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Emancipation director Antoine Fuqua contrasts 400 Years a Slave with star Will Smith at the Oscars and says Apple TV+ didn't consider move the movie back. Release date.
Emancipation by writer Bill Collage was due out in 2022, but Will Smith's hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars was supposed to mean Apple would delay the release. Variety even stated that it was “an unspoken truth” that Apple wanted to distance the film from the event. However, it has also been said that because Luck and The Greatest Beer Run disappointed critics, Apple only had Emancipation as an Oscar contender.
In a new interview, the film's director Antoine Fuqua denies he ever hesitated when to release the slavery drama.
“There was never a conversation with me, or with Apple, or with my producers, Todd Black, John Monet or Heather Washington, that the film would not come out,” Fuqua said.
However, he also says that “it's always been a full conversation with Apple.”
“They were very sensitive to me, to Will, to all the people who worked on the film,” he continued. “It was more like we [evaluate everything. We see what people are saying.”
“They were very careful about it,” Fuqua said. “Then we showed the film to some people and their reaction was really positive and we talked about it as we went along.”
Fukua may not fully understand why Apple decided to delay the release of the film, but he is confident that releasing the film now is the right choice.
“I've always said, 'Isn't 400 years of slavery and cruelty more important than one bad moment?'” he says. “We were in Hollywood and some really terrible things happened and we saw a lot of people getting awards for really nasty things.”
“So I think Apple took all those things into account, and we talked a lot,” Fuqua continued. “Then the people in charge of distribution and money at Apple accepted solution, and I'm grateful, I'm really grateful.”
Emancipation will be in theaters on December 2, 2022, and on Apple TV+ on December 9.
