Young Black Women Roar in Idris Elba and Will Packer’s ‘Beast’: ‘We’re Leading a Movie and It’s Not Anything Degrading’

variety.com:

Clayton Davis Idris Elba is undeniably the star of Will Packer’s latest movie, “Beast,” but the family story at the heart of Universal’s release was a big draw for the producer who previously shepherded “Girls Trip.” In the movie, debuting in theaters Aug.

19, Elba plays Nate Samuels, a recently widowed doctor who returns to South Africa with his two teenage daughters (Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries) and must fight to survive from a man-hunting lion.Packer sought to offer a balance for the late summer movie calendar. “I loved the idea that it just happens to be a Black family in peril,” Packer says. “It’s not just about man versus beast – it’s a man protecting his daughters.

It’s universal in those themes.” Under his banner company of Will Packer Productions, “Beast” is another notch on the mogul’s belt for amplifying Black women as demonstrated by his past features such as “Girls Trip” (2017) with Tiffany Haddish and “The Photograph” (2020) with Issa Rae, both distributed Universal.The sisters are stricken by paralyzing fear of the carnivore’s relentless pursuit in the movie.

Halley portrays Meredith, a college-bound photographer that harbors resentment toward her father for separating from her mother prior to her death, while Jeffries is Norah, a sweet and curious girl unafraid to stand up to her big sister or stab a lion that’s trying to get under their cliff-dangling vehicle.“We’re both brown skinned, dark-skinned girls and we’re leading a movie, and it’s not anything that’s degrading,” Halley says.Jeffries, who also has a major role as the daughter of a Greek goddess in the upcoming Disney+ adaptation of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” revels in the opportunity to play diverse roles.