Jay-Z Produced Film ‘The Book of Clarence’ Set to Arrive in January

On Tuesday (August 29), Sony Pictures Entertainment released the trailer for their upcoming film The Book of Clarence, slated to release on January 12, 2024. Written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, the film stars world-renowned actor Lakeith Stanfield, and includes Jay-Z as one of the four producers. To help promote The Book of Clarence, Jay-Z reactivated his official Instagram page yesterday to post the two-minute-long trailer for the movie, two years after initially deleting his account.

Only about half a year away from release, the upcoming film sees Stanfield’s character Clarence attempt to found his own cult in Jerusalem in 33 AD, inspired by witnessing the rise of Jesus of Nazareth first-hand. The movie also includes appearances from Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, Teyana Taylor, Caleb McLaughlin, Nicholas Pinnock, and more.

“I wanted to tell a Bible story about an everyman,” Samuel told Vanity Fair in an interview Tuesday. “I always wanted to explore the Bible stories, but from the angle of the person that sells Jesus his sandals, the woman or man that owns the hair salon.”

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This will be the second time Jay-Z has been enlisted as a producer for one of Samuels’ projects, as he also worked on the 2021 film The Harder They Fall starring Idris Elba. Samuel and Hov’s relationship first began in 2017, as Samuel produced Hov’s 10-minute short film Legacy, which served as the music video for the tenth song on Jay-Z’s thirteenth studio album 4:44.

“He has this fearlessness to him,” Jay-Z said of Samuel in the same Vanity Fair interview. “He’s very confident, but it’s not off-putting.”

Vouching for the arc of Clarence in the story, as he feared audiences may dislike Stanfield’s character, Jay-Z explained to Vanity Fair that he wants everyone to go into the movie with an open mind.

“This story is about a young man who finds his faith through love and through wanting to become somebody in the world, which is the story of everybody,” Jay-Z told Vanity Fair in the same interview. “Everyone wants to find love and everyone wants to leave this place having accomplished something, having left their mark that they’ve been here and hopefully affected the world in a positive way.”

Watch the trailer for The Book of Clarence below.

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic