As Deadline announced last week, Texas Monthly is continuing its expansion into film with the magazine’s first-ever feature documentary—made in partnership with acclaimed filmmaker Deborah Esquenazi. The film is complemented by Texas Monthly writer Michael Hall’s reporting. This marks the fifth project to be made public from Texas Monthly‘s recent film and television efforts, following the hit Max series Love & Death, the Max three-part docuseries How to Create a Sex Scandal, the upcoming action-comedy flick Hit Man—written by Texans Richard Linklater and Glen Powell— and the upcoming Taylor Sheridan series Land Man.
The documentary follows the story of James Reyos—the Apache man who was convicted of murder in Odessa back in 1983. He had an airtight alibi at the time, and for the last forty years has maintained he’s innocent, but it wasn’t until 2022 that the police began listening to him. The partnership between Esquenazi and TM has already proven to be fruitful. “There is no better collaborator than Texas Monthly for a film like this,” Esquenazi said in Deadline. “The Odessa Police Department—which reopened this case on its own—uncovered new forensic evidence in 2022, and it has been thrilling to film the collaboration between Odessa’s police department, the district attorney’s office, and the Innocence Project of Texas clinic at Texas Tech University to do what might have once been unthinkable: reinvestigate a cold case, together, that might finally exonerate an innocent man who has been fighting for his life since the early 1980s. We’re thrilled to work with Texas Monthly in bringing this story to the screen.”
Esquenazi is the founder of Myth of Monsters, a film and television production company that aims to bring the truth to light when it comes to minority and underrepresented groups. This currently untitled documentary is a joint production of Myth of Monsters and Naked Edge Films. Daniel J. Chalfen, Adrienne Collatos, and James Costa are producing the film. From Texas Monthly, Scott Brown and Megan Creydt are set to join Ken Nolan and Jim Butterworth as executive producers.
