Netflix Unveils Massive 2021 Film Slate

This morning Netflix unveiled its massive film slate for 2021.

With theaters yet to be open at 100%, the streaming services have been a beacon of hope for filmmakers and consumers. Netflix has dominated the market with a slew of films that are from today’s biggest producers, directors and actors. For the upcoming Oscars, they have more contenders than any other studios or streamer. This

This year’s line-up will surprise and delight cinephiles across the globe with films from Award winning filmmakers, including Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Paolo Sorrentino (The Hand of God) and Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up). We’re bringing you a year of films filled with more of the things we know our members love - zombies (Army of the Dead), cowboys (The Harder They Fall, Concrete Cowboy), and high school romance (including the culmination of the To All the Boys and The Kissing Booth trilogies). We’re re-introducing you to teen screams (Fear Street trilogy, There’s Someone Inside Your House), turning your favorite books into films (The Woman in the Window, Munich, The Last Letter from Your Lover), bringing you more adrenaline-pumping blockbusters (Red Notice, Sweet Girl, Kate) and giving your family a reason to say YES to watching films together (YES DAY,  Back to the Outback, Finding ‘Ohana).

Netflix will bring you a new movie every week featuring the biggest stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Dwayne Johnson, Idris Elba, Meryl Streep, Zendaya, Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, Gal Gadot, Dave Bautista, Naomi Watts, Jake Gyllenhaal, John David Washington and Octavia Spencer. And films from your favorite filmmakers like Zack Snyder, Nora Fingscheidt, Joe Wright, Antoine Fuqua, Shawn Levy, Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman and the directorial debuts from Halle Berry and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Here’s a list of films that are either produced, directed, or featuring Black talent in prominent roles

ARMY OF THE DEAD
Director: Zack Snyder
Snyder added to the zombie genre the notion of transforming the lumbering flesh eaters to sprinters, and here he introduces a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, and a group of mercenaries who use the zombies as cover to pull off a major heist in a quarantine zone. Cast includes Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, Samantha Win, Richard Cetrone, Michael Cassidy

A WEEK AWAY
Director: Roman White
Troubled teen Will Hawkins (Quinn) has a run-in with the law that puts him at an important crossroad: go to juvenile detention or attend a Christian summer camp. At first a fish-out-of-water, Will opens his heart, discovers love with a camp regular (Madison), and sense of belonging in the last place he expected to find it. Cast includes Bailee Madison, Kevin Quinn, Sherri Shepherd, David Koechner, Jahbril Cook, Kat Conner Sterling, Iain Tucker

BAD TRIP
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Jackass and Bad Grandpa producers made this hidden camera comedy following two best friends as they go on a cross-country road trip full of crazy pranks with Eric André, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish starring.

BEAUTY
Director: Andrew Dosunmu
A gifted young Black woman struggles to maintain her voice and identity after she’s offered a lucrative recording contract, setting off a fierce battle between her family, the label, and her closest friend to determine who will guide her as she makes the journey to become a star. Cast includes Niecy Nash, Aleyse Shannon, Giancarlo Esposito, Gracie Marie Bradley, Kyle Bary, Michael Ward and Sharon Stone

BRUISED
Director: Halle Berry
Halle Berry’s directorial debut follows a former MMA fighter struggling to regain custody of her son and restart her athletic career. Cast includes Halle Berry, Adan Canto, Sheila Atim, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Shamier Anderson

CONCRETE COWBOY
Director: Ricky Staub
Idris Elba and Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin play an estranged father and son in Northern Philadelphia who find a kinship in the urban cowboy culture the dad is devoted to. Can it save the son from a life of crime? Cast includes Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, Clifford "Method Man" Smith

DON’T LOOK UP
Director: Adam McKay
An array of stars here, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Timothee Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep in the story of what happens when two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet earth.

ESCAPE FROM SPIDERHEAD
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett star in a near future set drama with two young convicts who grapple with their pasts in a facility run by a brilliant visionary, who experiments on inmates with emotion-altering drugs.

