Apple is developing a drama series about Negro League Baseball, according to sources.
The streamer has acquired the rights to the non-fiction book “If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy ‘Satchel’ Paige” by Donald Spivey to develop as a series. It will explore the story of Negro League Baseball using the life and legacy of the legendary athlete and showman Leroy “Satchel” Paige, one of baseball’s greatest pitchers and star of Negro Leagues for many years.
Paige is a baseball legend, having been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. He played for a number of Negro League teams in his career and went on to play for multiple Major League Baseball teams as well starting with the Cleveland Indians in 1948.
Apple and Kapital Entertainment will co-produce the series. In addition, they are partnering with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of African American baseball. The project is also supported by MLB.
Earvin “Magic” Johnson will produce along with Peter Guber, Ron Shelton, John Mass, Jason Smith, and Kapital’s Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor.
Should the project move forward it would not be the first sports series to be set up at Apple. The streamer currently airs the comedy “Ted Lasso” starring Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis stars as an American football coach who moves to England to head up an English Premier League Team. The show has become a critical darling, with Sudeikis taking home the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy. It is widely seen as a strong contender in this year’s Emmy race. The second season is slated to drop on July 23.
Source: Variety
The streaming giant Netflix welcomed the late 90s/early 2000s UPN classic, The Parkers in 2020. As a spin-off of Moesha, the sitcom starred Mo’Nique and Countess Vaughn as a mother-daughter duo who balanced their lives between education, careers and day-to-day shenanigans.
With many shows from that era rebooting, it wouldn’t be a surprise if The Parkers did the same. However, according to Mo’Nique, that will not be the case. As reported by Showbiz Cheat Sheet, in an interview on FOX SOUL’s Get Into It With Tami Roman, Mo’Nique talked against the idea of rebooting.
She said, “You can’t reboot something without everyone to reboot it.”
A lot has changed since the last episode in 2004. Yvette Wilson (Andell Wilkerson) died in 2012 after a battle with cancer.
Reminding Roman of this, Mo’Nique acknowledged she wouldn’t “feel good” rebooting without her co-star. “But that’s just the way I feel about it. I wouldn’t feel good about it if Andell wasn’t walking through the door. And for me, that was just a special moment in time.”
Fans have wanted a continuation from the conclusion of the show when Nikki Parker (Mo’Nique) walked down the aisle with Professor Olgevee (Dorien Wilson).
In 2018, those calls gained more traction with Vaughn leading the pack. However, with Mo’Nique’s sentiments, it looks like that may not happen … at least not soon.
Source: Shadow & Act
Young Thug will be making his acting debut in the musical drama Throw It Back from producers Paul Feig and Tiffany Haddish.
Throw It Back follows high school senior Wytrellm who has never stood out from the crowd, played by Shahadi Wright Joseph. According to the project’s description, the story takes place “after a controversial superstar Miami rapper decides to feature the renowned dance team from her high school in his latest music video, it throws the school into chaos, and Wytrell battles for a spot on the squad and her final chance to be in the spotlight.”
The “Go Crazy” rapper will also oversee the film’s soundtrack, as well as executive produce.
Shadae Lamar Smith will direct from a script he wrote with Rochée Jeffrey.
Haddish, who will also have a small role in the movie, will produce via her She Ready Productions with Melanie Clark. Feig and Laura Fischer will produce for Feigco Entertainment, along with Jeffrey. Geoff Ogunlesi and Feigco’s Lynne Hedvig will executive produce.
Throw It Back is heading to the virtual Cannes Market, with CAA Media Finance representing the project’s domestic distribution rights and Mad River handling international sales.
