Source: Variety

Variety reports that Terrence Howard and Topher Grace are in talks to star in the New Line drama The Crusaders, about the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case. Participant Productions will co-finance.

New Line has hired "The West Wing" executive producer Alex Graves to direct the film. Graves, who's also directed three dozen "West Wing" episodes, is replacing Brad Silberling.

John Romano will write the script. The previous version was penned by "West Wing" writers Paul Redford and Lawrence O'Donnell based on Jack Greenberg's memoir "Crusaders in the Courts."

The story recounts the 1954 Supreme Court case in which Greenberg, a recent law school grad, and Thurgood Marshall, as head of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, teamed to help end segregation in schools. Marshall eventually became the first African-American Supreme Court justice.