Trailer for 'Detroit', movie based on '67 riots, released

DETROIT (WJBK) - The Algiers Motel Incident is taking center stage in a new movie about the 1967 Detroit riots.

The trailer for the movie, simply titled 'Detroit', was released online on Wednesday. The movie is directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the same woman who directed "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty".

The plot of the movie has been mostly kept secret until this release and tells the story of one of the darkest moments during the summer of 1967,

The trailer features images that many Detroiters are familiar with: there are burning buildings and the military is entering the city. There's what sounds like a reporter's voice declaring Detroit a "city of war".

In the trailer, police are shown fighting with rioters. Next, we see a bus full of African-Americans saying they should go to the Algiers until "all this blows over".

The men on the bus are then partying in the motel and swimming in the pool. That's when actor Jason Mitchell ("Staight Outta Compton", "Kong: Skull Island", and "Keanu") utters this line: "Being black is almost like having a gun pointed at your face." Then he picks up a stun gun and points it at another man in the hotel.

When he pulls the trigger of the stun gun, it prompts police action and they open fire on the hotel. From that point, the trailer flashes through images from the movie and ends with the movie tagline: "It's time we knew".

Watch it:

The movie is based on what happened at the motel in the early morning hours of July 26, 1967. A starter's pistol was fired in the motel and a National Guard unit believed it to be a sniper and radioed Detroit police.

It all unfolded just hours after Detroit Police Officer Jerome Olshove was shot to death by a looter, just two days before he was about to retire from the force.

Detroit Police, Michigan State troopers, and guardsmen, all stormed the motel.

By the time the sun came up, three young black men were dead. Three white officers were charged but nobody was ever convicted.

The movie will land in theaters on August 4, just after the 50th anniversary of the riots.