If 2021 was the true breakout year for Apple TV+ as a streaming “giant,” 2022 has much to live up to. Their one major sure-fire hit — Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon — may be ready in time for Cannes next year, dashing hopes that they’d be assured of a repeat win following Coda‘s award-season success. Most of their other projects are less prestigious (all still pretty decent-looking, though), but aside from Causeway, which we saw at TIFF and liked a lot, there was one jewel left in the crown: Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation, which stars Will Smith as a man trying to escape from slavery, and is a fictionalized story that’s meant to provide some attempt at explaining a very famous photograph — depicting the very real barbarity of Southern Slavery — from the Civil War era. But thanks to various factors, nobody knew if the film would actually come out. Yet, here it is: it screened on Sunday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 51st Annual Legislative Conference in D.C., and Apple’s got both a trailer and a release date ready for you on this Monday.
Take a look:
Here’s a synopsis, which is, for a synopsis, actually pretty informative. Weird, we know.
“‘Emancipation’ tells the triumphant story of Peter (Smith), a man who escapes from slavery, relying on his wits, unwavering faith and deep love for his family to evade cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom. The film is inspired by the 1863 photos of ‘Whipped Peter,’ taken during a Union Army medical examination, that first appeared in ‘Harper’s Weekly’. One image, known as ‘The Scourged Back,’ which shows Peter’s bare back mutilated by a whipping delivered by his enslavers, ultimately contributed to growing public opposition to slavery.”
Emancipation will hit theaters on December 2, and ultimately be made available to all Apple TV+ subscribers a week later on December 9. And look at that! Aside from one vague allusion, it’s possible to write an entire post without talking about the Oscars or making a bunch of jokes about Chris Rock. Crazy, we know!