Vanessa Bell Calloway is set to reprise her role as Imani Izzi in Paramount Pictures’ upcoming sequel “Coming 2 America.” Comedian Luenell will also join the cast.
Luenell
In the original pic, Calloway portrayed Prince Akeem’s wife-to-be after a marriage arranged by his father.
Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are returning to star in “Coming 2 America” alongside Wesley Snipes, Jermaine Fowler, Kiki Layne and James Earl Jones.
“Hustle & Flow” helmer Craig Brewer will direct the project with Murphy, Kevin Misher, and Kenya Barris producing.
The 1988 original movie, directed by John Landis, starred Murphy as the charming African prince Akeem, who traveled to New York City to escape an arranged marriage. Hall played Akeem’s best friend Semmi, with Jones as his father. The comedy was a major hit, grossing nearly $300 million at the worldwide box office.
In the sequel, Prince Akeem is set to become king of the fictional country of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America — a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. To honor the former king’s dying wish to groom his grandson as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America.
Calloway’s previous film and television credits include “Shameless,” “Saints and Sinners” and “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Luenell has appeared in “A Star Is Born,” “Think Like a Man,” “Californication” and “Lopez” with George Lopez.
Calloway is repped by Zero Gravity Management.
Source: Variety
Quibi is developing a new comedy series that boasts Dwayne Johnson among its executive producers.
Titled “Last Resort,” the series centers on a Polynesian family-run resort in Hawaii that’s suddenly thrown into a whirlwind when a tech billionaire puts in a bid to buy the land. Johnson and Dany Garcia will executive produce via Seven Bucks Productions along with Paul Feig and Laura Fischer under their Powderkeg banner. Sameer Gardezi will serve as producer for Powderkeg’s Break the Room along with Hiram Garcia, Kevin Hill, and Brian Gewirtz for Seven Bucks. Hannah Kitziger will oversee the project for Quibi
Break the Room, which was launched by Powderkeg to create writers rooms composed of underrepresented voices and is headed by Gardezi, is currently building a room for the series comprised of Hawaiian and Polynesian writers.
News of the series comes as Johnson, who is half Samoan, is developing a film based on the life of King Kamehameha titled “The King” for Warner Bros in which he will star. He previously voiced the Polynesian demigod Maui in the Disney animated film “Moana.”
Johnson has also become a vocal opponent of plans to build a massive astronomical observatory at the summit of Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in Hawaii and a sacred place for native Hawaiians and many Polynesian cultures. He has also recently been praising the inclusion of a storyline in his most recent film, “Hobbs & Shaw,” that featured his character returning to his childhood home in Samoa and reuniting with his brothers, all of whom were played by actors of Polynesian descent.
Seven Bucks produced “Hobbs & Shaw,” as well as many of Johnson’s other theatrical releases like “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Rampage.” The company also produces his HBO series “Ballers” and shows like “The Titan Games,” “Finding Justice,” and “Rock the Troops.”
Feig and Fischer launched Powderkeg in 2018 as a digital studio committed to championing the voices of women and the LGBTQ community in comedy. The company’s first series, “East of La Brea” created by Sameer Gardezi, premiered in competition at SXSW. Their inaugural female directors program, Powderkeg: Fuse, launched this past spring. Powderkeg also has projects in the works at YouTube Premium, Snapchat, and Freeform among other platforms. It is funded by Superbrand LLC.
Quibi is a mobile-only video platform set to launch in April. Other recently announced projects include a Kevin Hart action series, a reboot of “Varsity Blues,” and various other projects from A-listers like Guillermo del Toro, Antoine Fuqua, and Sam Raimi.
Source: Variety
It’s been made official: Shari Headley will return to star in Coming to America 2.
She joins other returners Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall James Earl Jones, Paul Bates and newcomers Jermaine Fowler, Kiki Layne, Wesley Snipes, Leslie Jones and Rick Ross. The film will see Akeem return to the U.S. to discover the son he never knew he had, Lavelle. Headley was the last outstanding main cast member that still needed to close a deal.
An April report told us that the character of Lavelle (Fowler) was a 30-year-old Queens hustler with a heart of gold. Raised by his mother, LaVelle wants a better life for himself, which could be right around the corner as he learns that he’s the possible Zamundan heir. LaVelle “has the gift of gab, able to crack wise with humor, but is by no means a clown” and he “struggles with discipline, authority and self-motivation.” Meeka, on the other hand, is the 20-year-old “proud and principled daughter of Zamunda” who is “athletic and skilled in the art of self-defense, but she is also measured in her temperament, always seeking a calm, diplomatic solution to conflict.” Meeka is beautiful and capable, but still holds anxiety over “wanting to be the son Akeem never had.” Her challenge is to show her father her true self and “be brave with her heart.”
