ABC has confirmed two major casting announcements for its sixth and final season of How to Get Away with Murder, which returns next week. Cicely Tyson will return as a cast member for the back half of season 6 and Anne-Marie Johnson has joined as a recurring cast member.
Johnson will play Michaela Pratt’s (Aja Naomi King) attorney Kendra Strauss, while Tyson will reprise her role as Ophelia Harkness, the mother of Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). This marks Johnson’s return to Shondaland, as she has also appeared on Rhimes’ ABC shows, Grey’s Anatomy and For The People. Tyson has received three Emmy nominations for her role in the series.
The series stars Davis as Professor Annalise Keating, Billy Brown as Detective Nate Lahey, Jack Falahee as Connor Walsh, Aja Naomi King as Michaela Pratt, Matt McGorry as Asher Millstone, Charlie Weber as Frank Delfino, Liza Weil as Bonnie Winterbottom, Conrad Ricamora as Oliver Hampton, Rome Flynn as Gabriel Maddox and Amirah Vann as Tegan Price.
How to Get Away with Murder is created and executive produced by Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers, and Stephen Cragg also serve as executive producers. The show is produced by ABC Studios, a division of Disney Television Studios.
Source: Deadline, Shadow & Act
Cedric The Entertainer is opening up about a possible The Original Kings Of Comedy Reunion.
In a recent interview on the Variety and iHeart podcast The Big Ticket, the comedian disclosed that a reunion of The Original Kings Of Comedy was very likely.
“It seems like it may be actually getting a little closer,” he revealed, adding, “There’s some talks of possibly doing a very limited run for the fun of it, doing like a 12-city run.”
Directed by Spike Lee, the film continued an established Black stand-up tradition paved by Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Redd Foxx. It saw Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley and Cedric The Entertainer reprise popular, controversial topics of race, Black family dynamics and religion with distinctly different twists. The success of the film undoubtedly laid the foundation for the actor-comedians’ later projects as the decade progressed.
Cedric the Entertainer currently stars on CBS’s The Neighborhood. He is in post-production on Son of the South, executive produced by Spike Lee, and is also expected to return for a Johnson Family Vacation sequel in development at Searchlight.
Source: Shadow & Act
Netflix has dropped the first trailer for #blackAF (previously titled #blackexcellence).
The upcoming series from Kenya Barris, in which he stars with Rashida Jones, is under Barris’ overall deal at the streaming giant. Barris plays a fictionalized version of himself and Jones is his wife. The series also stars Iman Benson, Genneya Walton, Scarlet Spencer, Justin Claiborne, Ravi Cabot-Conyers and Richard Gardenhire Jr as the duo’s children.
The official description: Loosely inspired by Barris’ irreverent, highly flawed, unbelievably honest approach to parenting, relationships, race, and culture, #blackAF flips the script on what we’ve come to expect a family comedy series to be. Pulling back the curtain, #blackAF uncovers the messy, unfiltered and often hilarious world of what it means to be a “new money” black family trying to get it right in a modern world where “right” is no longer a fixed concept.
There will be an assortment of guest stars, such as Nia Long, Issa Rae, Mike Epps, Lena Waithe, Ava DuVernay, Will Packer, Tim Story, Tyler Perry, Bresha Webb, Kym Whitley and Melvin Gregg.
Barris is the showrunner and creator. He executive produces with Jones and Hale Rothstein.
Watch the trailer above.
SHOWTIME announced that the late-night series DESUS & MERO will return to air with all-new episodes filmed from the hosts’ own homes, starting on Monday, March 30 at 11 p.m. ET/PT. The show will continue to air new episodes on Monday and Thursday nights. Each episode will feature hosts Desus Nice (Daniel Baker) and The Kid Mero (Joel Martinez) giving their take on the day’s hot topics and continuing to host interviews with special guests through video conference technology. Episodes will continue to be shot remotely from the hosts’ homes in New Jersey and the Bronx until further notice.
A web series pilot written by and starring Mitch Marchand (writer, actor, comedian, producer, whom audiences remember from his appearance in the cult classic film, JUICE featuring Tupac Shakur, where he uttered the memorable “You got the Juice now, man.” line).
The series is a funny and fictitious version of his life story.
