The directorial debut of actor Nate Parker (also writer, producer, and star), The Birth of a Nation is riding a tidal wave of hype and good praise following its premiere at they year’s Sundance Film Festival. So much in fact, that Fox Searchlight dropped a recording breaking $17.5 million to land the distribution rights (the most Searchlight had paid before was $10 million for Little Miss Sunshine ten years earlier), and judging by this powerful first trailer, it was money well spent.
Telling the true story of Nat Turner (Parker), a literate slave and preacher who is tasked with subduing the other, more unruly slave of his owner (Armie Hammer), only to orchestrate an uprising after witnessing the countless atrocities visited upon him and his people, it certainly treads the same ground as the Oscar winning Twelve Years a Slave, and it is clear Searchlight have the same future in mind for The Birth of a Nation, slating it for an awards friendly release date in the U.S. If this first trailer is anything to go by, it has a serious chance of Oscar glory.
Released: 7th October (U.S.)/20th January 2017 (IRL/U.K.)
Telling the true story of Nat Turner (Parker), a literate slave and preacher who is tasked with subduing the other, more unruly slave of his owner (Armie Hammer), only to orchestrate an uprising after witnessing the countless atrocities visited upon him and his people, it certainly treads the same ground as the Oscar winning Twelve Years a Slave, and it is clear Searchlight have the same future in mind for The Birth of a Nation, slating it for an awards friendly release date in the U.S. If this first trailer is anything to go by, it has a serious chance of Oscar glory.
Released: 7th October (U.S.)/20th January 2017 (IRL/U.K.)
