All About Regina King’s History-Making Directorial Debut One Night in Miami

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What would a conversation about protest and racial privilege between four of the most legendary Black men in history look like?

That’s a question asked and answered by Regina King’s film directorial debut, One Night in Miami. Set for a 2020 release with debuts at both the Venice and Toronto International Film festivals, the movie depicts an imagined night of debate involving Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X.

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Written by Kemp Powers and based on the play he wrote, it’s a project that mirrors conversations happening in rooms across the globe about systemic racism. “I think it will be a reminder for some, and a discovery for others,” King told The Hollywood Reporter. “This conversation in the middle of right now, it has been going on forever, as far as a Black American is concerned. The passion and the pain that you hear and you see now are coming from the same space that these four men are speaking from and living through 40 years ago.”

Ahead, a preview of One Night in Miami, including King’s thoughts on why it should be released in theaters sooner rather than later.

The movie focuses on Clay, Cooke, Brown, and X in 1964.

Powers’ Olivier Award-nominated play serves as the basis for One Night in Miami. It’s King’s first time directing a film following her work on TV shows including Insecure, Scandal, and This Is Us. She was immediately drawn to the material, she told Deadline. “In terms of Kemp’s script, I had never heard or seen a story that so perfectly captured the Black man’s experience in America,” she remembered. “When it comes to conversations about Black men, and stories about Black men, vulnerability and strength are usually not words that are used together to describe that plight but they definitely work in concert here.”

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The movie centers around champion wrestler Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), civil rights leader Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Grammy winner Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and football legend Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) on a February night in 1964. Per a description from IndieWire, the four men congregate at Malcolm’s following Clay’s defeat over heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. During their celebration, “the men debate the best ways to use their respective stardom to affect change in the segregated South.”

A first preview of the film shows Clay excitedly declaring his new heavyweight champion of the world status. While he, Brown, and Cooke prep for a larger celebration, Malcolm proposes the foursome reflects on the state of the world instead.

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It premiered to rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival.

Before a first trailer has even dropped, One Night in Miami made a splash during its September 7 Venice Film Festival premiere. It was the first film made by a Black woman to ever premiere in the festival’s 77-year history. IndieWire branded it “Amazon Studios’likeliest Oscars 2021 contender.”

Early reviews of the film are overwhelmingly positive. “Both entertaining and illuminating, the Amazon production draws a tacit line between a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement and America’s current racial reckoning,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney wrote. TheWrap‘s Alonso Duralde also praised King’s directorial skills and the next phase of her decades-long career. “One Night in Miami shows King to be a filmmaker who’s clearly interested in balancing a variety of literal and figurative textures,” he wrote. “She’s been in the business since she was 14 years old, but now, 35 years after her debut as an actress, she’s opening what promises to be an exciting new chapter in an enduring career.”

The movie will be released on Amazon in 2020—we think.

This year, theatrical release dates are perennially in flux. One Night in Miami, which was originally slated for a 2020 release date, is no exception. For now, there’s no official date. But King is hopeful the prescient film will be widely available sooner rather than later. “The plan is definitely to have a theatrical run but we don’t know what that theatrical run is going to look like,” she told Deadline. “We don’t want to wait too long because I think the time is now for this film to come out.”

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