Keri Russell and Mahershala Ali will join Matthew McConaughey in historical drama, dubbed 'The Free State of Jones.'
According to Hollywood Reporter, McConaughey is portraying Newton Knight, a soldier for the Confederacy during the Civil War who became disillusioned with the South's cause, fled the battlefield, rallied supporters and declared a safe haven in Jones County, an area of southeastern Mississippi in opposition to the Confederacy.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw is already on board set as a slave who became Knight's common-law wife. Russell will play will Knight's first wife, who leaves him. When she sees him next, he is married to a slave. Ali will play a runaway slave whom Knight treats as an equal and who tries to rally black people to register to vote.