Netflix Picks Up Sundance Film ‘Passing’ Starring Tessa Thompson & Ruth Negga
After making its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Deadline is reporting that Netflix has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut titled Passing, starring Oscar nominee Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. The streamer paid around $15.75 million for the film.
Also featured in the film are André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp, Ashley Ware Jenkins, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and Gbenga Akinnagbe.
Based on Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name from 1929, Passing, which was shot in black-and-white, follows the events set off by a reunion of two childhood friends named Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, who are both mixed race women. The film is an exploration of racial identity set in 1920s New York.
The book’s official synopsis reads: “Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to “pass” as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare’s interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene’s black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling.”
Passing is written and directed by actress Rebecca Hall (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Christine). The film is produced by Hall, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, and Margot Hand with Thompson and Negga also set as executive producers.
Oren Moverman, Angela Robinson, Erika Hampson, Michael Y. Chow, Kevin A. Lin, Lauren Dark, Daniel Battsek, Ollie Madden, and Brenda Robinson have also executive produced along with Chaz Ebert, Yvonne Huff, Christopher Liu, Arcadiy Golubovich, Dori A. Rath, Joseph J. Restaino, David Gendron and Ali Jazayeri