In their steamy new drama “Malcolm & Marie,” Zendaya and John David Washington are madly in love and love being mad, and the film’s first trailer spotlights that passionate intensity.
The two-hander drama is set across one long evening and follows a filmmaker (Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya), who come home from a celebratory movie premiere as he awaits what’s sure to be imminent critical and financial success. But the evening takes a turn as revelations about their relationship begin to surface, testing the strength of their love.
“I feel like once you know someone is there for you and once they love you, you never actually think of them again,” Zendaya tells Washington in the trailer. “It’s not until you’re about to lose someone that you finally pay attention.”
“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson directed “Malcolm & Marie,” exploring not a love story but a story about love, as the trailer explains. But what really makes the drama unique is that it was filmed in secret last summer during quarantine, with the cast and crew locking down for two weeks and retreating to a bubble estate for filming.
The film was also shot in striking black and white by cinematographer Marcell Rev, with Levinson wanting to pay homage to classic Hollywood romances while offering a “heartfelt expression of faith” in the future of black and white filmmaking.
Levinson wrote and directed “Malcolm & Marie,” and Levinson, Zendaya and Washington all produced the film along with Kevin Turen and Ashley Levinson. The film’s executive producers are Will Greenfield, Aaron L. Gilbert, Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer and Scott Mescudi.
“Malcolm & Marie” will debut on Netflix on Feb. 5, and hopes to be a late entry in the 2021 Oscar race. Watch the first trailer here and above.