Wesley Snipes has joined Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 America, Paramount’s sequel to its popular 1988 comedy.
Craig Brewer, the director best known for Hustle & Flow, is helming the project. Kevin Misher producing via his Misher Films banner along with Kenya Barris and Murphy.
The original saw Murphy play Prince Akeem, a spoiled prince from the fictional African nation of Zamunda, who arrives in Queens, New York, and in undercover fashion gets a job at a McDonald’s knock-off while trying to find a wife.
The new story sees Akeem returning to America in order to find his long-lost son. Arsenio Hall is already on board as reprising his role of his best friend. Snipes will play a new character, General Izzi, a man who rules a neighboring nation. A fall start is being eyed.
America will represent a reteaming of Snipes with both Murphy and Brewer. The trio collaborated on Dolemite is My Name, a biopic of comedian Rudy Ray Moore that will premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Snipes, perhaps best known for such as Blade, White Men Can’t Jump and New Jack City, is also starring in and exec producing indie action thriller Payline. He is repped by APA.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
According to several of our sources, and other Hollywood leaks, we hear that more Hollywood notable actors are in the mix for Warner Bros. and DC’s ‘The Batman’ set to star Robert Pattinson as Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Word on the street is comedian, actor, and singer Jamie Foxx and ‘Breaking Bad’ alum Giancarlo Esposito are on a shortlist for a major role in Matt Reeves’ first ‘Batman’ movie. Character details for the role remain under wraps, but sources are saying that the villain known as The Riddler being one possibility for the role they are up for.
It’s unknown if Reeves has met with Foxx or Esposito yet, but we will let you know as soon as we find out
As you already know, Foxx is no stranger to comic book movies, having played Electro in Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2.’
Giancarlo Esposito is best known for his role as Gus Fring in AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad’ and its spin-off ‘Better Call Saul.’ He will also be appearing in the Disney+ ‘Star Wars’ series ‘The Mandalorian.’
As of this writing, the word is Esposito is also up for a major role in an upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, possibly in the new Blade remake.
‘The Batman’ will feature Riddler, Catwoman, Firefly, and Penguin.
Reeves serves as both writer and director, and be reuniting with cinematographer Greig Fraser.
‘The Batman’ will hit theaters on June 25, 2021.
NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the comedy world’s biggest stars — including Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Kevin Smith, Nicole Byer and Trevor Noah — will headline this year’s New York Comedy Festival.
The weeklong festival will also feature Norm McDonald, Randy Rainbow, Nate Bargatze, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Vir Das, Kathleen Madigan, Demetri Martin, Tom Segura, Benito Skinner, Jenny Slate, Jay Mewes, No Such Thing as a Fish and Betches Media’s “U Up?” Live.
The festival runs from Nov. 4-10. Over 200 comedians, late-night hosts and podcast stars will perform in more than 100 shows at places like the Beacon Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall and even the Bloomingdale’s flagship home.
“Nothing beats being able to perform stand-up comedy in New York to some of the best audiences in the world, and that’s what this festival is. I can’t wait,” said Noah in a statement. He’ll be headlining the festival’s largest venue, Madison Square Garden on Nov. 8.
Caroline Hirsch, founder and owner of the New York Comedy Festival and Carolines on Broadway, said audiences should expect pop-up events, live improv and sketch comedy, panel discussions, screenings and broadcasts.
“We’ve always supported and championed those in the industry, and we’re excited to continue to bring the very best comedic talent to entertain comedy fans this November,” she said in a statement.
Tickets go on sale Aug. 12 at the festival’s website .
BET Networks and Tyler Perry Studios announced today the second wave of talent joining the production of the new original drama “The Oval.” The 25-episodes original series “The Oval” will premiere this fall on BET. Javon Johnson, Ptosha Storey, Vaughn Hebron, Teesha Renee, Lodric Collins, Ciera Payton, Taja V. Simpson, Walter Fauntleroy, Brad Benedict, Travis Cure and Matthew Law join previously announced cast Ed Quinn, Kron Moore, Paige Hurd and Daniel Croix Henderson. “THE OVAL” tells the story of a family placed in the White House by people of power while also highlighting the personal side and everyday lives of the staff who run the inner workings of the nation’s most iconic residence.
Principal photography is underway at Tyler Perry Studios.
Second wave announcement of series regulars include:
Javon Johnson will play RICHARD HALLSEN
Richard is the esteemed White House butler who has served several administrations at the White House.
Ptosha Storey will play NANCY HALLSEN
Nancy is the loving wife to Richard Hallsen, the esteemed White House butler.
Vaughn Hebron will play BARRY HALLSEN
Barry is the son to the esteemed White House butler. He is a young dad to his 4-year old daughter Callie.
Teesha Renee will play SHARON
Sharon is the girlfriend to Barry Hallsen. She works at a local pharmacy.
LODRIC COLLINSwill play DONALD WINTHROP
Donald is the Chief of Staff at The White House for Hunter Franklin, the newly elected President of the United States. He is smart, demanding and manipulative.
Ciera Paytonwill play Lilly WINTHROP
Lilly is a fashion designer who is married to Donald Winthrop, the Chief of Staff for the President.
Taja V. Simpson will play PRISCILLA OWENS
Priscilla is the residence staff supervisor at the White House. She is married to Sam, the President’s secret service agent.
WALTER FANTLEROY will play SAM OWENS
Sam is a loyal secret service agent to the President.
Brad Benedict will play Kyle Flint
Kyle is a secret service agent at the White House. He is an ex-Marine who is direct and unwavering. He takes direction, but seems to be always operating with a different outcome in mind.
