Thurgood Marshall biopic to open Chicago International Film Fest

Reginald Hudlin’s biopic of the early career of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall will open this year’s Chicago International Film Festival on Oct. 12, festival planners announced Wednesday.

“Marshall,” which stars Chadwick Boseman (as the title character), Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell and Sterling K. Brown, centers around the true-life 1941 trial of a black chauffeur accused of assaulting his white, wealthy socialite employer. Marshall, a young attorney, is sent by the nearly bankrupt NAACP to Connecticut to defend the chauffeur. Gad plays Samuel Friedman, the young and inexperienced Jewish attorney who is partnered on the case with Marshall.

Boseman, whose credits include Jackie Robinson in “42,” James Brown in “Get On Up” and Black Panther in “Captain America: Civil War,” is expected to attend the opening-night festivities. Gad (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Frozen”), Hudlin and producer Paula Wagner also are slated to be on hand for the screening at AMC River East 21, 322 E. Illinois.

Tickets to the premiere (film only) start at $35. VIP film screening/after-party tickets start at $100. Call (312) 683-0121. The 53rd annual festival runs Oct. 12-26.