What happens when some of the most important figures in black history, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X, and Jim Brown, have a meeting of the minds in the same hotel room? In Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami, black men who are the best in their respective fields talk about what that means in a country torn apart by civil unrest.
In the first clip from One Night in Miami, we see Eli Goree as Clay, admiring himself after winning the world heavyweight championship at the age of 22. He’s joined by Aldis Hodge as NFL running back Jim Brown, Leslie Odom Jr. as singer Sam Cooke, and Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, who has brought the men together under false pretenses.
King can pretty much do no wrong at this point, which is what makes this career turn so exciting. She’s already known for her Oscar-winning performance in If Beale Street Could Talk, and Emmy wins for American Crime, Seven Seconds, and likely another one for Watchmen. What are the chances we see her up on stage at the Oscars as a director next time?
The script was adapted by Kemp Powers based on his own stageplay. Kemp’s a red-hot writer whose next film is Soul for Pixar.
One Night in Miami recently made its world premiere in Venice. Amazon Studios will release it, probably by year’s end.
