Former Happy Endings star Damon Wayans Jr. is reuniting with the cult series’ creator David Caspe and former writers Matthew and Daniel Libman for a half-hour bounty hunter action comedy, which has received a script-to-series commitment at NBCU’s streaming platform Peacock.
The project, starring and executive produced by Wayans Jr., falls under the first-look deal at CBS TV Studios for Wayans Jr.’ Two Shakes Entertainment, which has just been extended for another two years. CBS TV Studios is producing the untitled comedy with Universal Television where Caspe is under an overall deal.
Written by the Libman brothers, the action comedy revolves around a struggling married couple who become bounty hunters.
Matthew and Daniel Libman executive produce with Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow of Two Shakes and Caspe via Shark Vs. Bear. Ian Durney will produce for Shark Vs. Bear.
Caspe and Matthew Libman have been childhood friends since elementary school, with Daniel, who is eight years younger than his brother, constantly hanging out with the older guys. Daniel went on to become his brother’s writing partner. The two worked on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken before Caspe brought them over to ABC’s Happy Endings.
The Libman brothers have worked as writers/producers on the Caspe-created Happy Endings and Marry Me, Showtime’s Black Monday, which Caspe co-created with Jordan Cahan; as well as the upcoming NBC comedy series Kenan, which Caspe joined earlier this year as executive producer/showrunner and the Libmans co-exec produce. Additionally, with the Libman brothers and Cahan, Caspe co-created the YouTube Premium series, Champaign, IL starring Adam Pally, Sam Richardson and Jay Pharaoh. Matthew and Daniel Libman’s additional credits include include The Mick.
Since its launch two years ago, Two Shakes Entertainment has sold a number of high-profile projects under the company’s CBS TV Studios deal. That includes Glamorous, which went to pilot at the CW during the 2018-19 development season and came close to a series order, and The Turners, a half-hour single-camera family doctors comedy, which was set at ABC with penalty this past season. The company has also recently launched a podcast development slate, independent of its CBSTVS deal.
As an actor, Wayans Jr., consistently among the most sought-after comedy actors for pilots over the last decade, recently starred on the CBS series Happy Together. Earlier this month, he reunited with his Happy Endings co-stars and Caspe for a charity online special.
More than other streamers, Peacock has been focused on comedy series both on the original and library acquisition side with shows like the Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster reboots; Girls5Eva, from Tina Fey and Meredith Scardino; Rutherford Falls, from Mike Schur and Sierra Ornelas; as well as the upcoming launches of The Office and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Source: Deadline
Peacock is developing a teen comedy drama about Black teenagers in L.A. from Real Husbands of Hollywood creator Chris Spencer and Grown-ish writer Chad Sanders.
How To Survive Inglewood is created and written by by the pair, who will exec produce alongside Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary of Revelations Entertainment. Matt Milkovich is producing for Revelations Entertainment
UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.
The comedy drama follows Black teenagers trying to get through the absurd, treacherous, and embarrassing obstacles that come with adolescence. After moving from the suburbs to Inglewood, the Sanders family will find that teenage years are universally magical, confusing, scary, and hormonal, but in this new environment, the emotional swings are crazier because the stakes are higher.
Chris Spencer and Chad Sanders (left) were recently set to write the Universal Pictures-Will Packer Productions sports drama One and Done.
The project joins the nascent streamer’s development slate, which also includes projects including Straight Talk, a Jada Pinkett Smith-fronted couples comedy from Kara Brown and Rashida Jones, a reboot of Queer As Folk and a project based on SNL sketch MacGruber.
Bill McGoldrick, President of Original Content at NBCU Entertainment Networks and Direct-to-Consumer, recently told Deadline that its originals strategy is designed to be scaled up as it scales up its user base, which as of this morning hit about 10M.
Spencer is represented by CAA, Steve Smooke, Parallel Entertainment’s JP Williams and Del Shaw Moonves’ Abel Lezcano and Chris Namba. Sanders is represented by Headshell Management’s Oronde Garrett and Del Shaw Moonves’ Chris Namba. Freeman and McCreary are represented by CAA’s Fred Specktor.
Source: Deadline
A Black Lady Sketch Show‘s Dime Davis has made history by becoming the first Black woman nominated for an Emmy for directing a variety show.
This is yet another nom for the groundbreaking HBO series featuring Black female comedians, led by creator Robin Thede. Monday, the series earned nominations for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series (Angela Bassett).
