Errol Morris & Anchor Entertainment to Adapt End of Sentence

Anchor Entertainment has aligned with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time, The Thin Blue Line) for a screen adaptation of End of Sentence, based on Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s reporting for The Atlantic.

Having secured the rights to the article, Anchor Entertainment has tapped the multi-Emmy-winning Zo Wesson (Through the Cracks, Shoot This Not That) to direct. The story follows Benjamine Spencer, an innocent Black man who served 34 years of a life sentence in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Morris, executive producer, said: “I hate to use scare quotes but there’s no other way to talk about ‘justice’ in Texas. Benjamine Spencer’s story picks up where The Thin Blue Line left off. As Randall Adams was walking out of prison, Spencer was being sentenced to life by the same people who helped ensure Adams’s conviction. Both men were innocent. But one remained in prison for decades. End of Sentence is a sickening, uncannily familiar tale: the particulars are different, but the tragedy is the same.”

Ethan Goldman, founder and CEO of Anchor Entertainment, said: “While his injustice feels familiar, End of Sentence will document Benjamine’s personal story of struggle, despair and hope while meticulously tracing evidence from the late 80s to reveal an alternate theory that very well may prove his innocence and secure an exoneration.”

Wesson added: “A big reason I identified with Ben Spencer’s story is that early in my career I did a lot of production work in Texas where I would commute between Las Colinas and Fort Worth. During routine stops, I was often met with suspicious eyes, and I remember thinking that if I was falsely arrested there I wouldn’t have a chance, just like Benjamine. Back then, Texas’s slogan was ‘It’s Like a Whole Other Country,’ and as a Black man, that’s exactly how I felt. As a filmmaker of color, I believe we must persist in challenging this reality.”