Get used to hearing about "Fruitvale Station." The new drama from first-time writer-director Ryan Coogler was acquired by The Weinstein Company at the Sundance Film Festival in January after a wave of buzz positioned "Fruitvale Station" (then titled "Fruitvale") as the next big thing and a serious awards contender. That hum proved somewhat prescient: Following the acquisition, "Fruitvale Station" went on to win both the audience award and grand jury prize from the Sundance Film Festival.
Starring Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer, "Fruitvale Station" tells the true story of Oscar Grant (Jordan), who was shot and killed at age 22 by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, Calif. on New Year's Day in 2009. Grant's death was caught on video thanks to cell phone cameras focused on his arrest, and the footage sparked outrage around the country. "Fruitvale Station" deals with the last day of Grant's life.
"The pressure of playing a real person is 100-times greater [than normal]," Jordan, best known for his work on "Friday Night Lights" and in "Chronicle," told HuffPost at Sundance. "One day, his daughter is going to watch this movie. That was something I constantly thought about. His mom is going to watch this movie. I didn’t want to let anybody down. At the premiere in Sundance on Saturday, his aunt stood up and said, 'You know, Mike, there were certain times in the movie where I couldn't tell Oscar from you,' and that's the biggest compliment I ever could have gotten."
The Weinstein Company is set to release "Fruitvale Station" on July 26. Below, find the film's new theatrical poster, debuting exclusively here at HuffPost Entertainment and on our sister site, Moviefone.
