The case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which ended June 26 with the United States Supreme Court ruling 5-4 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, is headed for the big screen.
According to Variety, Fox 2000 is currently developing a film about Jim Obergefell, one of the case’s original plaintiffs, after purchasing the life rights of both he and his attorney, Al Gerhardstein.
In addition to securing the life rights of the plaintiff and his attorney, the studio has also acquired the rights to a book proposal by Obergefell and the Washington Post’s Debbie Cenziper, which is said to be titled 21 Years to Midnight.
Fox 2000 has yet to establish a release date for the film, and the project is still in its preliminary stages.
In a guest column for Variety’s Special Issue on marriage equality, Jim Obergefell wrote on June 29, “It’s reassuring to learn that what I was told as a child is true: One person — or two people, in our case — really can change the world.”
He added: “What I didn’t expect on my way to that courtroom was to discover how much our story and our fight resonated with people across the country.”
Obergefell and his late husband filed the suit in 2013 in an attempt to get their home state of Ohio to recognize their out-of-state union.
He has been vocal since the court’s divisive ruling, and slammed a push for religious freedom laws last week, when he told The Guardian a number of Republican presidential candidates are now “pandering,” and “trying to create problems where there aren’t problems.”
“They are not the only people who are right and moral and just,” he told the paper. “It’s offensive and they are just trying to whip up their base and get support and make money.”