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AMAZON STUDIOS ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… Directed by: Regina King Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson with Beau Bridges & Lance Reddick
Music by: Terence Blanchard Executive Producers: Regina King, Kemp Powers, Paul O. Davis, Chris Harding Producers: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Jody Klein Screenplay by: Kemp Powers Based on the Stage Play “One Night In Miami…” by Kemp Powers |
Synopsis
On one
incredible
night in
1964,
four
icons of
sports,
music,
and
activism
gathered
to
celebrate
one of
the
biggest
upsets
in
boxing
history.
When
underdog
Cassius
Clay,
soon to
be
called
Muhammad
Ali,
(Eli
Goree),
defeats
heavy
weight
champion
Sonny
Liston
at the
Miami
Convention
Hall,
Clay
memorialized
the
event
with
three of
his
friends:
Malcolm
X
(Kingsley
Ben-Adir),
Sam
Cooke
(Leslie
Odom
Jr.) and
Jim
Brown
(Aldis
Hodge).
Based on
the
award-winning
play of
the same
name,
and
directed
by
Regina
King,
One
Night In
Miami…
is a
fictional
account
inspired
by the
historic
night
these
four
formidable
figures
spent
together.
It looks
at the
struggles
these
men
faced
and the
vital
role
they
each
played
in the
civil
rights
movement
and
cultural
upheaval
of the
1960s.
More
than 40
years
later,
their
conversations
on
racial
injustice,
religion,
and
personal
responsibility
still
resonate.
A
Happy
Accident
and An
Obsession
The
idea for
the play
which
evolved
into the
movie
One
Night In
Miami…came
to Kemp
Powers,
who
wrote
the
script
for both
the play
and the
movie,
by
accident
and
maybe by
fate.
“I
stumbled
across
the idea
while
reading
a book
about
the
intersection
of
sports
and the
civil
rights
movement.
It
mentioned
that
following
his
first
defeat
of Sonny
Liston,
Cassius
Clay,
who
would
one day
become
Muhammad
Ali,
went
back to
the
Hampton
House
Hotel in
Overtown,
Florida
near
Miami
where he
spent a
quiet
evening
in
conversation
with
friends
Malcolm
X, Sam
Cooke,
and Jim
Brown,”
says
Powers.
“This
was just
a little
paragraph
in a
book
that
kind of
blew my
mind at
the
time. I
read
that
paragraph
once,
then I
had to
go back
and read
it a few
more
times
and go,
wait a
minute.”
That
accident
became
an
obsession.
“I
couldn’t
get that
paragraph
out of
my mind.
After
all,
these
were
four of
my
heroes.
I became
very
obsessed
about
this
idea of
discovering
how
these
men met
and why
they
were
hanging
out with
one
another,”
explains
Powers.
“I read
every
biography
I could
on each
of the
four
men. I
dug up
every
interview
that I
could
find.
The more
I
learned
about
them,
the more
that it
seemed
natural
that
they
would
have
been
drawn to
one
another.
They
were
unapologetic
in their
art.
They
were
unapologetic
in their
political
beliefs.
And in
the
early
1960s to
be a
free,
unapologetic
Black
man was
quite a
rarity.”
Part of
the
reason
Powers
penned
the play
is the
generational
relevance
of the
conversation
that
took
place in
the
Hampton
House
Hotel
still
has
today.
“I
wrote
the play
because
the
lives of
all four
of these
men
speak to
me. The
debate
and
conversation
they
engage
in
during
the
stage
play is
actually
the same
debate
that I
would
have in
my
dormitory
with my
friends
when I
was
attending
Howard
University,”
explains
the
writer.
“It's
this
question
of what
are the
social
responsibilities
of an
artist
of
color?
Should I
want to
have
social
responsibilities?
Can I
just be
an
athlete?
Can I
just be
a
singer?
Can I
just be
an
artist?
Why do I
always
have to
be a
Black
artist?
And the
question
is,
should
you
embrace
that?
Should
you try
to go
away
from it?
And that
was the
discussion
that I
was
having
in the
1990s in
my
dormitory,
and I'm
sure
that
there's
a group
of
teenagers
and
young
adults
of color
having
that
debate
right
now in
their
dormitory.”
One
Night in
Miami,
the play
which is
an
imagining
of what
may have
transpired
that
night,
premiered
at the
Rogue
Machine
Theater
in Los
Angeles
in June
of 2013.
The
play’s
premiere
production
garnered
three LA
Drama
Critics
Circle
Awards
and four
NAACP
Theatre
awards.
Powers
was
awarded
the Ted
Schmitt
Award
for
outstanding
world
premiere
of a new
play.
After
seeing
one of
those
performances,
Jody
Klein
became
such a
fan that
he
wanted
to get
involved
with the
play and
became a
producer
of both
the play
and the
film.
“I
met with
Kemp and
we hit
it off
right
from the
start
and we
decided
to work
together,”
explains
Klein.
Film
Producer
Keith
Calder
of Snoot
Entertainment
along
with his
producing
partner
and
wife,
Jess Wu
Calder,
also saw
One
Night In
Miami
during
its run
at the
Rogue
Machine
Theatre.
“I
first
heard
about
the play
from a
friend
of mine,
who said
it is
amazing
and it
is right
up mine
and
Jess’
alley.
He knew
we were
already
huge
fans of
Sam
Cooke.
We
caught
one of
the last
performances
in its
first
run and
we were
just
really
blown
away,”
says
Keith
Calder.
“The
story of
the
friendship
between
Sam
Cooke,
Malcolm
X, Jim
Brown
and
Cassius
Clay was
electrifying.
We knew
immediately
it could
be a
wonderful
movie.
We
tracked
down
Kemp
Powers
to pitch
him on
the idea
of doing
it as a
movie.
Kemp and
Jody
Klein
were
both
excited
about
the idea
of doing
the play
as a
movie.
Jess and
I
convinced
them we
were the
right
partners
for the
project.”
The
Calders
went on
to see
the play
again in
Miami
and
London.
“We
saw the
power in
what we
saw on
stage.
It
touched
our
hearts
and it
touched
our
souls,”
says
Jess Wu
Calder.
“We felt
compelled
to
translate
that
power to
the
screen
to reach
an even
wider
audience
and
perhaps
mobilize
them to
action
with the
hope of
creating
a better
world
for
future
generations.”
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