Hollywood has a long history of movie adaptations of stage plays. A Streetcar Named Desire, Amadeus, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Odd Couple, Glengarry Glen Ross, Death of a Salesman, The Philadelphia Story to name a few. One Night in Miami joins the list as it is based upon a play by Kemp Powers, who also wrote the screenplay.

On Day 3 of this series in which we focus on Characters, there is a video interview with Powers and the film's director Regina King in which they discuss the challenges of "opening up" the story so that it works as a movie. The challenge was exacerbated by budgetary limitations. But at the end of the day, the story is about an imagined evening where these four prominent Black men intersected. It's a terrific "what if" scenario as each character - Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Malcolm X - are strong personalities who created extraordinary legacies in their real lives.

What Powers does so well with the story is explore evolving dynamics between the individuals as they question their respective roles in American - and specifically Black - culture. There are times when the focus is on two characters for a scene. These pairings shift allowing for one character's personality and chief concerns to explore the other character's feelings and world view... then onto another pairing... and another pairing.

It's interesting to think about the times when the four are gathered together as "set pieces." Although there certainly *are* those moments (e.g., when Sam Cooke sings Change is Gonna Come), the energy the quartet exhibits when together makes for some scintillating scenes.

More to come this week. Join the conversation!