'Native Son' Gets First Trailer, HBO Premiere Date
The first trailer for "Native Son" is here. The film, which opened this year's Sundance Film festival, is based on the landmark 1940 Richard Wright novel and stars "Moonlight"s Ashton Sanders.
It was previously filmed as a period piece in 1986 and starred Victor Love as main character Bigger Thomas, with Matt Dillon, Elizabeth McGovern and Oprah Winfrey.
The new adaptation is a contemporary take, also set in Chicago, in which an impoverished young Africa-American is hired as a chauffeur for an affluent white family with tragic consequences. It's the feature film directorial debut for visual artist Rashid Johnson.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks ("Topdog/Underdog") wrote the script. Her previous film credits include Spike Lee's "Girl 6" and Their Eyes Were Watching God."
A24 was originally going to release the film theatrically, but HBO snapped it up at Sundance instead.
Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson ("Love, Simon"), KiKi Layne ("If Beale Street Could Talk"), Elizabeth Marvel, David Alan Grier, and Sanaa Lathan also co-star.
Look for it on April 6 on HBO.
Sanders recently signed on to play RZA in Hulu's upcoming Wu-Tang Clan series.
[Via Deadline]