Here’s the first trailer for Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson,” set to screen at Telluride and Toronto in just a few weeks.
Washington (son of Denzel) will be making his directorial debut by adapting famed playwright August Wilson’s stage production. The cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, and Danielle Deadwyler. Previous films adapted from Wilson’s plays include “Fences” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, “The Piano Lesson” follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, that documents the family history through carvings made by their enslaved ancestor.
Netflix will release the film in select theaters November 8, before streaming on November 22. I was recently told that, although it will be heavily campaigned, “The Piano Lesson” is not the streamer’s top priority this awards season, but rather Cannes prizewinner “Emilia Perez.”