Blackout, a BET-produced film that highlights events and goings on in Brooklyn during the 2003 power-interferance, has recently made the film festival rounds, most recently making an appearance at Tribeca. The film is a particularly compelling project on the basis of its cast alone, which includes Melvin Van Peeples, Prodigy (of Mobb Deep), and the exceedingly underrated Jeffrey Wright. Peebles, famous for his contributions to the blacksploitation era, was most-recently portrayed by his son in How to Get the Man’s Foot Outta Your Ass, a film about the senior Peebles career, written and directed by the junior. Prodigy is obviously well-known for his music.

Wright is one of today’s most interesting and talented film (and stage) actors and his presence in Blackout is the film’s most exciting prospect. He won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Belize, a gay leftist militant in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (and would later go on to be the only actor to reclaim his role in the HBO televised special a decade later). After the play, he would portray Jean Michel Basquiat (opposite a brilliant portrayal of Andy Warhol by David Bowie) in Julian Schnabel’s (Lou Reed’s Berlin, Before Night Falls) biopic about the notoriously influential street artist. Most recently, Wright has appeared in Casino Royale, Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, and he absolutely stole Syriana away from Hollywood it-men George Clooney and Matt Damon. He will soon play Muddy Waters in a film about Chess Records.

Released by Paramount and BET Home entertainment, Blackout hit stores February 5th.