Young Thug, who recently earned a Billboard number one record with compilation Slime Language 2, is represented by UTA, manager Geoffrey Ogunlesi, and Granderson Des Rochers.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
LOS ANGELES – SHOWTIME® released a trailer for THE ONE AND ONLY DICK GREGORY, the directorial debut from producer Andre Gaines (The Lady and The Dale, Bill Nye: Science Guy). The documentary feature unpacks the career of Dick Gregory, the activist, pop-culture icon and thought leader who changed the lives of millions across the world through constant disruption and awareness. The film will premiere on Sunday, July 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Gregory inspired a generation through on-the-ground activism, an untiring desire to help and his influential comedy. Featuring archival footage of his early career as a comedian, the film is bookended with Gregory’s own voice just before his death in 2017, reflecting on the impact of his life on the world as a self-described “agitator.” Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, W. Kamau Bell and others discuss Gregory’s paradigm-shifting significance on the art of comedy and culture. The film features original music by Black Thought of the Grammy® award winning hip-hop band The Roots. THE ONE AND ONLY DICK GREGORY is a Cinemation Studios production, written and directed by Gaines, and produced by Gaines and Valerie Edwards.
The film is executive produced by Kevin Hart and Bryan Smiley for Hartbeat Productions, Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani for Hillman Grad Productions, and Christian Gregory, Chad Troutwine and Matt Rachamkin.
Shakira Ja’nai Paye, Andrew Santino and Bill Bellamy have joined the cast of New Line’s re-imagining of House Party, the 1990 cult classic comedy.
The trio join Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Tosin Cole, Karen Obilom and DC Young Fly, among others, on the roll call for the remake which is intended to stream on HBO Max.
Music video director Calmatic is making his feature directing debut with Party, which is being produced by The SpringHill Company, the banner run by LeBron James and Maverick Carter.
The original movie focused on two best friends and their efforts to throw the party of the year and their hijinks involving bullies, parents, girls and police.
The new, 21st century take, penned by Atlanta writing duo Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori, is being kept on the downlow.
Reginald Hudlin, who wrote and directed the original, is exec producing with Warrington Hudlin. Spencer Beighley and Jamal Henderson of SpringHill are also exec producing.
Executives Richard Brener, Josh Mack and Victoria Palmeri are overseeing for the studio.
Paye can be seen starring opposite Ashton Sanders and Jeffrey Wright in the Netflix feature All Day and a Night. Additionally, she is a member of Obama’s Other Daughters, an all-Black women improv and sketch comedy troupe.
Stand-up comedian and actor Santino currently appears in FX’s acclaimed comedy Dave. He also starred in the Jim Carrey-exec produced Showtime series I’m Dying Up Here and appeared in the 2020 comedy Friendsgiving.
Bellamy is the stand-up comedian who made his name on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and is credited as the person who coined the term “booty call.” One of the first MTV VJs, Bellamy recently appeared in HBO’s Insecure and with Selma Blair in indie thriller A Dark Foe.
Paye is repped by UTA and manager Bryan Brucks. Santino is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham. Belamy is repped by Innovative and Main Title Entertainment.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
NEW YORK (AP) — During the pandemic, Steven Soderbergh has shot two feature films, released a pair of movies, written a sequel to his first film (1989′s “Sex, Lies and Videotape”), re-edited some of his older movies (mostly for fun) and co-produced the Academy Awards.
It’s an amount of accomplishment that really puts to shame the 1,000-piece puzzle some of us are still proud of assembling last May.
Yet at a time when much of Hollywood is going through profound change, Soderbergh has, like few others, seized an uncertain moment.
“I think it’s fair to say that I’m the cockroach of this industry,” he said smiling on a recent interview by Zoom. “I can find a way to survive in any version that I’m confronted with.”
Soderbergh has averaged a film every one of his 35 years in movies, amassing a nimble, frenetic body of work spanning experimental iPhone indies (“High Flying Bird,” “Unsane”) to commercial crowd-pleasers (“Ocean’s Eleven,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Magic Mike”). His latest, “No Sudden Move,” nearly didn’t happen. It was initially scheduled to begin shooting in April 2020. The pandemic scuttled those plans but by early fall, after he helped create return-to-set safety protocols, Soderbergh remounted it — albeit without one star, George Clooney, who withdrew out of health concerns for his asthmatic son.
