Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington Are Reuniting on Netflix

With so few positive things to look forward to, at least we can get excited about a new Netflix film starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail will write and direct Roberts and Washington in Leave the World Behind, a Netflix film that will be based on a novel by Rumaan Alam. The book hasn’t been published just yet—it’ll be released this October—but the plot follows a family who travels to Long Island for a vacation. Once they arrive at their rental, the homeowners return, telling the renters that there has been a blackout throughout the city, and all TV, internet, and cell service is down. From there, the two families are forced to stay together under one roof, while themes of class, race, and parenting are teased out during the film.

Leave the World Behind marks a reunion of sorts for Roberts and Washington, who were previously co-stars in The Pelican Brief, the 1993 legal drama based on the novel of the same name by John Grisham.

This film will be a reunion for Roberts and Esmail, too, as they previously worked together on season one of the director’s Amazon Prime series Homecoming.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix beat out both Apple and MGM in the bid for Leave the World Behind, and it might have cost the streaming platform over $100 million.

Esmail, Roberts, and Washington will each serve as producers on the project as well. The script for the film likely hasn’t been completed yet, and no dates are set for the production. But if they need any tips on filming during a pandemic, they can look no further than Washington’s son, John David Washington, who starred in and produced a secret quarantine movie with Zendaya earlier this summer.

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