Issa Rae has consolidated her entertainment production ventures for feature film, television and digital under the recently launched Hoorae media company, Variety has learned exclusively.
Formerly Issa Rae Productions, Hoorae includes HBO’s “Insecure” and “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” Rae received Emmy nominations for comedy series and best actress in a comedy series for “Insecure” and best variety sketch series for “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” Hoorae’s slate includes “Tre Cnt” and the “Seen & Heard” docuseries for HBO, as well as “Rap S—” for HBO Max, “Perfect Strangers” for Spyglass, “Ghost in the Machine” for Netflix and “Sinkhole” with Monkeypaw and Universal.
“Sinkhole,” based on Leyna Krow’s short story about a mysterious sinkhole, was announced in July as a potential starring vehicle for Rae, who will also produce along with Jordan Peele. Rae came aboard “Perfect Strangers” in December as a producer, writer and star for the English-language adaptation of Paolo Genovese’s Italian feature film “Perfetti Sconosciuti.”
Rae has also promoted veteran executive Sara Rastogi to senior vice president of development and she will report to Montrel McKay, president of Hoorae film and TV. ColorCreative, the management company run by president Talitha Watkins and chief operating officer Deniese Davis, will also be under the Hoorae umbrella along with Raedio, the audio company run by president Benoni Tagoe. Raedio is a music label in partnership with Atlantic Records.
Rastogi got her start in the industry at DreamWorks Studios before moving over to Scott Free as an assistant and was promoted to creative executive. She was then brought over to 20th Century Fox and moved over to Columbia Pictures, where she built the feature residency program.
“Working with Issa, Montrel and the whole team has been refreshing and rewarding,” Rastogi said. “Issa invests in people and has cultivated an empowering company culture that allows us to take big risks, challenge ourselves, and industry norms. I am excited to continue growing with the company, in short Hoorae!”
Source: Variety
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Marsai Martin, who plays Diane Johnson in the hit ABC comedy Black-ish, has teamed with Walden Media to adapt Ingrid Law’s children’s fantasy novel Savvy as a TV series.
Martin’s Genius Entertainment, which has a first-look film deal with Universal Pictures, is developing the adaptation with The Chronicles of Narnia producer Walden Media.
The book, which was published in 2008 by Penguin Random House and Walden Media, tells the story of Mibs Beaumont, who is elated for her upcoming birthday. Not only does turning 13 officially make her a teenager, but in the Beaumont family, the 13th birthday is when Beaumonts discover their “savvy,” their own supernatural power. While Mibs’ grandfather can move mountains, and her brothers cause hurricanes and create electricity, her power, the ability to read minds, isn’t exactly the best thing when you’re a teenage girl.
Elizabeth Chandler, who wrote the screenplay for The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, had previously been hired, in 2011, to write a script for an adaptation, but it never went to screen.
It is the latest move by Martin, who has earned seven NAACP Image Awards and 2 BET Awards for her Black-ish role. She also made history as the youngest person to serve as an executive producer on a major Hollywood film with Little, which she conceptualized, pitched and starred in.
“Although this story is laced with supernatural characteristics, at its core it’s the story of a young girl trying to unlock her potential, something that we can all relate to, with or without superpowers,” said Martin.
“This novel has resonated with children for over a decade, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to partner with Marsai Martin, one of the youngest producers in Hollywood, to bring this story to a new generation. Savvy is an exciting read, and will be equally as thrilling when brought to life on screen” said Walden CEO Frank Smith.
Martin is repped by is repped by WME, Morris Yorn and Barnes and Oronde Garrett, Ingrid Law was represented by Writers House and UTA.
Source: Deadline
Dwayne Johnson has announced the actors who will bring his younger years to life.
“Young Rock,” the upcoming NBC comedy executive produced by and starring Johnson, has tapped Adrian Groulx to play 10-year-old Dwayne (described as honest, headstrong, impressionable and bold), Bradley Constant to play him aged 15 (at which point he is doing his best to fit in as a normal teenager), and “Marco Polo” star Uli Latukefu to play him from the ages of 18 to 20 (when Dwayne has just been recruited to play football on a scholarship at the University of Miami).
Also joining the cast are Stacey Leilua as Ata Johnson, Dwayne’s strong, positive mother, “S.W.A.T.” and “Harriet” alum Joseph Lee Anderson as Dwayne’s charismatic and charming father, and finally Ana Tuisila as Lia Maivia, Dwayne’s sweet grandmother who is a cutthroat, ruthless businesswoman when she needs to be.
