The death of Chadwick Boseman in August casts a sad cloud over the reveal of the first trailer for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but there's something to celebrate in that we still have one of his performances to appreciate. He appears alongside Viola Davis in the film, adapted from August Wilson's play. Check out the trailer...
Here's the synopsis: "Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary "Mother of the Blues," Ma Rainey (Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
With George C. Wolfe in the director's chair and Ruben Santiago-Hudson on script duty, the film also features Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, while Denzel Washington (who previously adapted Wilson's play Fences) is a producer here.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom arrives on Netflix on 18 December.