The title The Zebra Murders lends itself to all sorts of silly speculating. It could be a child’s take on CSI, with cuddly safari animals getting offed and cranky specialist David Attenborough tracking down whodunit. It could feature a crazed maniac a la Death Proof’s Stuntman Mike who uses a mini metro to off people trying to use zebra crossings.
But we’re not sure Jamie Foxx would actually attach himself to either of those projects. Nope, Foxx has signed on for DreamWorks’ slightly more serious adaptation of The Zebra Murders: A Season Of Killing, Racial Madness And Civil Rights. The brilliant factual tome by Prentice Earl Sanders and Bennett Cohen chronicles the series of racially motivated serial slayings that haunted San Francisco in 1973 and ’74. And Foxx will star as Sanders, who was one of the black detectives who eventually cracked the case and arrested the African American culprit while also fighting harassment within the police department. Sanders eventually ended up as chief of police.
Matthew Carnahan, who worked with Foxx on The Kingdom, is scripting, but there’s no director attached yet.