“Young Rock,” which is slated to premiere sometime in 2021, charts Johnson’s childhood from growing up in a strong and resilient family, to being surrounded by the wild characters of his professional wrestling family, to playing football at the University of Miami. It will explore the rollercoaster that has shaped Johnson into the man he is today and the larger-than-life characters he’s met along the way. Johnson broke the casting announcements via Instagram, while also revealing that production on the series is officially underway.
The series hails from Nahnatchka Khan, who co-wrote the pilot with Jeff Chiang. Both are executive producing alongside Johnson under his Seven Bucks Productions banner. Also among the EPs are Seven Bucks’ Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Brian Gewirtz, as well as Jennifer Carreras of Khan’s Fierce Baby Productions. Universal Television, where Khan is under an overall deal, will serve as the studio. Jeffrey Walker serves as producer, director and co-EP.
Johnson recently starred in “Jumanji: The Next Level” and will next star in Disney’s “Jungle Cruise.” Meanwhile Khan is best known as the creator and executive producer of “Fresh Off the Boat,” which recently ended its six-year run. She previously created “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23,” which ran for two seasons on ABC.
Source: Variety
A rep for Dave Chappelle has addressed the cancellation of the remaining six of his “Dave Chappelle & Friends – An Intimate Socially Distanced Affair” shows. Previous shows saw guest appearances from the likes of Sarah Silverman, David Letterman, Tiffany Haddish, Michelle Wolf, Ali Wong, and Louis C.K.,
The rep cited a possible exposure to COVID-19 being the reason for the cancellation, telling Page Six, “Due to possible exposure to COVID-19 within our inner circle, and out of an abundance of caution, we have elected to cancel the remaining … shows. For the past three months of the pandemic, Dave Chappelle has successfully created a safe haven for comedians, musicians and poets to express their art without incident.”
The statement continued, “Social distancing, face masks, hand sanitizer, temperature checks and access to daily COVID tests have all been a part of our protocol. We take COVID-19 very seriously and there have been no reported cases among patrons or crew.”
Chappelle’s wife Elaine also released a statement in a closed Facebook group, which reads, “We take COVID-19 very seriously and there have been no reported cases among patrons or crew. However, due to a possible exposure within our inner circle, and out of an abundance of caution, we have elected to cancel the remaining six shows.”
“Saturday Night Live” writer Sam Jay is getting her own late-night show.
HBO has issued a series order for a weekly show hosted by Jay and executive produced by “Insecure” showrunner Prenitce Penny.
The as-yet-untitled 30-minute show, slated to debut on the premium cabler in 2021, will see Jay tackling topics such race, politics, sexual identity, science, celebrity, religion, and more.
Nina Rosenstein, EVP of HBO programming, announced the pick up.
“Sam is fiercely funny, provocative, and a complete original. Her comedy seamlessly glides between vulnerability and grit, and she always makes you see the world in a whole new way,” said Rosenstein. “Joining forces with Prentice to bring Sam’s talent to late-night is a perfect fit.”
Jay is a staff writer on “SNL” whose first comedy special, “3 in the Morning,” was recently released on Netflix. Her acting credits include TV Land’s “Nobodies” and Comedy Central’s “Broad City.” In 2018, Variety named Jay on its 10 Comics to Watch list.
“I’m really excited to bring my point of view to late-night television and have felt nothing but support creatively from HBO and A Penny For Your Thoughts,” said Jay. “So everyone wear your mask and vote so I can make my TV show! Thaaaanks!”
The show will be executive produced by Jay algonside Penny for his A Penny For Your Thoughts banner. Chris Pollack is also on board as an EP, as well as David Martin and Kara Baker for Avalon. Alex Soler will also serve as co-executive producer for A Penny for Your Thoughts.
“I’m so excited to create this project with Sam as I think she’s one of the best comic minds today,” added Penny. “When I first started thinking about this idea, I knew I wanted to create it with someone who was smart, funny, irreverent, and boundary-pushing. Someone who would elevate it to a place that not only challenges the culture, but challenges all of us to think different and be better. Sam is undoubtedly that person. I’m extremely honored to work with her on this and we’re both incredibly grateful to Casey, Nina and everyone at HBO who believed in this project from the beginning. It’s going to be a fun ride.”
Source: Variety
After an unprecedented number of Black performers received Emmy nominations this year, a record number of Black performers also picked up actual Emmy trophies.
