JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH STARRING
Get Out stars reunite for blistering true-life drama…
DIRECTOR Shaka King Dominique Thorne, Jesse Plemons, LaKeith Stanfield, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Sheen
The assassination of Fred Hampton, the party chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, happened offscreen during the events of Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7. Judas And The Black Messiah tackles it head-on, casting Daniel Kaluuya as the charismatic, passionate Hampton, and his Get Out co-star LaKeith Stanfield as FBI informer William O’Neal.
“When I sat down with Daniel, it just fully confirmed for me that he has that gravitas to him,” says director and co-writer Shaka King. “Fred had a lot of gravitas, and was also hilarious, which is present in his speeches. He was very intelligent, witty and young, so he had that combination, like youthful spirit and old soul. Daniel has those qualities to him.” And Stanfield? “It’s funny, LaKeith has expressed a million times wanting to play the Joker, and I’m like, ‘You’re the most complex villain possible in this because the things that he chose to do were just dastardly.’”
Produced by Ryan Coogler, who of course made his own Black Panther movie of a different kind for Marvel, Judas And The Black Messiah is set in the ’60s yet sadly relevant. “The people who were responsible for this, a lot of them are still alive,” says Coogler, who became firm friends with King when their debut movies Fruitvale Station and Newly weeds played at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. “These ideas are still ever-present. The constant attacks on poor people, on Black people. We’re still fighting the same beast… the same monsters… the same system.”
Also still here are some of Fred Hampton’s loved ones, like his son Fred Hampton Jr., who is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs. So how does he feel about his father’s life and death being turned into a movie? “We do the proverbial… put the political pill in apple sauce,” he says of the need for Judas And The Black Messiah to entertain as well as gut-punch. “We try to look for innovative ways to be to get this legacy out… but not compromise the legacy.” JG ETA I SPRING 2021