Two leading Black Women in film come together for an on-the-run drama starring Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith. Matsoukas is recognized for her music video work with Rihanna, Solange, and Beyonce, as well as TV work for ‘Insecure’. She has won Grammy’s for both “Formation” and “We Found Love.” Will she add Oscar to her list?
Stylish (re: Turner-Smith wearing Brother Vellies in poster), thrilling and Black; “Queen and Slim” releases worldwide in November. Press release courtesy of Universal Pictures below.
Daniel Kaluuya as Slim in Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas. 
Jodie Turner-Smith as Queen in Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas. 
(from left) Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) in Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas.
From trailblazing, Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe (Netflix’s Master of None) and Melina Matsoukas, the visionary director of some of this generation’s most powerful pop-culture experiences, including Beyonce’s “Formation” and the Nike “Equality” campaign, comes Makeready’s unflinching new drama, Queen & Slim.
While on a forgettable first date together in Ohio, a black man (Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya) and a black woman (Jodie Turner-Smith, in her first starring feature-film role), are pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. The situation escalates, with sudden and tragic results, when the man kills the police officer in self-defense. Terrified and in fear for their lives, the man, a retail employee, and the woman, a criminal defense lawyer, are forced to go on the run. But the incident is captured on video and goes viral, and the couple unwittingly become a symbol of trauma, terror, grief and pain for people across the country.
As they drive, these two unlikely fugitives will discover themselves and each other in the most dire and desperate of circumstances, and will forge a deep and powerful love that will reveal their shared humanity and shape the rest of their lives.
Joining a legacy of films such as Bonnie and Clyde and Thelma & Louise, Queen & Slim is a powerful, consciousness-raising love story that confronts the staggering human toll of racism and the life-shattering price of violence.
Waithe wrote the script based on an original idea by bestselling author James Frey (A Million Little Pieces, Katerina). The feature-film directorial debut from Melina Matsoukas (executive producer of HBO’s Insecure) stars Academy Award® nominee Daniel Kaluuya as “Slim” and rising star Jodie Turner-Smith (Syfy’s Nightflyers), as “Queen.”