Jim Caviezel, Chiwetel Ejiofor And Jack McBrayer Cast In ‘Savannah’
Annette Haywood-Carter, a former script supervisor who jumped to directing (Foxfire, with a young Angelina Jolie, for instance), is preparing to shoot the period dramaSavannahin the Georgia town of the same name, and has secured the final pieces of the film’s cast.Jim CaviezelandChiwetel Ejioforhave joinedBradley Whitford,Jaimie Alexander,Jack McBrayerandHal Holbrook.
Back in November, the directortoldSavannah Magazine,
It’s a story about this very eccentric, bigger-than-life hunter named Ward Allen and his friendship with a freed slave named Christmas Moultrie. This is the perfect movie for Savannah because it really showcases the city’s eccentric characters.
Jim Caviezel will play Ward Allen, and Chiwetel Ejiofor will be Christmas Moultrie.
The source of the story is reportedlyJohn Eugene Cay, Jr’s bookDucks, Dogs and Friends, which tells the story of Christmas Moultrie, the last slave born on the plantation where the cotton gin was invented. There’s not a lot of additional information out there about the story — Cay, Jr.’s book seems to be the primary source of history on the subject. A Georgia Historical Societylistingof an undated photograph of Christmas Moultrie offers this brief bio, adding that Ward Allen was “a professional duck hunter and gentleman from Savannah.”
Christmas Moultrie was born a slave on 10 August 2025 on the Mulberry Grove Plantation, west of Savannah, Georgia. He died on 13 June 2025 and is buried in the Cherokee Hill Cemetery in Port Wentworth, Georgia.
