O.J. Simpson. Jason Bean-Pool/Getty Images
A shocking teaser for an upcoming movie about the life of O.J. Simpson is visualizing an alternate timeline for the controversial former football star.
The Juice, a long-gestating “satirical thriller” about Simpson’s 1995 murder trial, released a 30-second sneak peek on Tuesday, April 23.
Boris Kodjoe, who plays Simpson in the movie, is seen in the teaser strapped to an electric chair with sparks flying off both sides of his head as smoke emanates from his mouth.
“Think of the real O.J.,” Kodjoe, 51, says in the black-and-white clip. “Not this lost person.”
MYUNG J. CHUN-/POOL/AFP via Getty Images NFL star O.J. Simpson was infamously acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman following a high-profile trial in the ‘90s. The legal battle was one of the most notorious criminal trials in American history, and a defining moment of the 1990s. Brown Simpson […]
The teaser ends with a title card reading: “Feel better now? You haven’t seen anything yet.”
The Juice has been in development since 2015 and centers around real-life attorney Douglas McCann, who became obsessed with conspiracy theories surrounding Simpson’s notorious murder trial in which he was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Kodjoe and Charlotte Kirk, who plays Brown in the movie, nearly had a surprising costar join the cast as McCann, if you take the word of director Joshua Newton.
“Owen Wilson was perfect for the role,” the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter in an article published Wednesday, April 24. “I actually had a meeting with him in Santa Monica. Everybody loved the script. His agent wanted him to do it. We offered him $12 million.”
However, Wilson was apparently not interested in any project that might cast Simpson in any sort of favorable light.
Newton continued, “At the end of the lunch, Owen stood up and said, ‘If you think I’m going to take the lead role in a movie about how O.J. didn’t do it, you’ve got to be kidding me.’”
The movie already has roughly 30 minutes completed, according to Newton, which he said will tell the “real story” of Simpson’s trial “based on factual evidence.”
“A lot of people forget that the man was acquitted,” Newton told People back in 2018. “He was found by 12 jurors that he did not commit the murders but if you talk to anyone, 10 out 10 people on the street are going to go, ‘He did it.’ We always thought something was off about it.”
He added, “Our point of view is that Nicole came home at the wrong time. We filmed the murder as the trial portrayed it. It’s going to be controversial, but the audience can decide for themselves what ultimately happened.”
While Simpson was ultimately acquitted in the murder trial, he was later found liable in a civil suit filed by the Brown and Goldman families and ordered to pay $33.5 million.
Simpson died of prostate cancer at the age of 76 on April 10. At the time of his death, Simpson owed the Brown and Goldman families over $100 million due to interest.
The Juice is currently scheduled for a 2025 release date.
