Jerod Haynes and Lamar Johnson are the latest names to join A24’s film adaptation of Richard Wright’s iconic book, Native Son. 

They join the Ashton Sanders (Moonlight)-led cast, which also includes Sanaa Lathan Nick Robinson, Bill Camp, Connie Nielsen, Margaret Qualley and KiKi Layne (star of Barry Jenkins’ upcoming If Beale Street Could Talk).

Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks is the writer and it is being directed by Rashid Johnson.

A24 is still at it after having three Oscar contenders this year in  Lady Bird, The Florida Project and The Disaster Artist, and of course, having Moonlight win Best Picture in 2017.

Here’s the description for Native Son: Right from the start, Bigger Thomas (Sanders) had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

The film would be adapted for present-day-Chicago.

Haynes and Johnson would play friends of Bigger.

Johnson’s star is rapidly rising. He appears in the Halle Berry LA race riots-set Kings, which debuted at TIFF and premieres later this month. He also has two big features set for release: Seven Carter in The Hate U Give and an undisclosed X-Men: The Dark Phoenix. 

Haynes, who starred in the young Barack and Michelle Obama romantic drama Southside With You, is a series regular in the buzzy NBC ensemble drama pilot, The Village. 

Deadline first reported the news.