Incoming Blade star Mahershala Ali should be an old hand at waiting a long time for his movies to see the light of day, as his first movie is only now being seen 25 years after filming wrapped. Taste the Revolution was filmed back in 2001, and predates all the movies and TV shows that Ali has since become known for, but the film was never released and has only now made its premiere at the New Orleans Film Festival.
Taste the Revolution is a mockumentary movie that follows two filmmakers at the “Chaos World Summit.” The event is a gathering of mostly college students who want to “counter generational apathy through free food, booze, and radical politics.” As can be seen in the first trailer released for the movie, Ali’s event organizer Laslow rallies up the crowds with powerful speeches, but it doesn’t take long for thing to descend into…well, chaos.
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Ali was not the only person to work on the movie that would go on to bigger things. The mockumentary, directed by Dan Klein, was co-written by Jurassic World franchise scribe Colin Trevorrow along with Brandon Kreuger. Trevorrow also acted as executive producer and appears for a brief moment on camera – a long way away from working on movies like Jurassic World: Dominion and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker two decades later.
When it comes to Ali’s role in the movie, his talent was clearly evident even before he was seen in the likes of The 4400, Green Book, and True Detective. Klein originally only wanted Ali to appear in a minor role in Taste the Revolution, but his audition was enough to convince the director that the actor needed to be a more prominent player in the film. Now audiences will finally get to see this early throwback to one of Ali’s earliest roles.
Why Mahershala Ali’s First Movie Was Lost For Years
Even the greatest filmmakers have “lost” movies that are never seen by audiences, or at least not until they are restored and released long after they are no longer around to see it happen. However, Taste the Revolution’s delays were not been down to a lack of funding, or a studio being unhappy with the finished result. The film’s delay was caused by one of the biggest events in modern history – the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Taste the Revolution wrapped filming prior to the devastating events that transpired in New York, but the subject was deemed “out-of-touch” by Klein in the wake of that terrible day. After pushing the movie to one side for more than a decade, he explained to The Hollywood Reporter why audiences are now going to finally see the movie after so long.
“Shortly after production concluded, 9/11 permanently altered the world, and our movie instantly felt like an out-of-touch period piece, so we buried it. Fast-forward a decade and a half, our lead actor, Mahershala Ali, won his first Oscar for Moonlight and, two years later, his second for Green Book. I shared a clip from the movie with him, and he immediately called to implore us to finish the film.
When we revisited the footage, we realized it felt even more relevant, 20 years later. Perhaps the movie will, unfortunately, be perpetually relevant, given that so many young people pass through this phase in life, where they possess little and have an abundance of time and passion if not the perspective or insight to fully understand the nuances of the causes they champion.”
Taste the Revolution debuted on October 19 at the New Orleans Film Festival, marking the arrival of a movie 25 years in the making.