NBC is developing All Fancy, a half-hour starring comedian Anjelah Johnson and executive produced by Kevin Hart and Superstore star America Ferrera.
Written by Emilia Serrano, the multi-camera All Fancy is inspired by Anjelah Johnson’s life and stand-up. The series is seen through the point of view of Veronica Jimenez (Johnson), a newly successful 30-something Mexican-American woman who often goes against cultural and social expectations, creating chaos and comedy within her marriage, business and extended family.
The project hails from Universal Television in association with Hart’s Hartbeat Productions, Yellow Brick Road and Take Fountain Productions. Executive producing are Serrano, Hart, John Cheng and Carli Haney via Hartbeat as well as frequent collaborators, Ferrera via Take Fountain and Weinberg via Yellow Brick. Johnson is co-executive producing.
“The show is seen through the eyes of Anjelah Johnson who is one of the funniest and freshest voices in comedy right now,” Hart and Cheng said in a statement. “What we love about her is that she’s able to provide the audience with diverse and relatable stories by drawing from her own authentic life experiences, which is exactly what defines a Hartbeat Production. We are so excited to be working with her, America, Emilia, and NBC.”
MADtv alumna Johnson previously worked with Hart on his Laugh Out Loud streaming service. See below a skit they did together.
“Anjelah’s hilarious and singular voice has always spoken directly to me, and more importantly, to a whole generation of Latina women pursuing ambition, love and purpose. I am honored to be working with Anjelah and Emilia,” Ferrera said.
Touring comedian Johnson, who is of Mexican and Native American descent, guest-starred on Ferrera’s ABC dramedy series Ugly Betty, which Weinberg executive produced. Her credits also include series The Shield and Curb Your Enthusiasm,features Our Family Wedding, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Enough Said and Mom’s Night Out as well as comedy specials for Comedy Central, Netflix and Epix. See a sample of her standup below the post.
“Eleven years ago I began telling my story through stand-up comedy gigs and I’m so excited for the opportunity to finally share it on TV,” said Johnson. “Emilia is the perfect partner to help bring this show to life and I’m honored to work alongside cultural tastemakers like America and Kevin. Introducing a character like Veronica to the world is so important as a Mexican-American in today’s climate and I hope viewers will both relate to her and laugh with her.”
Serrano has mainly focused her career on writing Latinx stories and characters. She’s currently a Supervising Producer on an untitled Latinx comedy for Netflix and recently sold two Latinx feature comedies to Sony’s Columbia Pictures with Noah Hawley’s 26 Keys and Amy Pascal’s Pascal Pictures producing and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. She is repped by ICM Partners, 3 Arts and Felker Toczek.
Ferrera is repped by CAA, B Company Management and Peikoff Mahan. Hart is repped by UTA, 3 Arts and Schreck Rose Dapello & Adams. Johnson is repped by UTA and Lichter Grossman.
Source: Deadline
After an auspicious directorial debut on the 2014 comedy Top Five, Chris Rock is getting back behind the camera. He will direct Kevin Hart in Co-Parenting, a Will Packer-produced comedy for Universal Pictures.
Script is being written by Yamara Taylor (black-ish) and the film revolves around a stay at home dad who raises the kids while his star CEO wife serves as the breadwinner. The man finds himself in emotional and public turmoil when his wife kicks him to the curb, and they engage in a bitter divorce and custody battle.
The film is based on an original idea by Rock and Hart. Packer will produce through his Will Packer Productions banner, alongside Hart and his Hartbeat Productions partner John Cheng, and Rock for his Chris Rock Enterprises.
Universal Executive Vice President of Production Kristin Lowe will oversee with Chen and Carli Haney serving those roles for Hartbeat.
Rock is represented by ICM Partners, Untitled and Morris Yorn Barnes; Hart is repped by UTA, 3 Arts Entertainment and Schreck Rose; Taylor is CAA and 3 Arts.
Regular collaborators Packer and Hart — whose companies have Universal deals — are coming off the hit Night School. Co-Parenting, which aspires to mix comedy with emotion the way that Judd Apatow and James L. Brooks do so well, gives Hart another opportunity to show his chops as an actor. He’ll next do that in January, when STX releases the Neil Burger-directed The Upside. Hart stars alongside Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman in the remake of French smash Les Intouchables.
Rock is coming off the Adam Sandler Netflix comedy Week Of, and he recently wrapped Dolemite, the Craig Brewer-directed film that stars Eddie Murphy as the iconic blaxploitation star. He’s also shooting the FX series Fargo.
Source: Deadline
Today, Hulu announced that Jessica Williams, Nikesh Patel, Rebecca Rittenhouse and John Reynolds have been cast in the upcoming limited romantic comedy series Four Weddings and a Funeral. See below for casting details and a link to bios and headshots.
BET Networks today announces the nominees for the 2018 Soul Train Awards across 12 different categories. The annual celebration will recognize the best in Soul, R&B and Hip-Hop from legends to the next generation. Filming on November 17th at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, BET presents: 2018 Soul Train Awards will air on BET and BET HER on November 25th, 2018 at 8PM ET.
