You loved him in Attack the Block and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and now you can finally see one of the movies John Boyega worked on between those two sci-fi favorites. Imperial Dreams is a drama that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and has been on the festival circuit without a distributor for a while. Now Netflix has picked it up as one of its branded Originals and is about to release it online.
In the movie, which is the directorial debut of Malik Vitthal, Boyega plays an ex-con just out of prison who tries to make a better life for himself while taking care of his young son. The kid’s mom is still in prison, and Boyega’s character will do anything to keep him and do right, but it’s hard in to keep out of trouble back in his hometown of Watts, and unfortunately his old gang life calls for his return. The movie has a new trailer, which you can check out below.
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It’s surprising this took so long to come out, especially after Boyega was cast in The Force Awakens. It looks good, it received mostly positive reviews out of Sundance, but something about it must not have seemed marketable for a lot of outlets. Imperial Dreams should find a good audience on Netflix, where worthwhile rejects often wind up and not in the least as a dumping ground. You can see the movie for yourself when it begins streaming February 3.