Apple has finally set a release date for Will Smith‘s controversial movie Emancipation, a film whose release plans were called into question after the actor’s infamous Oscars hit. The film will hit theaters on December 2 and stream on December 9, in time for the awards show season.
Apple released the first trailer and poster for the film as part of the announcement, days after Smith attended the film’s first screening, which Apple and the NAACP hosted in Washington DC
In March, Smith took the stage at the Oscars and punched host Chris Rock, who had made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith, who won the Best Actor award later that night for King Richardhas been forbidden of attending the ceremony for ten years and voluntarily resigned from the Academy. He is also banned from attending an Academy event during this time, adding a wrinkle to campaigns for the season. Amid the fallout, Netflix released the Smith movie Fast and loose on a low note.
On July 29, Smith released a video giving his most comprehensive comments on the situation yet, noting, “there’s no part of me that thinks this was the right way to behave at the time.”
Antoine Fuqua leads the project, which landed Apple out of the Cannes virtual market in 2020 after a heated bidding war. It also features Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, Mustafa Shakir, Steven Ogg, Grant Harvey, Ronnie Gene Bivens, Jayson Warner Smith, Jabbar Lewis, Michael Luwoye, Aaron Moten, and Imani Pullum.
Based on a true story, the film follows Peter (Smith) a runaway slave who traveled north, outsmarting cold-blooded hunters and surviving the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana along the way. After escaping to freedom, Peter joined the Union army. When he showed his bare back during an Army medical examination, photos were taken of the scars from a near-fatal lash delivered by an overseer at John and Bridget Lyons’ plantation. The independent published the photo, known as The Scourged Back, in May 1863. It appeared in Harper’s Weekly’s July 4 issue and became indisputable proof of the cruelty and barbarity of slavery in America.
Emancipation was always expected for 2022, but in the wake of the blow, rumors surfaced that Apple was considering moving it to 2023. The release date news comes as Martin Scorcese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s high profile Killers of the Flower Moon was set for 2023, leaving Apple with no prize contender this year. The streaming service became the first to win the best photo, thanks to CODAearlier this year.
Fuqua recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his hopes for the film. said the director: “I would like the public to see the truth and be inspired by it.”