Will Smith's first movie since Oscars slap will be released in December

Will Smith's new film "Emancipation" will be released in December — his first major project since he infamously slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in March. Smith posted a trailer of the movie on his social media pages and called it the "hardest movie I've ever made."   

"Blood, Sweat & Tears… LITERALLY! Shoutout to Apple who doubled (and tripled) down on their commitment to deliver this epic story to the world," he wrote Monday. 

The movie centers around Smith's character, Peter, an enslaved man who escapes a Louisiana plantation and makes his way north. According to Apple, the film was inspired by the 1863 photos of  "Whipped Peter." One of the images – known as "The Scourged Back" – shows Peter's bare back mutilated from whippings by his enslavers and it proved to be instrumental in shifting the public sentiment in opposition to slavery.