What happens if a Hip Hop one-hit wonder decided to make a comeback… at 40 years old?
Directed by P. Frank Williams. Cast: Cameos by Marlon Wayans, Affion Crockett, and Darmirra Brunson, Brely Evans as Yaya Marchand, Myles Marchand as Tommy 1, Coltrane Marchand as Tommy 2, Rocco Stowe as DJ Rock On.
Watch below;
LOS ANGELES) – March 25, 2020 — A Manny Halley Production has released the official trailer for the urban lit cult classic DUTCH, based on the first book of an epic trilogy by Teri Woods starring Lance Gross (“Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne”), James Hyde (“Monarca”), Tyrin Turner (“Meet The Blacks”), Isabella Ferreira (“Orange Is The New Black”), Melissa Williams (“Tyler Perry’s The Oval”), Macy Gray (“For Colored Girls”) and Jeremy Meeks, (“True to the Game 2”) with appearances by Michael Blackson (“Nobody’s Fool”), O.T. Genasis and Renny. DUTCH opens in select theaters Fall 2020.
Directed by Preston Whitmore (“This Christmas,” “True To The Game”), DUTCH introduces us to Bernard James, Jr. aka “Dutch” (Gross), a player who will use any means necessary to dominate the streets and beyond. For Dutch, survival is the ultimate score and power is the deadliest high of all. When he gains control of an African drug lord’s stolen heroin business, Dutch quickly makes it the most feared drug empire on the East Coast. Naturally, there are plenty of armed and dangerous enemies who would love to take him down, including a vengeful Mafia heir who is also an ambitious DA and former friend.
Dutch knows that as a drug kingpin, his life is on the line which makes him paranoid. He begins to see an enemy in everyone he meets — however he still has to play the game. With his killer looks and charm, Dutch can seduce any woman he wants, but there’s one woman who he can’t resist. She will shake his ice-cold control to its core, making him risk it all for a betrayal he never saw coming.
Supporting cast include Markice Moore (“Snowfall”), Miles Stroter (“The Quad”), Robert Costanzo (“Modern Family”) and Natasha Marc (“Ballers”).
“We really got our hands on an all-star cast,” says Manny Halley, DUTCH producer and founder of Imani Media Group. ‘DUTCH‘ is an iconic story within the urban literary genre, so we had to get every detail right — and I think we did. Fans will be looking for us to finish the trilogy with this one!”
DUTCH is written by Preston Whitmore and produced by Manny Halley, Rodney Turner II and Yolanda Halley.
Another film festival has been impacted due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was announced Tuesday that the 24th annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has been postponed and now has new dates.
The fest has been rescheduled to take place from Oct. 21 to Oct. 25th.
“ABFF is a destination event that attracts participants from around the world, which is why we made the difficult but necessary decision to postpone the 24th American Black Film Festival,” ABFF Ventures CEO Jeff Friday said in a statement. “While we remain committed to providing a program for storytellers who rely on ABFF to showcase their work, at this time, our main priority is the health of our staff, attendees, and corporate partners.”
The festival was originally set to run from June 17-21. Mary J. Blige is this year’s ABFF Ambassador.
Netflix has announced some of its new programming for the upcoming month — and one of the new shows is hosted by Kelis!
The singer and chef will host Cooked with Cannabis with Leather Storrs. The six-episode series will chronicle the making of some of the finest delicacies infused with cannabis.
Every episode will see three chefs work to cook a three-course meal with cannabis. The winner gets $10,000.
“Cooked with Cannabis is a show where weed is a seasoning rather than the reason. It’s granular, educational, heartfelt and smart,” Storrs said to Food & Wine. “The contestants had personal and romantic relationships with the herb and they knew its intricacies: medically, chemically, spiritually and as an intoxicant. Further, there was a real sense of community and camaraderie.”
“It [the show] moved your heart in ways you didn’t expect it to, because it is so culturally important,” she said. In this country, there are so many things that have been used systematically to oppress groups of people, so this could be all fun and games, but you look at it and go, you know what, this is important. People’s lives have been affected in a really positive and negative way, and how do we take some control back?”
Cooked with Cannabis begins streaming on Netflix in April 2020.
Source: Shadow & Act