Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson and Paula Jai Parker all appeared together previously in Hustle & Flow (2005).
Animal (2005) is a direct-to-video film directed by David J. Burke and starring Ving Rhames, Terrence Howard, Chazz Palminteri, and Jim Brown. It was written by David C. Johnson. The film's profits were the subject of a lawsuit against the film's distributor, DEJ Productions. The case was still active into the year 2011. It was followed up by a sequel, Animal 2 (2008). The story of Willie Lynch is mentioned in the film, and passed on from father to son to half-brother. The film holds that the Lynch story is factual although it has been proved to be a modern forgery.
Actors play father and son but in real life they are the same age.