A trailer for “Charm City Kings,” a shot-in-Baltimore feature film about a young boy longing to make his mark riding a dirt bike on the city streets, was posted to Facebook Wednesday.
The one-minute trailer, which ends with a promise that the film itself will show up in April, features multiple shots of young actor Jahi Di’Allo Winston, who plays the central character, Mouse. The trailer also features a brief scene with rapper Meek Mill, who plays the leader of The Midnight Clique, a group of dirt-bike riders Mouse aspires to join.
Multiple shots of Baltimore streets, complete with dirt-bike riders, are also featured.
Shot primarily in West Baltimore in the fall of 2018, “Charm City Kings” tells the story of Mouse, a 12 O’clock Boy — so named for riding the streets of Baltimore on their dirt bikes while keeping them as close to perpendicular as possible ― who “desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets,” according to the website for the Sundance Film Festival, where the movie is set to have its premiere on Jan. 27. “When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.”
The movie, from Sony Pictures and Will Smith’s production company Overbrook Entertainment, also stars Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley and Kezii Curtis. It is directed by Angel Manuel Soto (“The Farm”), from a screenplay by Sherman Payne, Chris Boyd and Kirk Sullivan and Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”). It is based on the 2013 documentary “12 O’clock Boys,” from Maryland Institute College of Art grad Lotfy Nathan.
“Charm City Kings” is slated to open in New York and Los Angeles on April 10, and expand into other cities later.