The project was announced on August 25, 2016, as Gilroy's next directorial effort titled Inner City, but was renamed on June 22, 2017.

Principal photography began in March 2017 and took place in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, California.

Roman J. Israel is a lawyer earning $500 a week at a small law firm in Los Angeles.

Though short on social skills, Roman is gifted with a phenomenal memory as well as strong personal convictions, which he has pursued at the expense of family.

One such client is Derrell Ellerbee, a young man arrested for murder, who tells Roman that he is willing to divulge the whereabouts of the actual shooter, Carter "CJ" Johnson, and will testify against him.

This results in Roman becoming downcast and cynical, illegally using the information he received from Ellerbee to anonymously collect the $100,000 reward for Johnson's location.

Pierce apologizes to Roman for the earlier confrontation and for forcing him out of the shadows, accepting that he thrives working behind the scenes as he did at his old firm.

Pierce invites Roman to a luxury box, where he shares some of his big plans for their future at the firm.

Renouncing his momentary transgression, Roman goes home and returns the reward money with a note apologizing for taking it in the first place.

On August 25, 2016, it was revealed that Dan Gilroy's next directorial project was Inner City, a legal drama in the vein of The Verdict.

[5] It was reported on September 21, 2016, that Sony Pictures was closing a deal to distribute the film, with principal photography scheduled to begin in March 2017.

has pockets of intrigue, and writer-director Gilroy and Washington have teamed up to create a promising dramatic character.

"[28] In his review for Empire, Simon Braund summarized the political motives in the film viewed as a legal thriller stating, "It illustrates succinctly how at odds with the modern world Roman Israel is.

A brilliant legal mind, trapped in the body of a twitchy social misfit, he has all the hallmarks of a true genius-savant — the interpersonal skills of a yeast cell, dress sense of an Open University lecturer circa 1973 and an unshakeable conviction that justice for the poor and dispossessed is a cause worth fighting for.

To this deeply unfashionable end, he's spent decades toiling in the shadows at a tiny law firm, making trouble for The Man while compiling a vast, unwieldy brief he hopes will, one day, set the American legal system on its ear.

"[29] Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote, "It leaves us with a character you won't soon forget, but you wish that the movie were as haunting as he is.