Malcolm M. Mays To Pen Robert Smalls Biopic ‘Steal Away’ For Amazon Studios

Anthony D'Alessandro
·1 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker and Snowfall actor Malcolm M. Mays has been tapped by Amazon Studios to write a new script for the film Steal Away about the daring theft and escape of Robert Smalls, a slave in 1862 Charleston, SC.

Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) is attached to direct with Cotty Chubb and George Plamondon producing.

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Mays recently wrote the reboot of New Jack City for Warner Bros., which we first reported, and is attached to write, direct and produce the feature Flint with John Ortiz and T.I. attached to star. The film is described as a modern-day Chinatown set against the Flint, MI water crisis. Previously, Mays gained notoriety for his film Trouble, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in at age 17 about the African American and Latin American (Black vs. Brown) tension in South Central Los Angeles. The film was recognized by Panavision’s New Filmmaker Program as well as Kodak and premiered at the 2009 Telluride Film Festival’s City Lights Program.

Mays was a protégé of the late 2x Oscar nominated filmmaker John Singleton as both hailed from South Central L.A. Singleton executive produced FX’s Snowfall in which Mays played Kevin Hamilton.

As an actor, Mays can currently be seen starring in Amazon’s anthology series Them, and upcoming in the Starz series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Mays also starred in Antoine Fuqua’s boxing movie Southpaw and the Cuba Gooding Jr.-Dennis Haysbert film Life of a King.

Mays is represented by ICM, manager Carissa Stewart of GSA Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.

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