If you thought your last job interview was stressful, Winston Duke in “Nine Days” plays an interviewer who will decide the fate of five souls and whether they will get the chance to be born into the real world or whether they will cease to exist.
“Nine Days” made its premiere at Sundance this year, and director Edson Oda’s film will now open in 2021 from Sony Pictures Classics. Along with the first trailer for the film, “Being John Malkovich” director Spike Jonze has now joined the project as an executive producer.
“Nine Days” has a stellar cast that also includes Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl and Arianna Ortiz all vying for their own chance to be born. Duke plays the mysterious man who will interview and test the human souls over the course of nine days, though he will only be able to choose one to continue existing.
Oda’s film grapples with spiritual and existential dilemmas, and the trailer shows Beetz and Skarsgård arguing about the bleak truth of how humans cause pain, suffering and consistently take lives, and whether its more important to focus on the goodness of humankind.
“Edson is a special human with a special mind and heart. And ‘Nine Days’ is a film that comes straight from within him and therefore is special in the exact same way. Delicate and deep, like the man himself,” Jonze said in a statement.
“Spike Jonze has been one of the biggest influences in my life as a filmmaker. His work – which made me see pictures in motion with new eyes–inspired me to pursue this career, and constantly encourages me to tell my own stories in the most human, personal and heartful way I can,” Oda said in a statement. “I am so honored and humbled to have him involved with ‘Nine Days,’ it really means the world to me.”
“Nine Days” doesn’t have a firm release date yet, but it will open theatrically in early 2021, and it will next play at the Hamptons Film Festival and the AFI Film Festival, among others. Check out the first trailer above.