He's about to play Roger Ebert in Russ & Roger, and now Josh Gad has signed up to portray another real-life character. He's taken a supporting role in the drama Marshall, which stars Chadwick Boseman as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) is the director.
At the time the story takes place, Marshall had yet to attain his own Supreme Court status and was working as a lawyer. Gad's role is that of insurance lawyer Sam Friedman, who worked with Marshall in the defence of black New York chauffeur Joseph Spell in 1940. The latter had been falsely accused by his white employer of sexual assault and attempted murder. Marshall and Friedman got him acquitted, in a high profile case demonstrating that racism was not just a problem for the American south. It paved the way for the Civil Rights Movement of subsequent decades. Marshall went on to sucessfully fight numerous cases. His most significant and justly famous win resulted in the desegregation of America's public schools.
Jacob Koskoff (Macbeth) wrote the Marshall screenplay, and shooting is already underway. Gad will be joining Will Ferrell in Russ & Roger later this year. Boseman, of course, has already filmed his first scenes as Marvel's Black Panther for Captain America: Civil War, which is out in the UK on April 29.