There’s Fences, and there’s Hidden Figures. Both of them are set in the 1950s, star a predominantly black cast, and contain a word beginning with the letter “F”—but the similarities end there. One is a film adaptation of August Wilson’s award-winning play, and the other is about discrimination toward three math-genius women who helped NASA send a rocket into space.
And yet during the course of the Golden Globes, the names of the two films were mixed up not once, but twice. NBC’s Jenna Bush Hager said to Pharrell, “So, you’re nominated for ‘Hidden Fences,’” when he was actually nominated for Best Original Score for Hidden Figures. The imaginary movies surfaced again when Michael Keaton announced the nominees for Best Supporting Actress. Cringeworthy? Very. A chance for Stephen Colbert to work his comedy magic? Absolutely.
Watch the trailer for the non-existent movie “Hidden Fences,” which premiered at the opening of Colbert’s The Late Show, above.
The trailer opens with, “This summer, see the movie white people at the Golden Globes were talking about,” and shows Denzel Washington of Fences explaining to a fence that fences can’t go into outer space. We then switch to a Hidden Figures set in which Kevin Costner explains to his NASA staff, “They’re going to be asking us questions about our work. I think that’s pretty reasonable, given that we’re taking a fence and shooting it into space and that’s never been done before.”
The trailer voiceover explains that “Hidden Fences” is “based on a true story of people who think all movies about black people are the same movie.”
Both Hidden Figures and Fences are out in theaters and receiving excellent reviews. As for “Hidden Fences,” the trailer says it all.