Regina King to Direct Film Adaptation of ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI

Oscar-winner Regina King will direct One Night in Miami, based on Kemp Powers' debut play, according to Deadline.

Set on the night of February 25, 1964, the story follows a young Cassius Clay as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center as the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Against all odds, he's defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the world of boxing. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach's hotspots to celebrate the match, Clay - unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws - spends the night at the Hampton House Motel in Miami's Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his friends: activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and football star Jim Brown. The next morning, the men emerge determined to define a new world.

In One Night in Miami..., critically-acclaimed playwright Powers aims to explore exactly what happened during those pivotal hours. At this critical point in each of their lives, the four men challenge ideas about power, religion, morality, and the realities of fighting racism. Featuring the legendary music of Sam Cooke, including his seminal opus, "A Change is Gonna Come," the show sets out to reveal the men for who they were: friends who became mavericks of the Civil Rights Movement.

Powers is adapting the play, and the film is being produced by Snoot Entertainment (Blindspotting, Little Monsters) and ABKCO, with Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder producing for Snoot and Jody Klein for ABKCO.

In addition to the Academy Award, King also won a Golden Globe, an Independent Spirit Award and the prestigious National Board of Review award for her supporting role as 'Sharon Rivers' in Barry Jenkins' critically-acclaimed adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk. King has also won three Emmy Awards in recent years; one for 'Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie' for her work in the Netflix racial crime drama Seven Seconds and had won the previous two Emmy Awards in the 'Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie' category for her role in the ABC anthology series American Crime, which also garnered her first Golden Globe Award nomination. King is currently filming the lead role in HBO's highly anticipated Watchmen series from creator Damon Lindelof based on and inspired by the DC comic book, slated to premiere later this year.

Kemp Powers' other works include: Little Black Shadows, The Two Reds, Christa McAuliffe's Eyes Were Blue and A Negro by Choice. He received the 2013 Ted Schmitt Award for outstanding new play for THE ONE Night in Miami...world premiere in Los Angeles; it also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP Theatre Awards and an LA Weekly Theater Award. Its 2016 production at London's Donmar Warehouse was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. In television, he has written for STAR TREK: DISCOVERY (CBS All Access) and most recently for 8 Fights: Muhammad Ali (CBS All Access). Powers has toured nationally as a storyteller for the Peabody Award-winning series The Moth and was one of the fifty storytellers selected for publication in their New York Times- bestselling book, The Moth: 50 True Stories (Hyperion Press). Powers is a founding member of The Temblors, a producing playwrights collective in Los Angeles, where he resides.One Night in Miami... is produced in association with ABKCO Theatre.

Read the original article on Deadline.