Fresh off his role in “The Color Purple,” Corey Hawkins has secured the lead in Andscape’s upcoming thriller, “The Man in My Basement,” directed by Nadia Latif in their directorial debut. Andscape, a Black-led content studio from Disney-ESPN, is financing the project, set to release on Hulu.
Adapted from the Walter Mosley novel, the movie not only stars Corey Hawkins but also stars Willem Dafoe opposite Hawkins who will also serve as an executive producer. Hawkins takes over the project from Jonathan Majors, who was originally attached to star in the project as well as executive produce it under his Tall Street Productions banner.
Majors was dropped from the project in April 2023, nearly a month following his March assault charge.
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The storyline revolves around Charles Blakey, portrayed by Hawkins, a resident of the African American neighborhood of Sag Harbor. Facing financial difficulties and on the brink of losing his ancestral home, Charles receives an intriguing proposition from a mysterious businessman, Anniston Bennet (played by Dafoe). The offer to rent out his basement for the summer promises to clear Charles’s debts, but it leads him down a chilling path that confronts his family’s ghosts and entangles the men in a perplexing puzzle touching on race, trauma, and the root of all evil.
“The Man in My Basement” is a collaboration with B.O.B. FilmHouse, Protagonist Pictures, and Good Gate Media.
(Originally read on Deadline)