Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington heading to Netflix for Leave the World Behind

Leave the World Behind follows two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. While Julia Roberts will play the mother of the family that rents a house, Denzel Washington will portray the homeowner.

Hollywood stars Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts are set to reunite for the Netflix family drama Leave the World Behind.

The duo previously collaborated on the 1993 legal thriller The Pelican Brief, directed by Alan J Pakula from his adaptation of the John Grisham novel.

The new project is based on the upcoming novel by Rumaan Alam and the streaming site has landed feature film rights to the source material, reported Variety.

Mr Robot creator Sam Esmail is attached to direct and adapt the book. Esmail has earlier worked with Julia Roberts on the first season of Amazon Prime Video series Homecoming.

Leave the World Behind follows two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. Roberts will play the mother of the family that rents a house and Washington will portray the homeowner.

The story will explore the themes of parenthood, race, and class.

Leave the World Behind will be published by Ecco in October.

Denzel Washington is producing along with Julia Roberts through her Red Om Films banner and Sam Esmail and Chad Hamilton through Esmail Corp. Rumaan Alam is an executive producer.

Washington is also attached to produce Netflix’s upcoming film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.