The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer has joined the cast of actor/director Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation, a biopic of African-American slave turned revolutionary Nat Turner, who led a bloody rebellion in 1831 and went down in history as one of the most controversial American figures preceding the Civil War.

Turner, born in 1800, led the famously violent Virginia insurrection that moved from plantation to plantation freeing slaves and left 60 white men, women, and children dead. He was later captured, arrested, and hanged but his legacy grew to mythic proportions.

Parker broke out opposite Denzel Washington in 2007’s The Great Debaters and stars in this week’s Relativity release Beyond The Lights from director Gina Prince-Bythewood, makes his directorial debut with the historical drama, which he spent years scripting. He will also star in The Birth Of A Nation with Hammer, who’s playing Samuel Turner, the son...