Since its barnstorming world premiere during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s been onwards and upwards for Nate Parker’s impassioned race drama The Birth of a Nation.
Upon landing a lucrative and record-breaking deal at Fox Searchlight – an eye-watering $17.5 million, no less – the period piece completed the proverbial one-two punch by nailing down an opportune October release window. And now, you can see what all the fuss is about with the film’s powerful first trailer.
Rooted in the throes of the antebellum South, The Birth of a Nation will place Parker the role of Nat Turner, a brave, unflinching rebel who sparked a landmark uprising – one that would go down in the history books as one of the most important in the country’s troubled history.
Written and directed by Parker, the one-man creative army will spearhead said rebellion as “Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.”
Also attached to the Oscar-friendly drama are Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith and Gabrielle Union.
Fox Searchlight welcomes The Birth of a Nation when Nate Parker’s race drama marches resolutely into theaters – and smack bang into the thick of awards season – in time for October 7.
