“I’m not proud of all the choices I made,” he says. “Was I prepared to risk everything?”

So asks Rob Peace, played by newcomer Jay Will, in the film’ named after the character’s title role. Will plays the son of Robert ‘Skeet’ Douglas, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who was convicted of a double homicide when he was a boy, despite protesting his innocence. Peace grows up with that shadow hanging over him, but his brilliant mind led him away from his inner-city neighborhood to Yale University.

Ejiofor, who also directs, adapted the film from the 2014 biography by Jeff Hobbs The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. While Peace graduated with degrees in both molecular biophysics and biochemistry, his need to help his father retain an attorney to re-open his case leads him make those questionable choices.

Rob Peace also stars Mary J. Blige as Rob’s mom Jackie, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Kelly, Mare Winningham, Morgan Earnest, Luke Rodgers, Jeff Skoll, Robert Kessel, Bruce Evans, Jamin O’Brien and Camila Cabello as his girlfriend Naya.

The film was produced by Antoine Fuqua, Rebecca Hobbs, Kat Samick, Andrea Calderwood, Jeffrey Soros, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet and Simon Horsman. Republic Pictures picked up Rob Peace after it premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

“I’m thrilled to partner with Republic Pictures in bringing this extraordinary story to audiences,” Ejiofor said in a statement. “Jeff Hobbs’ powerful book on Rob’s life fused together essential thoughts for me on race, housing, education, criminal justice, family and community. I can’t wait for audiences to experience Rob’s truly compelling life onscreen, at a time when the complex nature of social mobility remains as important as ever.” 

Rob Peace will debut in theaters on August 16th.