Coming to America 2 will be directed by Craig Brewer from a script by Kenya Barris. The film will be out in theaters in 2020.
Colman Domingo and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett have joined Jordan Peele’s “Candyman” reboot, which has started shooting in Chicago.
Written by Peele and Rosenfeld and directed by Nia DaCosta, the new “Candyman” is being described as a spiritual sequel to the 1992 gothic horror film, which was based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden” about the deadly ghost of an artist and slave.
MGM is producing and financing. Universal will distribute “Candyman” globally with the U.S. release date slated for June 12.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Bill Cosby’s lawyers will fight to overturn his sexual assault conviction Monday as the 82-year-old comedian serves a three- to 10-year prison term in Pennsylvania.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era. He insists the sexual encounter with a young woman seeking career advice was consensual.
A jury last year found Cosby drugged and molested her at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.
Defense lawyers contend the trial judge erred in letting five other accusers testify to bolster the prosecution’s case.
A three-judge Superior Court panel will hear arguments Monday but is not expected to rule for several months.
The decision will be closely watched by both sexual assault victims and lawyers for Harvey Weinstein and other high-profile men accused of similar misconduct.
Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy) has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else. Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables. However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil. Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore’s Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era.
Comics and rappers have praised Moore as a pioneering influence over the past few decades, and Dolemite Is My Name is a hilarious celebration of a singular talent who made his own legend. From director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Empire); Emmy and Golden Globe-winning writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood, The People vs. O.J. Simpson); and the producing team of Oscar and Golden Globe nominee John Davis (Ferdinand, Joy), Golden Globe nominee John Fox (Joy) and Murphy; the film features an all-star supporting cast — including Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Snoop Dogg, Ron Cephas Jones, Barry Shabaka Henley, Tip ‘TI’ Harris, Luenell, Tasha Smith — plus costumes designed by Academy Award winner Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther).
Watch the new trailer below:
John Amos is set to return as Cleo McDowell, the owner of McDowell’s, in Paramount Pictures’ forthcoming Coming to America sequel starring Eddie Murphy. Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, and Paul Bates are also reprising their roles from the 1988 original film with Wesley Snipes, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, and KiKi Layne taking on new characters.
Directed by Craig Brewer, the second installment follows former Prince Akeem who is set to become King of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America – a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. Honoring his father’s dying wish to groom this son as the crowned prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America.
Amos’ Cleo is also the father of Akeem’s love interest, Lisa McDowell, who was played by Shari Headley. No word yet on if Headley is returning.
Murphy is producing the pic with Kevin Misher and Kenya Barris. It hits theaters Dec. 18, 2020.
Amos, whose recent credits include HBO’s Ballers and the Netflix series, The Ranch, is repped by Buchwald.
Source: Deadline
Let’s start off this movie review by stating that we walked into a comedy film unexpectedly; the other Fast & Furious films are all dramatic films with action, a little bit suspense, and of course, car racing. In every single film. They somehow manage to fit a car chase scene in every film.
With that being said, after walking out of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw it looks like the comedy buddy action genre film of the summer is storming back, and with the right cast, we might add. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham have chemistry on camera not seen since Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour franchise films.
Make no mistake, then: As the trailers and all the promotional lead-up implied, Hobbs & Shaw is a quintessential buddy-cop action flick where opposites accordingly attract. That has led to some well-meaning concerns from Fast & Furious diehards, who are worried the spinoff won’t maintain the wholesome and endearingly cheesy theme of family that drives the franchise (primarily through those Diesel monologues).
Perhaps more concerningly, this spinoff is co-led by the guy who quite recently killed franchise favorite and snacking savant Han Seoul-Oh (yes, really).
But while the #JusticeForHan contingent won’t be satisfied with a throwaway line in which Shaw concedes he’s made some mistakes—that’s one way to describe killing someone!—the family ethos is still present via Hattie, Dame Helen Mirren reprising her role as the Shaw matriarch, and the third act when Hobbs reunites with his estranged family in Samoa. Also, get this: The Hobbs clan runs a successful body shop, because everyone in this universe must be tangentially related to cars. We knew they were going to add cars in there somewhere; after all its a Fast & Furious franchise right?
Anyway, Hobbs & Shaw goes from cars to channeling the superhero genre films. Maybe they had Marvel on their mind while making the film. Who knows? When MI6 agent Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) and her team are attacked by genetically enhanced supersoldier Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), she injects herself with capsules of a deadly (and vaguely explained) supervirus to prevent Lore from getting his hands on it, then flees the scene. The capsules, however, will eventually dissolve, making Hattie a ticking time bomb/pending source of lethal airborne contagion/human MacGuffin. To track her down and prevent a global catastrophe, the American and British governments separately enlist the services of the superhuman Hobbs and Deckard Shaw (Statham, and yes, he and Hattie are siblings), respectively, oblivious to the fact that these two dudes have shared animosity and more than a little chemistry in the past.
