Kristopher Higgins Circling the Devil’s Knot

Steve Barton   |  

Jun 8, 2012

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More possible casting news is coming in for the latest film documenting both the tragedy and the mystery surrounding the newly freed West Memphis Three, Devil’s Knot, and we’ve got the latest on who may be headed into the woods.

Deadline reports that Kristopher Higgins (pictured; The Secret Life of the American Teenager) is in talks to join the cast of Devil’s Knot to play Jessie Misskelley, Jr. If signed, he’ll join the already announced Colin Firth, Mireille Enos, and Reese Witherspoon in the drama about the West Memphis 3 that Atom Egoyan is directing.

Enos will play Vicki Hutcheson, the mother of an 8-year-old boy who lives in a run-down house in West Memphis. She becomes an important witness in the murder trial of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., for the killing of three 8-year-old boys found hog-tied in a drainage ditch. Hutcheson, it becomes apparent to investigators, could be the only link between Echols and Misskelley.

Firth will play Ron Lax, a private investigator who was the first pro bono supporter of the defendants as they headed to trial in 1993. Lax built one of the most prominent private investigative firms in the Southeast and offered his services for free to the defendants, who at the time were reviled because of the heinous nature of the crime and the sensationalized reports about devil worship and ritualistic sacrifice. All of that was later proven to be unfounded, after the West Memphis 3 were convicted despite a total absence of physical evidence. Witherspoon is playing Pam Hobbs, the mother of Steven Branch, one of the victims. She initially believed the trio murdered her son and the other two boys but became persuaded they were wrongly accused. An upcoming documentary casts suspicion on her ex-husband Terry Hobbs, who was Steven Branch’s stepfather and who has denied any wrongdoing.

In August 2011 the defendants were released due to lack of evidence after spending 18 years in prison. Actual defendants Jessie Misskelley, Jr., and Jason Baldwin are executive producing Devil’s Knot with Worldview’s Molly Conners, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Maria Cestone, and Hoyt David Morgan. Producers are Elizabeth Fowler, Clark Peterson, Richard Saperstein, and Worldview CEO Christopher Woodrow.

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