Blackfilm.com has learned that Jasmine Cephas Jones, along with Michael Imperioli and Lawrence Gilliard Jr., has been cast in Regina King‘s directorial debut, One Night in Miami.
The trio join a cast that will be playing iconic historical figures including Kingsley Ben-Adir as civil rights activist Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke. Lance Reddick will be playing Brother Kareem, who was Malcolm X’s bodyguard and confidante.
Jones will be playing Barbara Campbell-Cooke, the wife of Sam Cooke (Odom Jr.). Both Jones and Odom Jr. appeared together in the Tony Award winning musical Hamilton. Jones played both Peggy Schuyler / Maria Reynolds and Odom Jr. played Aaron Burr, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Actor. Imperioli will play Ali’s boxing trainer Angelo Dundee with Gilliard Jr. as Ali’s cornerman Bundini Brown.
The film adaptation is based on the 2013 stage play by Kemp Powers, who also penned the screenplay. Set on the night of February 25, 1964, the drama follows the brash young Clay after he shocked the world by knocking out seemingly invincible Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay – unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws – spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami’s African American Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his closest friends: Malcolm X, Cooke and Brown.
All of them were beginning to assert themselves in the civil rights movement and the empowerment of black people, and it was an evening to share their thoughts with each other on their responsibility to use their influence and stature to benefit the black community. By night’s end, they leave each other determined to define a new world.
Jess Wu Calder and Keith Calder of Snoot Entertainment and Jody Klein of ABKCO are producing, with King and Powers serving as the executive producers.
Jones is currently on the big screen opposite Issa Rae in Stella Meghie’s romantic drama, The Photograph. She recently appeared in Noah Baumbach’s Oscar nominated film Marriage Story. Other film credits include Monsters and Men, Blindspotting and Mistress America. A singer as well, her EP debut Blue Blue is set for release on March 3rd.
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