Barry Jenkinsis coming off an Oscar win forMoonlightandChadwick Bosemanis about to be in one of the biggest films of the year withBlack Panther, so these two coming together is cause for celebration. Deadline reports that Jenkins has boarded the thrillerExpatriate, which Boseman is set to star in from a script he co-wrote with writing partnerLogan Coles. According to Deadline, the international thriller is set around a 1970s plane hijacking.Marc PlattandAdam Siegelwill produce alongsideMark Ceryak.
Jenkins is currently at work on an adaptation of James Baldwin’s novelIf Beale Street Could Talk, which will starRegina King,Pedro Pascal, andDave Franco. As for Boseman, his 2018 is all Black Panther. He plays the titular superhero in February and again inAvengers: Infinity War, which opens on May 4th.
It will be interesting to see how quickly this project hits the fast track, since it seems like a fairly easy sell since Jenkins has an Oscar-win and Boseman has proved to be a bona fide star. Hopefully, more plot details will emerge soon, and I’m excited to see this kind of collaboration between two talented artists. Presumably, their involvement will make it easier to lure other big names to the project.
Although some may be surprised that Jenkins would move from a thoughtful moving drama likeMoonlightto an international thriller, there’s no reason Jenkins should be pigeonholed into making one kind of film. On the contrary, his continued success depends on him making a variety of pictures, and if this kind of story appeals to him along with having Boseman’s built-in star power, then it makes sense why he would want to helm the picture. The only surprising thing here is thatExpatriatewill be the first movie Jenkins has directed where he didn’t also write the screenplay.