Davis joins Debbie Allen in breaking barriers for Black female directors. Even though Allen was nominated for directing in 1989, her nomination was for her own special, and the category was Outstanding Directing for a Variety or Music Program. Davis’ nomination pushes the needle even further by opening the door to more Black women directing series to be seen and recognized by the industry.
This year, the Emmys have nominated the most Black talent yet, topping 2018’s record number of Black nominees. Thirty-three Black actors have been nominated, with at least one Black actor in nearly every category. On top of that, Reginald Hudlin has been tapped as the first Black executive producer of the Emmys telecast.
Source: Shadow & Act
Here’s a hot one. Universal Pictures, Insecure star and creator Issa Rae and Oscar winner Jordan Peele (Get Out) are teaming on Sinkhole, a thought-provoking genre movie that engages with questions of female perfection and identity.
In a low-seven-figure deal, Universal beat out more than 10 studio bidders and multiple talent and filmmaker packages for screen rights to Leyna Krow’s short story, which is about a young family that moves into its dream home despite the gaping sinkhole in the backyard. The mysterious sinkhole manages to fix broken and destroyed things. However, the story asks, what if that thing is a person?
The project is being developed as a potential star vehicle for the in-demand Rae. The multi-hyphenate, whose Insecure scored eight Emmy nominations yesterday, will produce with Universal and Peele’s Monkeypaw. Producers are Peele and Win Rosenfeld for the latter and Rae, Montrel McKay and Sara Rastogi for Issa Rae Productions.
Universal’s Senior Vice President of Production Sara Scott will oversee the project on behalf of the studio and the project will fall under Monkeypaw’s five-year deal with the major. Peele and Universal hit it out of the park with genre pics Get Out and Us. The studio has also teamed up with Rae in recent years on movies The Photograph and Little.
Writer Krow is from Spokane, WA, and the story is set on the street she lives on. She was initially inspired to write the piece when a group of local writers were asked to write short fairytales on the theme “I Married A Monster.” She wanted to explore the notion of female perfection and was particularly interested in the ways society and cultures can promote the concept of women as imperfect or broken. Her story has the trappings of a grounded, psychological sci-fi/horror, but the subplot is a commentary on the human condition through the lens of female identity.
Krow is executive producing alongside Alex Davis-Lawrence from literary journal Moss, in which the story was originally published. As a development project, there’s no shoot date yet.
Rae is represented by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and John Meigs. Peele and Monkeypaw are represented by CAA and Morris Yorn. Krow is represented by Alexandra Kordas at 42 and Dean Bahat at Ziffren.
Source: Deadline
In a surprise announcement, Netflix revealed that seven classic shows, including “Girlfriends,” “Sister Sister” and “Moesha,” will become available on the platform between Aug. 1 and Oct. 15.
The announcement was made on Netflix’s Strong Black Lead Twitter account, which is devoted to promoting shows and films on the platform featuring Black characters and stories. All seven of these shows have made a profound impact in the industry in terms of representing Black voices.
The shows announced include “Moesha,” coming Aug. 1; “The Game” Seasons 1-3, coming Aug. 15; “Sister Sister,” coming Sept. 1; “Girlfriends,” coming Sept. 11; “The Parkers,” coming Oct. 1; and “Half & Half” and “One on One,” both premiering on Oct. 15. The tweet also includes a video featuring many of the shows’ stars and creators, such as Tracee Ellis Ross, Tia and Tamera Mowry, Essence Atkins and Mara Brock Akil.
Actress Marsai Martin is continuing to build her Hollywood empire and adding talk show host to her list of credits. The Black-ish star is set to host her own talk show appropriately titled Tiny Talk Show on Quibi — and as the title suggests, it is literally tiny.
Produced by Art & Industry, Tiny Talk Show is the billed as the world’s smallest functional talk show. The set will be a one-sixth scale of an actual set that reflects the mission of the show itself: intimate, revealing, and devoted to subjects with a lot to say. Marsai will ask her guests some big questions and steer us through this new world as we discover sometimes the littlest voices are the loudest.
Martin will serve as executive producer under her Genius Entertainment banner alongside Josh Martin and Carol Martin. Michelle Caputo and Shannon Hartman for Art & Industry, Alex Diaz, Daryn Carp and Nicole Dow will serve as producers.
Martin has earned seven NAACP Image Awards and 2 BET Awards for her role as Diane Johnson on ABC’s Black-ish. 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. Martin signed an overall deal with Universal with her Genius Productions which uplifts diverse and young voices.