Still, “No Sudden Move,” which debuts July 1 on HBO Max, doesn’t lack for stars. And while Clooney’s presence would have reinforced a spirit of get-the-band-back-together, “No Sudden Move” remains a cousin to one of Soderbergh’s most celebrated movies: 1998′s “Out of Sight,” the slinky, sublime caper adapted from Elmore Leonard.
That film opened in Miami sunshine but descended into wintery Detroit. Twenty-three years later, “No Sudden Move” returns Soderbergh to the Motor City with Don Cheadle, who memorably played Maurice “Snoop” Miller in “Out of Sight.” Since then, Cheadle has co-starred in four more films with Soderbergh (“Traffic,” the “Ocean’s” movies). But he’s front-and-center this time.
“This was designed as vehicle for Don, whether he wanted it or not,” Soderbergh says. “Literally: I wanted to see this guy walking, walking, walking — and we parachute into this story.”
“No Sudden Move” opens with Cheadle, as Curt Goynes, strolling through 1950s Detroit. Soderbergh and screenwriter Ed Solomon conceived of the film from the start as a heist movie with a trio of thieves brought together not unlike those in Robert Wise’s electric 1959 noir “Odds Against Tomorrow.” (That was one inspiration. The classic ’70s crime film “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” was another.)
But while working on the script, Solomon came upon the history of the automotive industry’s efforts to avoid emissions controls. “No Sudden Move” begins with three hired guns (Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Kieran Culkin), but in a multiplying series of double-crosses, expands in scope to encapsulate some of Detroit’s original sins, a little like how “Chinatown” does for Los Angeles. The rest of the cast includes Bill Duke, Jon Hamm, David Harbour, Julia Fox, Brendan Frazier, Matt Damon and Ray Liotta.(Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)
“We were able to talk about redlining and community and the devastation of Detroit and the greed of the car manufacturers without proselytizing or hitting it on the head,” says Cheadle. “It was all part of the narrative intrigue. It felt in a lot of ways like ‘Out of Sight 2.0’ or 1.0, 30 years beforehand — revisiting that kind of energy.”
Cheadle wasn’t necessarily eager to return to a film set at the time. But he also realized that if he didn’t, a-stuck-at-home Soderbergh would probably keep writing and sending him scripts. The director managed the shoot without incident by frequent testing in two mobile COVID-19 testing units that were personally paid for. The central cast and crew members were kept in a quarantine bubble.
“I know that I put Steven through some version of hell in my uncertainty about coming back,” Cheadle says. “I lost family members to COVID. I was really gun shy about even leaving my house.”
Cheadle smiles. “I also blame him for ‘Contagion,’” referring to Soderbergh’s prophetic pandemic drama from 2011. “I think he’s Patient Zero.”
In April, Soderbergh led an effort to mount an in-person Oscars despite COVID-19 protocols. The telecast was handsomely shot, opening with a fluid tracking shot of Regina King, and it made an often impersonal ceremony warmly intimate. But it was also talky, with lengthy introductions and speeches, and one gambit to rearrange the final awards ended awkwardly.Don Cheadle, right, and Benicio Del Toro in a scene from “No Sudden Move.” (Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)
Overall, Soderbergh is pleased with the show. The broadcast did what it set out to do: pull off an in-person Oscars safely while experimenting with an often inflexible format.
“As far as I know, we’re the first show in a long time where nobody ever got played off, and I’m proud of that. This is what happens when you hire the director of a movie called ‘Let Them All Talk,’” he jokes, referring to his 2020 film for HBO Max, with Meryl Streep, shot largely on an ocean liner crossing.
But Soderbergh did walk away from the experience — a satisfying and unique one, he says — with a gnawing sense of a larger existential crisis for movies. Ratings, like they have for most pandemic award shows, plummeted.
