BATON ROUGE – The illustrious life of Barry Seal is propelled to the silver screen by one of the most famous actors of our time Thursday night.

Seal, portrayed by Tom Cruise, is featured in Universal Pictures' American Made. While the official premiere date is Friday, all area movie theaters will show the movie around 7 o'clock Thursday with additional showings following later that night, Friday and into the weekend. It's typical for premieres to begin the evening before the actual premiere date.

The movie follows the life of Seal, a drug smuggler, informant and associate of Colombian drug lords. Seal was assassinated at a halfway house in 1986 off Airline Highway after agreeing to testify at a trial related to the smuggling operation.

The trailer does not specifically reference Baton Rouge or Seal's killing.  It's not clear from the trailer if the city or the assassination will have a role in the film.

According to movie data, the producers filmed at some locations in Louisiana, but appear to have been limited to New Orleans.

Two years ago, the movie was at the center of a lawsuit involving members of the Seal family. Seal's eldest daughter sued her stepbrothers, stepsister and her father's third wife over the movie deal.

The suit alleges the contract for Seal's life story was $350,000 and Seal's third wife and their children never received approval from Seal's estate for the project.

The daughter who filed the suit, Lisa Seal Frigon, said at the time the movie portrays Barry Seal as a drunk, reckless pilot who is disconnected from much of his family. The trailer shows Seal covered in drugs and drinking often.

One of the men convicted of Seal's murder, Miguel Velez, died at Angola in August 2015.

The lawsuit is in appeals. 

Tom Cruise visited Baton Rouge in 2015 to film another movie, Jack Reacher 2.  

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