Smollett will also be producing the movie through his newly launched SuperMassive Movies, alongside Hardy and others.
The film begins production Saturday in New York City.
He previously directed two episodes ofEmpire,which he also starred in between 2015 and 2019.
Jussie Smollett.Credit: Rachel Luna/Getty Images
The two men meet in a gay bar in Greenwich Village in the summer of 1993.
They fall in love, but their world dominated by homophobia and violence threatens to tear them apart.
Smolletttold police that two men attacked himwhile yelling racial and homophobic slurs.
Prosecutors later charged Smollett with filing a false police report beforeabruptly dropping the chargesin March 2019.
Smollettpleaded not guiltyto the latest charges.
The actor, who hasmaintained his innocencethroughout the case, wasdropped fromEmpireas a result of the scandal.
