Exclusive: Denzel Washington & Dana Canedy on brining A Journal for Jordan to the big screen
Coming exclusively In movie theaters December 25, 2021 from Sony Pictures is Denzel Washington’s directorial A Journal for Jordan, starring Michael B. Jordan and Chanté Adams. Written by Academy Award nominee Virgil Williams, the film is based on Dana Canedy’s New York Times best-selling memoir of the same title, which was published in 2008.
The film tells the true story of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Canedy’s love affair with First Sergeant Charles Monroe King. King kept a journal full of poignant life lessons for their newborn son Jordan while deployed overseas. He was killed in Iraq in 2006 when Jordan was just seven months old, but his spirit lives on in his messages of love to Dana and Jordan.
For Washington, this is his directorial effort, following Antwone Fisher, The Great Debaters, and Fences, which received four Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor. Washington was a producer on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom starring the late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis and starred in The Little Things with Rami Malek and Jared Leto earlier this year. He will also starring in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth opposite France McDormand. That film is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on December 25, 2021, by A24 prior to streaming on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.
Canedy is currently a senior vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship imprint. BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Washington and Canedy on bringing A Journal for Jordan to the big screen.
