A lot of bad films come out every year; a lot of really horrible films come out every year; but no film was so reviled, so viciously attacked as was this year’s “Nina,” and perhaps deservedly so.
The misguided bio-pic about music icon Nina Simone starring the woefully miscast Zoe Saldana in blackface, along with David Oyelowo and Mike Epps, suffered through major production problems, the least of which was Nina’s writer and director Cynthia Mort suing the producers of the film, claiming that it was taken out of her hands and recut against her wishes.
On top of that, aside from the casting of Saldana which launched a thousand outraged articles, was the fact that the film was not entirely true to Simone’s life, which was dramatic enough anyway without any fictionalized embellishments.
But if anyone is still curious enough to see it, here’s some good news. Today RLJ Entertainment announced that “Nina” will be released on blu-ray and DVD on Sept. 6.
Interestingly, no extra features will be included on the DVD which is not surprising, considering that the director claims the film isn’t her vision, so of course she probably wouldn’t want to record a director’s commentary for the disc. In addition, when one considers all the different controversies that surrounded the film from inception, why would there be the expected “making of” documentary?