She is repped by WME, Morris Yorn and Barnes and Oronde Garrett.
Source: Deadline
Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer have been cast in Invasion, a sci-fi thriller pic from BAFTA-winning UK filmmaker Michael Pearce (Beast).
We can also reveal that Amazon Studios has taken worldwide rights to the project and will produce alongside American Animals outfit Raw and UK funder Film4, which backed development.
The script is written by Pearce with Joe Barton (The Ritual). It follows two young brothers who go on the run with their father, a decorated Marine, who is trying to protect them from an unhuman threat. As the journey takes them in increasingly dangerous and unexpected directions, the boys will need to confront hard truths and leave their childhood behind. Ahmed is playing the Marine while Spencer is a probation officer who helps to bring him home. The film is aiming to shoot in the States this year.
Producers are Raw’s Dimitri Doganis (Three Identical Strangers), Piers Vellacott (American Animals) and Derrin Schlesinger (The Nest). Film4’s Daniel Battsek, Ollie Madden and Julia Oh are executive producing. Kate Churchill and Jenny Hinkey will also executive produce.
Pearce’s Beast, which was a breakout film for stars Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn, scored the director an Outstanding Debut BAFTA alongside producer Lauren Dark (now senior commissioner at Film4).
Ahmed is coming off Sound Of Metal, which Amazon will release in the U.S. later this year, and 2020 Berlin premiere Mogul Mowgli. He is an Emmy-winner and Golden Globe nominee for HBO series The Night Of.
Oscar-winning actress Spencer picked up her first Emmy nomination last night for her lead role in Self-Made: Inspired By The Life Of Madam CJ Walker. Next year, she will be seen starring opposite Anne Hathaway in The Witches which is based on the popular Roald Dahl novel of the same name. Additional upcoming credits include Thunder Force for Netflix alongside Melissa McCarthy and the second season of Truth Be Told for Apple.
Spencer is represented by WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Ahmed is at WME, Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman and Gordon and French. Pearce is at WME and Independent.
Source: Deadline
We just discovered the news that Netflix will Premiere Jamie Foxx‘s new film “Project Power” on August 14th.
Here’s the film synopsis; On the streets of New Orleans, word begins to spread about a mysterious new pill that unlocks superpowers unique to each user. The catch: You don’t know what will happen until you take it. While some develop bulletproof skin, invisibility, and super strength, others exhibit a deadlier reaction. But when the pill escalates crime within the city to dangerous levels, a local cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) teams with a teenage dealer (Dominique Fishback) and a former soldier fueled by a secret vendetta (Jamie Foxx) to fight power with power and risk taking the pill in order to track down and stop the group responsible for creating it.
Set primarily over the course of a single day and night in New Orleans, “Project Power” follows an unlikely triumvirate of heroes as they seek to take down Teleios, a shady government organization responsible for the creation of Power — a pill that can either give its users a bespoke, DNA-based superpower for a total of five minutes, or kill them instantly.
“The Boys” will be back once again — Amazon Prime Video has renewed the superhero and vigilante drama for a third season, the streamer announced Thursday.
Additionally, the second season will deliver an after-show entitled “Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys,” hosted and executive produced by Aisha Tyler. While the second season of “The Boys” premieres on Sept. 4, delivering three episodes at launch with the subsequent five dropping weekly through Oct. 9, the after-show will start on Aug. 28 with a look back at the series so far.
“Eric Kripke and the incredible cast of ‘The Boys’ continue to deliver a wild and action-packed series full of surprises and can’t-miss moments that have made the series a global hit,” said Vernon Sanders, co-head of television, Amazon Studios. “We couldn’t be more excited to see where Eric takes ‘The Boys’ and the supes in Season 3, and to have Aisha Tyler join ‘The Boys’ family as the host of ‘Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys.’”
Added Jeffrey Frost, president, Sony Pictures Television Studios: “‘The Boys’ is unlike any other show on television. It’s incredibly entertaining and compelling and elevates genre programming to a whole new level. We’re very excited about Season 3 as we know Eric Kripke and this incredibly talented cast are going to raise the bar even higher. And ‘Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys’ is the perfect show to bring it all home.”
In a statement creator and showrunner Eric Kripke said the writers’ room is already up and running (virtually) for the new season.
“The world has given us way too much material. We hope to be shooting in early 2021, but that’s up to a microscopic virus,” he said.
