Winston Duke offers 'the amazing opportunity of life' in existential 'Nine Days' trailer (original) (raw)

Winston Duke and Zazie Beetz star in the film that dazzled Sundance audiences.

Published on October 12, 2020 04:40PM EDT

Nine Days, a film that seemed to dazzle audiences at the Sundance Film Festival for Winston Duke and Zazie Beetz's performances, offers the rest of us a peek at its existential grace through a first trailer.

Duke, coming off of Us and Spenser Confidential, stars as the reclusive Will, who exists in a sort of in-between reality. He spends his days at a remote outpost watching the point of views of people going about their lives on earth. When one of these people dies, five unborn souls arrive at his doorstep for the chance to receive "the amazing opportunity of life," as Duke's Will says in the trailer.

Over the course of nine days, he tests each of the souls and can only choose one to become a newborn in the real. Those who aren't picked will simply cease to exist.

Surprising him, however, is Beetz's Emma. She's not like the other souls. She forces Will to look within himself and reckon with his past, offering the potential for him to strike a new path forward in his own life.

Japanese Brazilian director Edson Oda makes his directorial feature debut with Nine Days after a series of acclaimed short films. Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, David Rysdahl, Arianna Ortiz, Perry Smith, and Geraldine Hughes also stars.

Spike Jonze recently boarded Nine Days as an executive producer and the film is now scheduled to open in theaters this Jan. 22.

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