“Get Out” breakout stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield are teaming up again for “Judas and the Black Messiah” which just released its first trailer today.
Shaka King (“Newlyweeds”) directs and co-writes the film set in 1968 when a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton (Kaluuya) became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people. ‘Chairman Fred’ was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, uniting street gangs under a banner of peace and common cause, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government.
William O’Neal (Stanfield) was a young black man facing prison who is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal and becomes a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party. O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.
Will Berson co-wrote the film with Ryan Coogler and Charles D. King producing while Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years A Slave”) is doing the cinematography. Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Lil Rel Howery and Martin Sheen co-star.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in cinemas sometime next year.
