Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts To Reunite On-Screen In Sam Esmail’s Netflix film ‘Leave The World Behind’

Deadline is reporting that Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts will reunite on-screen for the first time in 27 years when they star in Sam Esmail’s Netflix film ‘Leave The World Behind.’

The drama has a timely premise, given the disorienting nature of events in the world so far this year: Amanda and Clay’s aspirational vacation with their teenage children is interrupted by the arrival of a middle aged couple who own the holiday home and who have fled an unprecedented blackout in the city. When the internet, television and radio stop working, as does the landline, they have no way of finding out what is happening. As strange sonic booms shatter the peace of the countryside, and animals start to migrate in strange ways, the physical and mental health of the families begins to disintegrate. The renters are upscale and White; the owners are upscale and Black. The issues of race and clash become distractions to the more alarming things are happening all around them.

Roberts will play the mother of the family that rents the house. Washington will play the homeowner.

Based on Rumaan Alam’s upcoming novel, which will be published this fall by the HarperCollins publishing imprint Ecco.

Washington and Roberts starred together in 1993’s The Pelican Brief and Esmail and Roberts worked closely together on the first season of the Amazon drama series Homecoming, on which Esmail is co-creator exec producer and director.

Roberts is producing through her Red Om Films banner; Denzel Washington is producing and so are Sam Esmail and Chad Hamilton through Esmail Corp. Alam will be executive producer and Red Om’s Lisa Gillan and Marisa Yeres Gill will also be involved in a producorial capacity