Out of the 18 acting awards handed out at the 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, nine of them went to Black actors, which gives the performer parity with white actors, as no other people of color won this year.
This is a notable increase from last year, when 11.11% of acting winners were Black (16.67% BIPOC winners overall). All in all, the Television Academy has come a long way in the last few years: in 2013 there were zero BIPOC winners in the acting categories.
History was also made with Zendaya’s lead drama actress win for HBO’s “Euphoria.” It was also only the second time in the awards’ seven-plus decade history that a Black woman won that category. The first was Viola Davis in 2015 for “How To Get Away With Murder.”
Additionally, Rudolph picked up not only her first-ever Emmy win but also her second: She won the character voice-over and guest comedy actress awards, for Netflix’s “Big Mouth” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” respectively during the Creative Arts ceremonies. And, Ron Cephas Jones picked up his second-ever Emmy for NBC’s “This Is Us” (in the guest drama actor category) while his real-life daughter Jasmine Cephas Jones won the short form comedy or drama statue for Quibi’s “#FreeRayShawn”; they were the first parent-child duo to win an Emmy during the same ceremony, receiving their awards on the final night of the Creative Arts ceremonies on Saturday. (However, “Schitt’s Creek’s” Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy followed this up immediately on Sunday.)
“Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson appeared during the Emmys broadcast to talk about the record year and explain that this weekend was supposed to be like an NBC All-Star Weekend for Black entertainment industry professionals. But “because of COVID we can’t even get in the damn building,” he said. “These Emmys would have been so Black, it would have been like hot sauce in your purse Black, Howard University homecoming Black, ‘you fit the description’ Black. We would have had speeches quoting our great poets like Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Cardi B.”
Instead “of that sexy melanated energy,” he continued, “here I am alone in a sterilized green room trying not to sneeze on a damn llama.” (Kimmel corrected him that it was actually an alpaca that had appeared on the show.)
“This isn’t what it should have been, but I’m still rooting for everybody black because black stories, black performances and black lives matter,” Anderson said.
Out of six writing categories at the Emmys, Black winners made up 33.33%, BIPOC winners made up 50% and female winners made up 16.67% Out of the seven directing categories at the Emmys this year, Black winners made up 14%, BIPOC winners made up 28.6% and female winners made up 28.6% winners overall.
These categories are often won by multiple people sharing a nomination, so when it came to individual people, the breakdown was 2.13% Black, 3.2% BIPOC overall and 3.2% women in writing overall, and 2.1% Black, 4.2% BIPOC and 4.2% women in directing overall.
“I don’t want to discount what it means for Black performers to be recognized in ways that they should be recognized and to have opportunities for their work to be seen and appreciated and respected the way it should be. But I do think that what we have to recognize is that we can’t mistake presence for power,” Color of Change president Rashad Robinson previously told Variety. “Power is the ability to change the rules. Presence is not bad, but when we mistake presence for power, we can sometimes think something has happened that hasn’t actually happened.”
He continued: “As we think about API and Latinx communities and the dismal representation they have on television and at awards shows, I do think in so many ways it illustrates a supremacy in terms of who’s in charge, what is normal and what is additive. It’s like, ‘Oh we’re going to do something for this community this year,’ but even the act of doing something for someone else creates who is mainstream and who is [on the] margins — who is inside and who needs to be let in.”
The Emmys may have had a “Friends” reunion with Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox, but Tuesday night the celebrated sitcom is getting revamped for a new generation.
Gabrielle Union is hosting an all-Black cast reading of “Friends.” The star-studded Salli Richardson-Whitfield-directed event, taking place Tuesday from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. ET at Zoom Where It Happens, will feature Sterling K. Brown, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Uzo Aduba, Aisha Hinds, Kendrick Sampson, and Jeremy Pope.
Bathe will play Rachel with Brown as Ross. Aduba, who won her second Emmy on Sunday for her work in “Mrs. America,” will take on Phoebe. Monica will be played by Hinds and Pope will be Chandler.
The reading will spotlight When We All Vote, a non-partisan voter registration organization.
The “Friends” evening comes on the heels of Zoom Where It Happens’ all-Black cast “Golden Girls” reading.
Jay-Z staged an all-Black “Friends” remake in his “Moonlight” music video in 2017 with Jerrod Carmichael, Issa Rae, Tiffany Haddish, Tessa Thompson, LaKeith Stanfield and Lil Rel Howery. Instead of using the show’s iconic theme song, The Rembrandt’s “I’ll Be There For You,” Jay-Z replaced it with Whodini’s “Friends” from the 1980s.
