Cinema- A Change Is Gonna Come with meeting of four black icons in Regina King’s debut

On February 25 1964, the boxer then known as Cassius Clay surprisingly defeated Sonny Liston to win the championship title.

He celebrated his win with his friends, the activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and NFL star Jim Brown, in Malcolm’s small, unglamorous motel room.

One Night In Miami, the directorial debut of the Oscar-winning actress Regina King, takes us into the room with these young, famous men, imagining the conversations they had, the music they played and the arguments they fought as they debated their roles in the civil rights movement and their approach to black leadership and freedom.

The film was shot last year, some of it before the world shut down due to coronavirus, but the rest later on, after Black Lives Matter protests had been held all over the world, following the death of unarmed black man George Floyd.

“The things that we were talking about in this film are things that have been prescient for black people far before 1964,” says King over Zoom.

“And I think it was one of those things, a nod from the universe, because there were really powder keg moments that were happening in ’64, ’63, ’62, and then we come full circle, to this powder keg moment in 2020.

“So I think as a team we felt like this story was always going to be relevant, but now there are even more people whose minds are fertile and ready and more open to receive the message.”

The film is based on a play by Kemp Powers, who recently co-directed the Pixar movie Soul, and King describes his script as a “punch” to her.

“This is an actor’s piece, it truly is, and the dialogue is the star, and to be an actor that relishes in the moment of receiving content where the dialogue just makes you swoon upon reading, that was attractive to me.

“I thought ‘Oh my god I would love to play any of these men’.”

In spite of that, Leslie Odom Jr, best known for originating the role of Aaron Burr in the Broadway production of Hamilton, said no to the chance to play Cooke at first.