There were some out there clinging to the belief that Jeymes Samuel’s “The Book of Clarence” would be an Oscar contender. It might still go to TIFF, not sure about Venice or Telluride. But today’s news isn’t reassuring.
Sony has bumped the film’s release date from September 22nd, 2023 to January 12th, 2024. Unless the studio is actually giving this film a late limited December release, then its Oscar chances are basically toast.
Samuel’s film is about a man named Clarence living in 29 A.D. Jerusalem who looks to capitalize on the rise of Jesus Christ. It sounds intriguing enough. The setting is, at the very least, intriguing.
Production on the film began last November and wrapped this past February. It is a story that’s biblical in nature and has a talented cast of African-American actors behind it. The cast includes LaKeith Stanfield (as Clarence), Omar Sy, David Oyelowo and Alfre Woodard. The white guys are Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy, both said to have supporting roles.
A test-screening occurred last month in Los Angeles. I had posted a reaction:
Hey I saw the book of Clarence last night at a test screening and I thought it was alright, a little bit of Taika Waititi mixed with some of the directors previous style to make something that forms a halfway interesting idea about challenging faith with knowledge only to succumb to that and become a movie about the belief in Jesus. Lakeith is great here and the music is the movies strongest aspect. Overall I think it works best as a conversation starter, especially having such a predominantly black cast and having so many modern aspects to it (smoking of weed, racial epithet, a scene where they dance to synth music like in a club) it’s unabashedly a black piece of filmmaking. The tone going in the first 30 minutes is very Waiti meets Sorry to Bother you and Cumberbatch is almost in borderline blackface (he’s meant to be a dirty filthy street beggar who receives a makeover to look just like Jesus is pictured today in one of the most amusing moments in the movie) and it ultimately finds it stride halfway through.
Not very reassuring.
Samuel’s directorial debut was the star-studded Western, “The Harder They Fall.” Before that he was known for having a long career in music as the artist known as The Bullitts. Let’s all pray that this one’s better than “The Harder They Fall.”