Netflix has just released the official trailer and poster for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Oscar winner Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. The music-driven drama is based on Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play and is set to make an Oscar run in theaters beginning in November. It’ll arrive on Netflix on December 18, 2020.
Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman (in his final film, may he rest in peace) are joined by Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Jeremy Shamos, Dusan Brown, and Joshua Harto for what’s described as a celebration of “transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society’s prejudices dictate their worth.”
Five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) directed and Ruben Santiago-Hudson adapted Wilson’s play for the screen. Denzel Washington, Todd Black, and Dany Wolf produced, with Constanza Romero executive producing.
Wolfe’s behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography Tobias Schliessler, production designer Mark Ricker, costume designer Ann Roth, editor Andrew Mondshein, and composer Branford Marsalis.
The Plot:
Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey. Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