Travis Cure will play Bobby
Bobby is handsome and rugged. After meeting Lilly Winthrop on a plane, neither of their lives will ever be the same again.
Matthew Law will pay Kareem Richardson
Kareem owns a local pharmacy in Washington, D.C., along with his father. He is a hard- working young man. He may be in a relationship but his heart longs for Sharon, who also works at the pharmacy and is in a committed relationship with Barry.
The Oval is written, directed and executive produced by Tyler Perry. Michelle Sneed will also serve as Executive Producer of the series for Tyler Perry Studios.
Until production actually starts, it’s being reported that Rick Famuyiwa (of Dope and Confirmation fame) is now the latest name attached to direct the remake of 1974 buddy comedy Uptown Saturday Night for Warner Bros. Pictures with Kevin Hart starring.
Malcolm D. Lee was the last name brought up in 2013.
Will Smith and his Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter are producing with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris writing the most recent draft of the script. For years, the project was developed as a possible starring vehicle for Smith and Denzel Washington, but busy schedules for both A-listers have forced Smith to serve as a producer on the project, opening the door for Hart to take the lead.
The 1974 original buddy comedy starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier as two estranged friends who have their wallets stolen at a nightclub. The next morning, they learn that one of their wallets contained a winning lottery ticket, and together, they set out to find it.
Kevin Hart and John Cheng will also produce through their HartBeat banner.
Famuyiwa, whose credits include The Wood, Dope and Confirmation, recently directed an episode of the highly anticipated Star Wars series The Mandalorian for Disney+.
ABC announced a dynamic upcoming lineup from the network’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, today at the Television Critics Association event.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will return to Brooklyn, New York, for five original shows starting Monday, Oct. 21. The Emmy Award®-nominated show will tape in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. During the show’s fourth visit to Brooklyn last year (week of Oct. 15, 2018), ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” posted gains over the prior week among Adults 18-49 (+2%) to deliver back-to-back season highs and had scored its strongest performance in over 4 months – since the week of 6/4/18. This will be the fifth time that Kimmel and his show have broadcast from BAM.
Then this winter, Kimmel will once again team up with television icon Norman Lear and executive producers Brent Miller, Will Ferrell and Justin Theroux to provide the next installment of the groundbreaking “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” with a live holiday special event. A third “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” special will air spring 2020.
ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and “The Jeffersons’” premiered on Wednesday, May 22, with an average audience of 10.4 million viewers and earned a 1.8/9 in Adults 18-49 and reached 22.5 million Total Viewers for its original Wednesday airing and Saturday rebroadcast.
“Live in Front of a Studio Audience” will be produced by Kimmelot, ACT III Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions, D’Arconville and Sony Pictures Television. Norman Lear, Jimmy Kimmel, Brent Miller, Will Ferrell and Justin Theroux will executive produce.
Finally, to round out his robust slate of ABC programming, Kimmel will partner with Emmy® Award-winning producer Mark Burnett to executive produce “Generation Gap,” a new game show coming to ABC. This comedy quiz show groups family members of different generations who must work together to answer questions about each other’s generations. This “fun for the whole family” show features a wide variety of pop-culture trivia and challenges, such as asking an 8-year-old to finish the famous catchphrase, “Go ahead. Make my BLANK!” Additional details surrounding production and airdates, as well as a host, to be announced at a later date.
“Generation Gap” will be produced by MGM Television and Kimmelot. Mark Burnett, Jimmy Kimmel and Barry Poznick will executive produce.
Natascha McElhone (Californication) and Emmy nominee Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo) are set for lead roles opposite Pablo Schreiber in Halo, Showtime’s anticipated series based on the Xbox video game franchise. Rounding out the cast are Shabana Azmi (Fire), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher) and Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe). The castings were announced Friday during Showtime’s presentation at the TCA summer press tour. Produced by Showtime in partnership with 343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, the series will begin production later this year in Budapest and is slated to air in the first quarter of 2021.
McElhone will star as two characters — Dr. Catherine Halsey, the brilliant, conflicted and inscrutable creator of the Spartan supersoldiers and Cortana, the most advanced AI in human history, and potentially the key to the survival of the human race.
Woodbine will play Soren-066, a morally complex privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief.
Azmi will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
The series will also introduce three all-new characters to the Halo universe. British actor Kalu will play Spartan Vannak-134, a cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief. British actress Culzac will star in the role of Spartan Riz-028 – a focused, professional and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine. Kennedy stars as Spartan Kai-125, an all-new courageous, curious and deadly Spartan supersoldier. Yerin Ha was previously announced playing the new character Kwan Ha, a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.
Halo reinvented how people think about video games and has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, having sold more than 77 million copies worldwide and grossing more than $60 billion in lifetime sales worldwide. In its adaptation for Showtime, Halo will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant.
The series is executive produced by Steven Kane (The Last Ship). Halo is also executive produced by Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television in partnership with 343 Industries, director Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven. CBS Studios International will distribute globally.
Source: Deadline
A new comedy titled SEXTUPLETS from “White Chicks” and “Naked” producers Marlon Wayans and Rick Alvarez, plus producer Nathan Reimann (“Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo”) and director Michael Tiddes (“A Haunted House,” “Naked”) — tells the story of Alan, an expectant father who grew up believing he was an only child. While searching for his birth mother, Alan comes face-to-face with a brother he never knew existed, Russell, who helps him uncover their secret status as sextuplets (all played by Wayans). Soon they begin a spontaneous road trip to track down their additional siblings, but not before Alan wonders whether exploring his roots was a huge mistake.
The hilarious film, releasing on Netflix on Friday, August 16th.