Beyond the fact that everyone has assumed their own type of superpowers—Brixton can stop bullets with his hands and anticipate attacks, and appears to have synchronized with his motorcycle like an Eva pilot; in Fate, Hobbs altered the trajectory of a torpedo with his bare hands—Hobbs & Shaw revels in the contrasting styles and life philosophies of its leads. An early split-screen sequence shows their daily routines—Hobbs, after waking up beside his very good dog, inhales raw eggs and coffee grounds; Shaw makes a fancy omelet with a base of butter for him, and, presumably, the anonymous lady who shared his bed. Shaw’s wardrobe seems entirely composed of immaculately tailored suits; Hobbs always looks like he’s one good flex away from tearing through his tank top. When he fights, Hobbs is all brute force; Shaw has the kinetic, agile energy of a spider monkey. You get the idea.
You can quibble over the illogical specificity of the Hobbs family’s car-themed backstory, or the fact that Kirby and Statham are siblings that are, in flashbacks, clearly shown to have grown up together, when they are actually twenty years apart in age. But you don’t watch a Fast & Furious movie for sensible plot developments, the same way you don’t expect any of the action sequences to obey the laws of physics—all that matters is that they DESTROY.
And let me assure you of one thing: Hobbs and Shaw does, in fact, DESTROY. Several action scenes are sooooo hot, you almost want to hit a pause button, and rewind, then you remember you are in the theater.
Along with streamlining the action so it’s easier to follow, Director David Leitch leans on the self-awareness that this franchise has gone deliriously off the rails. There are a TON of things that are physically impossible to do but Luke Hobbs is able to do in this movie, For example: Hobbs pick up an assailant off his motorcycle and ram him into a wall with one hand; he pulls down a helicopter with a biceps curl (Captain America: Winter Soldier style); catch Vanessa Kirby with one hand while driving a huge truck through muddy terrain; repel down a skyscraper and land on a goon’s back, twice.
Oh, but we can’t leave out the abilities of Brixton, who likens himself to a “Black Superman” and whose abilities are gifted to him by Eteon, a tech company with aspirations to “enhance” the human race. We learn very little about Eteon through the course of the film, but you get the impression its employees are huge fans of Soylent and believe Cyberdyne Systems was a well-intentioned company.
Hobbs & Shaw gleefully sets up a sequel, leaving the door open for Eteon and its mysterious leader to terrorize humanity in the future, and seems uninterested in returning to the stakes of the original Fast & Furious.
With its first franchise offshoot—and rumors of more on the way, including a female-led spinoff—perhaps the Fast & Furious can try to appease all types of fans. If Hobbs & Shaw delves into more globetrotting heroics from a British mercenary and a federal agent who can pull down a helicopter with his arm, maybe the ninth Fast & Furious film can lean a bit more into the franchise’s roots. (Well, up to a point: Charlize Theron’s cyberterrorist Cipher is officially coming back for Fast & Furious 9, and after she hacked a nuclear sub in Fate, I doubt she’ll challenge Dom to a quarter-mile street race for the fate of the world.) In any case, given the ongoing hostility between Johnson and Diesel—whose feud seems way more authentic than the one between Hobbs and Shaw—it’s best not to expect a larger Fast & Furious reunion in the future.
he absence of Hobbs was never going to be a big problem for the Fast & Furious franchise, which can boast the rest of the Toretto extended family and a rotating cast of A-listers as fresh new adversaries. But as Hobbs & Shaw has demonstrated, these characters can more than hold their own, and feel most assured when they’re not indebted to their predecessors. When family drifts apart, it’s not always a bad thing.
In 2017, Tiffany Haddish had her breakout with the role of Dina in the box office comedy success, Girls Trip. And she has not forgotten her comedic roots!
Despite the cancellation of her critically-animated series, Tuca & Bertie, Haddish is continuing her fruitful relationship with Netflix with a series of stand-up specials aimed at amplifying burgeoning comedians.
The first trailer for Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready has debuted and it already looks promising. Executive produced by Haddish and Wanda Sykes, They Ready will be a series of half-hour stand up specials highlighting her six favorite comics.
The comedians set to be featured in the series are Chaunté Wayans, April Macie, Tracey Ashley, Aida Rodriguez, Flame Monroe and Marlo Williams.
Watch the first trailer for They Ready below.