Watch Teaser Trailer to Black NativityPosted by Wilson Morales
June 30, 2013
Fox Searchlight has posted the teaser trailer to Black Nativity, Kasi Lemmons‘ big screen adaptation, starring Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”) attached as the male lead, opposite Angela Bassett, Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”), Tyrese Gibson, Jacob Latimore, Grace Gibson, Mary J. Blige, Nas, and Luke James.
‘Black Nativity’ tells the story of a teenage boy from Baltimore who is sent by his single mother to Harlem to spend Christmas with the grandparents he’s never met. Through his grandfather’s Christmas Eve sermon, he learns about the importance of faith and family. Hudson will play the mother who hasn’t spoken to her father since they had a falling out after she got pregnant. Bassett and Whitaker will play the boy’s estranged grandparents, Rev. Clarence and Aretha Cobbs. Whitaker is expected to play multiple characters during the Nativity sequence.
Lemmons is writing and directing the film based on Langston Hughes’ gospel musical that was first performed on Broadway in 1961. Casting director Tracy ‘Twinkie’ Byrd is currently putting together the rest of the cast. Production will run from January to March 2013 in New York City.
Bill Horberg and Celine Rattray will produce with Galt Niederhoffer and Daniela Taplin Lundberg, while Joy Goodwin will exec produce.
Whitaker had directed Bassett in the 1995 romantic comedy-drama and blockbuster hit “Waiting to Exhale” that also starred the late Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon and Loretta Devine. Whitaker also played Hudson’s father in the 2008 film, “Winged Creatures.”
