitting theaters on Sept. 4 from Paramount Pictures is By Any Means, a gritty crime thriller from the 1960s directed by Elegance Bratton.
Based on a true story, a young Black FBI agent (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), he finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur. When the system is broken, two men divided by everything agree on one thing: the law has limits. They don't.
The film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the FBI agent and Mark Wahlberg as the mafioso, with Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry, David Strathairn, and Giancarlo Esposito.
The screenplay is by Sascha Penn(Creed II, 1992, "Power Book III: Raising Kanan" series). Produced by Alex Lebovici, Chester Algernal Gordon, Elegance Bratton, Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Mark Wahlberg, and Stephen Levinson.
Bratton’s debut narrative feature The Inspection, based on his real-life experiences as a U.S. Marine, premiered at TIFF, closed the New York Film Festival, and released through A24 in November 2022. Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union starred. One of the directors on FX’s horror drama Grotesquerie, he’s also known for Viceland docuseries My House and his most recent project was the feature doc Move Ya Body. Bratton also co-runs the production company, Freedom Principle, alongside his producing partner Chester Algernal Gordon.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to By Any Means director Elegance Bratton on the film and working with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