“I just look at it as a larger issue than the specifics of what our show looked like, and that is: How do we make people care about the movies the way they used to?” Soderbergh says. “To me, this is the real question that needs to be confronted.”
But the conditions, and the opportunities of streaming, are also ripe for a protean, fast-working filmmaker like Soderbergh. He recently shot his third film for HBO Max, “KIMI,” a pandemic-set thriller with Zoë Kravitz. “No Sudden Move,” a period crime film for adults, is very much the kind of movie that before the streaming flood gates opened would have been unlikely to get made.
“It’s a really good time for somebody who makes things. I honestly would not like to be running these companies. Nobody knows what’s coming. Nobody knows what’s a cyclical thing as opposed to a real secular change,” says Soderbergh. “I have a long history with Warner. We both seem to be in sync with the purpose of my deal which is for me to be really busy.”Don Cheadle, left, and Benicio Del Toro, right, on the set of “No Sudden Move.” (Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)
Other things never change. “No Sudden Move” is Soderbergh’s sixth heist film, a cycle begun with “Out of Sight” that includes the three “Ocean’s” films and “Logan Lucky,” a self-financed meta-heist movie in that it sought to pull one over on Hollywood, too. The genre, the director says, encourages a filmmaker to bring something to the table — to “style it up.” “It’s just made for the movies,” he says.
As time wound down before Soderbergh and Cheadle had to leave for the Tribeca Festival premiere of “No Sudden Move,” he wondered if returning to the scene of his first crime movie was pushing his luck.
“I’ve had two really good experiences in Detroit and gotten out of there with two movies I’m really happy with,” said Soderbergh. “The question is: Should I just let that go?”
Cheadle didn’t hesitate. “Tee it up! Go to the well!” he encouraged. “Spin the wheel!”
With its release coming up later this summer, Universal has dropped the second official trailer for Candyman.
The film Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarret and Vanessa A. Williams. It is set in “the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.” Abdul-Matteen portrays Anthony McCoy, a man who becomes obsessed with the bloody legend and Parris will play his girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright, who is an art dealer.
The official description reads: For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Mateen) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Domingo) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
At an event for the first trailer back in February 2020 that was attended by Shadow and Act, DaCosta explained the film’s themes.
“Gentrification in our film is what helped us to reimagine the story, because Cabrini-Green is gone,” said DaCosta. “The movie in the ’90s has a vision of Cabrini-Green where its on its way to being knocked down. So going back there and seeing what’s happened around there…there is an ArcLight close to where Cabrini-Green used to be. There is a lot of development in that area [because] Cabrini-Green has been torn down, but Cabrini-Green itself has kind of been left untouched. What we do in our film is talk about the ghosts that are left behind…and that’s how we find our way into our reimagining of Candyman.”
Candyman is in theaters August 27.
We have learned that Netflix has renewed the critically-acclaimed sitcom The Upshaws for a second season. The new season will feature 16 half-hour episodes, an increase from 10 in the first season.
The series is from Regina Hicks and Wanda Sykes, who are both showrunners on the series. It stars Mike Epps, Sykes, Kim Fields, Page Kennedy, Diamond Lyons, Khali Daniya-Renee Spraggins, Jermelle Simon, Gabrielle Dennis and Journey Christine.
The description: Bennie Upshaw (Mike Epps), the head of a Black working class family in Indianapolis, is a charming, well-intentioned mechanic and lifelong mess just trying his best to step up and care for his family — wife Regina (Kim Fields), their two young daughters (Khali Daniya-Renee Spraggins, Journey Christine) and firstborn son (Jermelle Simon), the teenage son (Diamond Lyons) he fathered with another woman (Gabrielle Dennis) — and tolerate his sardonic sister-in-law (Wanda Sykes), all without a blueprint for success. But the Upshaws are determined to make it work, and make it to the next level, together.
