Teyonah Parris is lining up a major big-screen pairing. The Candyman star has joined Denzel Washington in Christopher McQuarrie's untitled thriller, TheGrio reported Thursday, citing Deadline, which first broke the casting news.
The film, headed for a theatrical release, comes from Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists, as TheWrap reported when Washington and McQuarrie first teamed up on the project. Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner wrote the script. The story follows a former police detective serving a life sentence who learns he has terminal brain cancer. Granted compassionate release with about six months to live, he goes home hoping to reconnect with the daughter he left behind and to meet a grandson he never knew existed. As he tries to make amends, his past proves it isn't finished with him.
Details about Parris' character have not been released.
Two Black leads in a studio thriller
The project gives Parris one of the most high-profile assignments of her career, sharing the screen with Washington in a story built around family, regret and second chances. Washington most recently starred in Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest opposite A$AP Rocky (see our coverage of the trailer). He is also set to star in The Take, a heist film with Danai Gurira, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones that is expected on Netflix in 2027.
Parris' most recent film was this year's Matchbox: The Movie, alongside Gurira, John Cena, Jessica Biel and Golshifteh Farahani (read more about the film). In a recent ESSENCE interview cited by TheGrio, she said she weighs whether a story is one she wants to tell and whether a character interests her, and she considers how a role might widen the range of stories told about the African diaspora.
No title, start date or release date has been announced. McQuarrie, a longtime Tom Cruise collaborator, is directing.