Addressing the after-show, Kripke noted that the “double entendre” of the title was intended. “It’s a deep dive into how we make this insane thing. Seriously, thanks to Sony, Amazon and the fans. We love making this show so much, and we’re thrilled we get to make more.”
Added Tyler: “‘The Boys’ is one of the smartest, most irreverent, unapologetically badass shows streaming. I became a fan during Season 1 and this season I’m stoked to be flying fans into the heart of the show as host of ‘Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys’ Season 2 is bigger, badder, and more audacious than ever before, so join me after every episode as we dig through the rubble pile of our feelings. I promise, we’ll get through it like ‘The Boys’ — dysfunctional, but together.”
The second season of “The Boys” sees the titular vigilantes on the run and hunted by the superheroes (or “supes,” as the show calls them). Hughie (Jack Quaid), Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso), Frenchie (Tomer Capon) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) are in hiding after the explosive events of the first season finale, while Butcher (Karl Urban) is off on his own for a bit. Meanwhile, Homelander (Antony Starr) is trying to expand his power in a few new ways and Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is trying to navigate her own place in the Seven as the group shifts. Stormfront (Aya Cash), a social-media savvy new supe, comes in with an agenda of her own, while a larger threat looms, leaving Vought seeking to capitalize on the nation’s paranoia.
“Our show wants you to question superheroes, and therefore fascism and authoritarianism, because they’re closely related,” Kripke tells Variety. “Strongmen tell the public they’re the only ones who can save them. They use the media and their own celebrity to manipulate the masses and shout down any dissenters. I think one downside of the glut of superhero media is that it trains the audience to adulate figures who seem strong, to wait for these figures to solve their problems. When the truth is, anyone who says they can save you is a liar and a con man. Real heroism is a thousand tiny gestures, boring and painful, performed by us all. We have to save ourselves.”
“The Boys” is based on the best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, and produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television Studios with Point Grey Pictures, Kripke Enterprises and Original Film. Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Chace Crawford and Nathan Mitchell also star, with Claudia Doumit, Goran Visnijc, Malcolm Barrett, Colby Minifie, Shantel VanSanten, Cameron Crovetti, PJ Byrne, Laila Robbins and Giancarlo Esposito recurring.
‘Prime Rewind: Inside The Boys” is executive produced by Michael Davies, Tyler, Julia Cassidy, Eden Sutley and Jennifer Ryan. Amazon Studios, Embassy Row and Sony Pictures Television produce.
Source: Variety
Damon Williams is bringing all the laughter with his upcoming comedy series, “Laugh Tonight with Damon Williams”, airing exclusively on UrbanFlixTV, a newly launched streaming service. The subscription-based platform is setting itself apart with entertaining and unique stories, exclusive content featuring diverse casts and themes, not just for some of us—but for all of us.
As one of the elite comics in the nation, Damon’s material is universal and there’s something for all ages. The unscripted stand-up comedy series will feature Damon Williams and an exciting mix of some of the hottest comics around such as Correy Bell, Atsuko Okatsuka, Leonard Ouzts, Daphnique Springs, Kira Soltanovich and Mark Viera, to name a few.
“UrbanFlixTV is at the forefront of inclusive, imaginative entertainment,” said CEO Kevin Griffo. “The word ‘urban’ means relating to a city, and we are all from different cities with different cultures. We at UrbanFlixTV are proud to welcome Damon and comics alike to the content we’re making as a reflection of those differences.”
Williams holds over 25 years in the industry and boasts of his start as a former Subway sandwich shop owner from Chicago, IL who began his comedy career at All Jokes Aside Comedy Club. He is popularly known for his own one-hour special on BET’s Comic View dating back to 1994, and has been featured on Def Comedy Jam, BET Live, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, the Kings of Comedy tour, The Tom Joyner Sky Show on TV ONE, Shaq’s Comedy and HBO’s P.Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy.
Damon is no stranger to the industry and more recently stars in the upcoming movie “White People Money” with Drew Sidora and Barton Fitzpatrick. He co-hosts the Sam Sylk Radio Show on Tuesdays and Thursdays and hosts Happy Hour Live on his Instagram every day to connect with his fans. Guests have included Tiffany Haddish, Deon Cole, Luenelle, KEM, George Wallace, J. Anthony Brown, and more. He also makes regular appearances nationwide and features nationally known comedians and up & coming talent at his comedy club in Chicago.
Viewers can catch Damon and his cast in action with ad-free content 24/7 for $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, along with a complimentary 7-day free trial by signing up at Urbanflixtv.com.