Indican Pictures Takes North America For Boaz Yakin’s ‘Once Again (For The Very First Time)’

EXCLUSIVE: Indican Pictures has acquired North American rights for Boaz Yakin’s dance, rap and slam poetry-led romance Once Again (For The Very First Time) and will start rolling it out theatrically across the U.S. in October.

Billed as a break-dance, hip-hop supernatural fantasy, the movie stars Jeroboam Bozeman as DeRay, a legendary rapper and convicted killer who falls through the sky to land outside the door of Naima (Mecca Verdell), a slam poetess who is the love of his life.

The lovers are both survivors of trauma and guilt, who channel their pain into their art against the backdrop of the war zone of the New York streets. They wrestle with their love in an emotional and psychological space that is out of place and out of time.

The dance sequences were choreographed by Rennie Harris and the score was written by  Marcus Norris (Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.)

Once Again follows writer and director Yakin’s dance-led 2020 romance Aviva, which was due to debut at SXSW but eventually came out online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He is also known for his 2001 feature Remember the Titans, starring Denzel Washington, as well as for taking co-writing credits on Netflix hit series The Harder They Fall, with its director Jeymes Samuel.

The acquisition, begun in Cannes and sealed at TIF, was negotiated by Indican co-founders Randolph Kret and Shaun Hill with Yakin and Jonathan Gray on behalf of producers along with Evan Knauss from Eisner LLP and with Miguel Govea and Brett Walker on behalf of Alief.

Once Again will open in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC before expanding into more major cities throughout North America from October 18, ahead of a digital release in February 2025.