‘Black Lightning’ Star Cress Williams Joins ‘The Violent Heart’ & ‘Reckoning’

EXCLUSIVE: Cress Williams, who currently stars in the titular role on Black Lightning, has booked two film roles before heading back into production on Season 3 of the CW/DC Comics series.

Williams is set to co-star in The Violent Heart from writer-director Kerem Sanga with 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen, Ed McDonnell, Tobey Maguire’s Material Pictures, and 3311 producing. Williams joins Grace Van Patten and Jovan Adepo in the coming-of-age romance pic which is slated to shoot this month in Austin, Texas.

Set outside Ft. Hood, Texas, the plot centers on a college-bound senior on the cusp of graduation, and her budding relationship with a local mechanic named Daniel (Adepo), who himself dreams of becoming a Marine. As they fall for one another, the details surrounding Daniel’s tragic and violent past inevitably catch up with them. Williams will play Lee, a strong, jovial Marine and Daniel’s father.

Material and 3311 are financing.

In addition, he has been cast opposite Oscar winners Mira Sorvino and Richard Dreyfuss in Reckoning, a crime thriller written and directed by Adam Lipsius. It follows Ben Myers (Dreyfuss), a temperamental, take-no-prisoners tough guy with a terrifying dark side who, despite suffering from leukemia while nursing his dementia-ridden wife, decides to seek revenge on the thieves who have destroyed his life. Williams’ role is Billy, leader of a criminal operation.

The Dark Castle Entertainment film is being produced by Lipsius and Alex Mace.

Repped by APA and manager Sinclair Jones,  Williams other credits include the Friday Night Lights series, CW’s Hart of Dixie, and Never Been Kissed.