MALCOLM & MARIE (February 5)
Director: Sam Levinson
Zendaya and John David Washington star in this romantic drama in which a filmmaker (Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) return home following a celebratory movie premiere as he awaits what’s sure to be imminent critical and financial success. The evening suddenly takes a turn as revelations about their relationships begin to surface, testing the strength of their love. Shot in sumptuous black and white 35mm by cinematographer Marcell Rev, the film was became the first to start and finish after the pandemic shutdown.

MONSTER
Director: Anthony Mandler
Monster tells the story of Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) a seventeen-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder. The film follows his dramatic journey from a smart, likeable film student from Harlem attending an elite high school through a complex legal battle that could leave him spending the rest of his life in prison. Cast includes Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, Jharrel Jerome, Jennifer Ehle, Rakim Mayers, Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones, Tim Blake Nelson, John David Washington

OUTSIDE THE WIRE (January 15)
Director: Mikael Håfström
Set in the future, Harp (Damson Idris), a drone pilot, is sent into a deadly militarized zone where he finds himself working for Leo (Anthony Mackie), an android officer, tasked to locate a doomsday device before the insurgents do.

RED NOTICE
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds star in the global heist drama where an Interpol-issued Red Notice — a global alert to hunt and capture the world’s most Wanted – is issued. A daring heist brings together the FBI’s top profiler (Johnson) and two rival criminals (Gadot, Reynolds).

RISE OF THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE MOVIE
Directors: Ant Ward, Andy Suriano
Nickelodeon pic that picks up the turtles when a mysterious stranger arrives from the future with a dire warning. Leo is forced to rise and lead his brothers, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey in a fight to save the world from a terrifying alien species…the Krang. Voice cast includes Ben Schwartz, Omar Benson Miller, Brandon Mychal Smith, Josh Brener, Kat Graham, Eric Bauza, Haley Joel Osment

THE GUILTY
Director: Antoine Fuqua
The film takes place over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch call center. Call operator Joe Bayler (Gyllenhaal) tries to save a caller in grave danger—but he soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and facing the truth is the only way out.

THE HARDER THEY FALL
Director: Jeymes Samuel
Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, Lakeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, RJ Cyler, Regina King, Idris Elba star in this Western. Outlaw Nat Love (Majors) discovers that his enemy, Rufus Buck (Elba), is being released from prison, so he reunites his gang to track Rufus down and seek revenge.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
Director: Joe Wright
An agoraphobic woman living alone in New York begins spying on her new neighbors, only to witness a disturbing act of violence. Cast includes Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore

THUNDER FORCE
Director: Ben Falcone
In a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite
after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to protect their city. Melissa McCarthy stars with Octavia Spencer.

tick,tick…BOOM!
Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
Set in 1990, tick, tick…BOOM! tells the story of an aspiring theater composer waiting tables in New York City and waiting on his big break as he writes Superbia – which he hopes will be the next great American musical though his long suffering girlfriend is losing faith. Adapted from the musical by Jonathan Larson, who got his break with Broadway smash Rent. Cast includes Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Bradley Whitford, Judith Light

UNTITLED GRAHAM KING
Director: Nora Fingscheidt
Released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime, Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past. Facing severe judgment from the place she once called home, her only hope for redemption is finding the estranged younger sister she was forced to leave behind. Cast also includes Viola Davis, Rob Morgan, Aisling Franciosi

UNTITLED ROMANTIC COMEDY PRODUCED BY ALICIA KEYS
Director: Steven Tsuchida
A romantic comedy about aspiring pop star Erica who ends up as the entertainment at her ex-fiancé’s wedding after reluctantly taking a gig at a luxurious island resort while in the wake of a music career meltdown. She tries to keep their past relationship a secret from his bride-to-be Beverly, but Erica rediscovers her feelings for her ex, Jason, despite his brother Caleb’s attempts to keep them from falling back in love. In this warm and funny romantic story
that explores the bonds of love and family, the question soon becomes will Erica sing at Beverly’s wedding – or her own? Cast includes Christina Milian, Jay Pharoah, Sinqua Walls, Christiani Pitts, Karen Obliom, Alexander Hodge, TJ Power, Sylvaine Strike, Jeryl Prescott, Tymberlee Hill