‘Hidden Figures’ Trailer: Three African-American female NASA Engineers help get us into space
20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for the upcoming historical film Hidden Figures, which stars Taraji P. Henson (Empire), Octavia Spencer (The Help, Snowpiercer) and R&B artist Janelle Monáe as three African-American NASA engineers as they work to accomplish the first manned orbit around the Earth.
Henson stars as Katherine Johnson, the mathematical prodigy whose celestial trajectory calculations were used to successfully complete both John Glenn’s first orbit in 1962 and the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. Spencer will portray her engineering colleague Dorothy Vaughan, who led West Area Computers — an all-black group of female NASA mathematicians — for 15 of her 28 years at the organization. Monáe plays Mary Jackson, the youngest of the trio, whose career working with data for NASA’s flight experiments spanned 35 years.
Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Mahershala Ali (House of Cards, The Hunger Games) and Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) will also have lead roles.
The film will be directed by Theodore Melfi, who made his directorial debut with the 2014 comedic drama St. Vincent. Pharrell Williams is among the movie’s producers and will contribute original music along with Hans Zimmer.
Hidden Figures is scheduled for release on Jan. 13, 2017.