March 16, 2016 - 14:55 AMT
Joe Edgerton interracial drama “Loving” gets release date

Focus Features has given an awards-season release date to interracial drama “Loving”, starring Joe Edgerton, Ruth Negga and Michael Shannon, Variety said.

Focus will open the film in limited release on Nov. 4 and then go wide on Nov. 11. The studio bought rights to the movie on Feb. 13 at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film is directed by “Midnight Special” director Jeff Nichols from his own script, financed by Big Beach and developed by Raindog Films. It’s inspired by Nancy Buirski’s Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Loving Story” about Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and African-American woman who fell in love and were married in 1958.

The couple was jailed by the state of Virginia, where they were making their home, and then banished from the state. The couple took the civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor.

Producers are Ged Doherty & Colin Firth (“Eye In The Sky”), Sarah Green, Buirski and Big Beach’s Marc Turtletaub & Peter Saraf. Executive producer is Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. Production companies are‎ Big Beach and Raindog Films in association with Augusta Films and TriState Pictures.

Negga starred in “12 Years a Slave” and “World War Z.” Shannon starred in Nichols’ “Take Shelter.”