There is no word if Tuesday’s reading will include a different tune.
The “Golden Girls” reading’s cast included Tracee Ellis Ross as Rose, Regina King as Dorothy, Alfre Woodard taking on Sophia and Sanaa Lathan portraying Blanche. Jesse Williams played a variety of men. It was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and narrated by Lena Waithe.
RSVP is mandatory to watch the reading. Go to mobilize.us.
Tiffany Haddish has joined Nicolas Cage in Lionsgate’s action-comedy “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”
Pedro Pascal and Sharon Horgan are also starring in “Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” in which Cage portrays a fictionalized version of himself as he accepts a $1 million offer to attend the birthday of a super fan (played by Pascal). When things take a wildly dangerous turn, Cage is forced to live up to his own legend, channeling his most iconic on-screen characters in order to save himself and his loved ones.
Haddish will portray an eccentric rogue government agent who forces Cage to go undercover in a last-ditch effort to bring down one of the largest criminal organizations in Europe. Horgan will play Cage’s ex-wife.
The film will be directed by Tom Gormican from a screenplay by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten. The producers are Kevin Turen, Kristin Burr and Mike Nilon. The project is overseen at Lionsgate by James Myers and Brady Fujikawa. The film is expected to go into production this fall. Lionsgate has slated “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” for release on March 19, 2021.
Haddish broke out in “Girls Trip” and was nominated for a 2020 Emmy for her Netflix special “Black Mitzvah,” and won an Emmy in 2019 for “Saturday Night Live.” Other upcoming projects include “The Card Counter,” “Here Today,” “Bad Trip” and “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge on the Run.” Her production company banner, She Ready Productions, was also behind the Netflix special “Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready.”
Haddish is represented by UTA, Artists First and Ziffren Brittenham. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.
Source: Variety
Maya Rudolph has gone from zero to two Emmys in just three days. On Saturday night she snagged her second trophy of the week-long Creative Arts Emmys virtual ceremony—this time for her turn as Kamala Harris in Saturday Night Live, hosted by Eddie Murphy. And just this past Thursday, Rudolph took home her very first Emmy for voicing the role of Connie the Hormone Monstress in Big Mouth.
Add to this the fact that Rudolph was double-nominated in her guest actress category Saturday night, the other nom being for her role as the judge in The Good Place, and it looks like this has been her year in terms of career recognition. She beat Bette Midler, Wanda Sykes, Angela Bassett and Phoebe Waller-Bridge to take home the gold this time.
Speaking in the virtual backstage press room, Rudolph said her Good Place role was modeled on a very special real-life person, who sadly passed away Friday—Ruth Bader Ginsberg. “I was actually thinking about The Good Place a lot and about how we modeled her robe after Ruth Bader Ginsberg and how much of that was an homage to an iconic human being. “When you think of a judge, when you think of all-knowing, when you think of powerful, when you think of all good, yeah, we modeled her robe after RBG, so that was pretty cool.”
Rudolph did not pre-record an acceptance speech for the virtual ceremony, explaining live after her win: “That feels a little presumptuous, and not to mention just physically, emotionally exhausting. If I’m going to experience defeat I’d rather not have gone through all the hair and makeup.”
She added that it meant so much to be part of the SNL family. “When I’m there I genuinely feel like I’m at home. I feel really indebted to Lorne (Michaels) and my entire SNL family. That place is such a well-oiled machine…I’m really lucky to be a part of their team.”
She also said in these difficult times the wins had seemed particularly special. “It’s certainly put a smile on my face this week to be so acknowledged,” she said, “but I felt that way about the nominations to be honest…I’m not really looking a gift horse in the mouth these days. I’m really grateful for any moment when we can stop and reflect and honor and celebrate each other.”
She also paid homage to the other women in her category, saying she certainly didn’t expect such accolades. “To be fair I didn’t think I was going to win again tonight. I thought the guest actress, this nomination, is usually flooded with incredible women who are legends and I saw a couple of legends in there…Bette Midler beats me in the legend department, and Angela Bassett beats me in the legend dept. I’m kind of still surprised and a little bit startled I won another Emmy. I don’t know about you but I haven’t felt that lucky lately, so this a very foreign feeling and I’m really embracing it.”
Source: Deadline