“We are so excited we get to bring this amazing show back for a second season,” said Regina Hicks, The Upshaws co-creator and co-showrunner. And thankful that Netflix saw and felt all the love we got for this wonderful family. Looking forward to bringing more Upshaws’ joy to all who fell in love with them.”
“Wanda and Regina have created a fresh entry in the tradition of Black sitcoms that’s real, relatable, full of heart and incredibly funny,” said Tracey Pakosta, Netflix’s Head of Comedy. We’re thrilled to see where they, along with their talented cast, take the Upshaws in the second season.”
The series premiered on May 12, 2021 and is currently streaming worldwide on Netflix.
WHAT: With summer in full-swing, the popular flavored malt beverage brand, Seagram’s Escapes, in partnership with Rolling Out, is hosting a virtual discussion with Black women influencers in comedy and entertainment with the fourth installment of their 2021 Empowerment Tour. During the discussion, the featured ladies will share how they climbed the ladder of success in the entertainment industry, personal branding tips and how they conquered challenges. The panel is free to attend and will also include a few laughs, gossip, and “tea-spilling” to complement the conversation. The content will create the perfect combination of information and entertainment for viewers to watch during a summer get-together with friends or while relaxing alone at home.
WHO: The June panel features esteemed African-American women entertainers – including comediennes, reality TV stars, radio hosts and actresses who cover aspects of entertainment from a variety of spectrums. The panelists include:
WHY: As part of the tour, Seagram’s Escapes is presenting this virtual panel to highlight Black women entrepreneurs who have overcome obstacles they faced on their road of becoming innovators in their fields. Seagram’s Escapes launched the virtual conversation to elevate Black women and provide resources along with tools to propel them forward as they pursue their passions. The series of virtual tours provides a space for honest conversations where a variety of trailblazers share their stories candidly with others in similar spaces to inspire, encourage and share the knowledge needed to accelerate their entrepreneurial tracks.
REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.seagramsescapes.com/cocktails-conversations/
COST: FREE
WHEN: Saturday, June 26, 2021 7 p.m. EST
CONTACT: Vanessa Abron, (312) 480-9050, vabron@burrell.com
Welcome to the “House Party,” Karen Obilom.
The “Doom Patrol” and “Games People Play” star is the latest to join the cast of New Line’s “House Party” reboot, produced by the SpringHill Company for HBO Max.
Obilom has signed on to play the female lead in the project, joining Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Tosin Cole and DC Young Fly for the reimagining of the hit comedy, which starred Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin of hip hop group Kid ‘n Play.
The 1990 movie, written and directed by Reginald Hudlin, was a major financial success for New Line, earning $26.4 million at the box office and cult status with fans. The movie also features Tisha Martin-Campbell, Martin Lawrence, A.J. Johnson, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell and Full Force (Paul Anthony, Bowlegged Lou and B-Fine).
LeBron James and Maverick Carter will produce the new movie for their SpringHill Company, which is set to be directed by award-winning music video helmer Calmatic, in his feature directorial debut. The movie’s script comes from Emmy-winning “Atlanta” duo Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori.
The brains behind the original movie, Reginald and Warrington Hudlin, return as executive producers, alongside SpringHill’s Spencer Beighley and Jamal Henderson.
New Line executives Richard Brener, Josh Mack and Victoria Palmeri are overseeing the project for the studio.
Obilom currently stars as Roni Evers in the DC Universe series “Doom Patrol” on HBO Max, as well as the BET drama series “Games People Play.” The Nigerian American up-and-comer has also appeared on HBO’s “Insecure,” Netflix’s “Medal of Honor” and CBS’ “NCIS: New Orleans.”
Next month, Obilom will be seen in the Netflix romantic comedy “Resort to Love” alongside Christina Milian and Jay Pharoah. The new movie, produced by Alicia Keys, debuts globally on July 29.
She is repped by ATN Entertainment, A3 Artists Agency, TMP Artists and Heliotype Creative.
Source: Variety