2018 breakout star, H.E.R. leads the nominees for this year’s awards, followed closely by last year’s top winner, Bruno Mars & Cardi B both with six nominations each. H.E.R.’s nominations include ‘Song of the Year,’ ‘Best R&B/Soul Female Artist,’ ‘Album/Mixtape of the Year,’ ‘Best Collaboration Performance,’ Video of the Year,’ and two nods in the ‘The Ashford and Simpson Songwriters Award’ category for “Best Part” & “Focus.” Bruno’s nominations include ’Best R&B/Soul Male,’ and he shares nominations with Cardi B for ‘Song of the Year, ’Best Dance Performance, ’Best Collaboration Performance,’ ‘The Ashford and Simpson Songwriters Award’ ’Video of the Year,’ for “Finesse.” Additionally, Cardi garnered a nomination for Rhythm & Bars Award (Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year).
Other nominees include SZA who garnered 5 nods, Ella Mai, Daniel Caesar, and each garnered 4 nods for this year’s awards.
Known for being the iconic best friend duo, on the 90’s hit show Martin, real-life best friends Tisha Campbell & Tichina Arnold are sure to bring the fun at this year’s awards.
Four-time Grammy award-winning, singer-songwriter, artist, director/producer, holistic healer, activist, and mother Erykah Badu, is set to receive the Legend Award. No stranger to the Soul Train Awards stage, serving as the 2017 host of the awards, Badu’s career has roots deeply planted in soul. The New York Times described Badu’s groundbreaking debut, 1997’s “Baduizm,” as “traditional soul vocals, staccato hip-hop rhythms and laid-back jazzy grooves.” Yet, hindsight reveals that Badu’s debut was more than just an album, it was the introduction of a new lifestyle. In her career spanning over two decades, Badu has continued to use her platform as an altar. By incorporating instruments such as tuning forks, crystal singing bowls, and gem stones and more into her music, she has created a wave of healing energy throughout the planet. But her true instrument is the ‘intent’ with which she sings.
The fourth annual Lady of Soul Award will be presented to multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning artist, songwriter, and record producer Faith Evans. With a music career spanning over two decades, Faith has released eight studio albums, with over 18 million albums sold and spawning over 30 singles. Faith has also performed on 20+ soundtracks and a host of guest appearances during her career. Faith Evans is a seven-time Grammy nominee; winning “Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group” in 1998 for “I’ll Be Missing You,” an homage to her late husband and hip-hop legend Notorious B.I.G.
BET Presents: 2018 Soul Train Awards will feature an exciting lineup of unforgettable performances and viewers can expect special appearances by some of the brightest stars in entertainment. The event annually showcases Soul Train’s impact on the history of music and dance from the 70s to today.
With two weeks remaining in one of the most important elections of this generation, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams continues to work around the clock to urge voters to head to the polls early.
Abrams recently spoke at the IEBW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) in Atlanta along with actor/comedian Chris Tucker and Senator Cory Booker.
Tucker spoke briefly and urged the crowd to take friends and family members to the polls early to vote. Booker, New Jersey’s first Black Senator, took things up a notch by sharing how important it was for audience members to do their part in this historical election.
“The whole world is watching Georgia right now,” Booker told the audience. “We’re at an historic point in our country. Too many people in Georgia who are hurting. There are folks dealing with illness and disease and it could be a life-changing event if they don’t have healthcare. There are young people dedicating their lives to teaching. This is a moral moment… We have to understand that democracy is not a spectator sport. This is a moment where we can change history.”
“I believe I’m the only candidate with a true comprehensive plan to move this state forward,” Abrams said following her speech. “From education, to creation of jobs, to expansion of medicare, these issues will define if Georgia will move forward in the next generation. We are a vital part of the American economy. I’m proud to have one of our leading senators here speaking about the importance of Georgia and this election.”
Source: Rolling Out
According to sources, it has been confirmed that Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment and LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment are in talks to bring Friday the 13th back to the big screen. The news comes in the wake of Universal / Miramax / Blumhouse’s Halloween hitting an all-time opening record for its slasher franchise with $76.2 million which also doubled as the second best domestic debut ever in October.
We hear that meetings are out with directors and writers now. It’s still very early.
Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller recently regained U.S. rights to the franchise under copyright reclamation laws, and took the project to Vertigo and SpringHill so they could move it through Warner Bros. Miller won U.S. rights after a legal battle with director Sean Cunningham and his Horror Inc. label; Cunningham produced the 1980 film. The Copyright Act gives authors a second chance and reclaiming their work after 35 years, after selling it for a low price. In the case of Miller, he reportedly sold Friday the 13th for less than $10,000 and wasn’t involved in future sequels.
There are many moving parts here. Warner Bros has some foreign on the franchise, having handled it via New Line previously.
Last year, in the wake of Rings failing, Paramount pulled the plug on a Platinum Dunes version of Friday the 13th after losing faith in horror reboots. That attitude is now changing in Hollywood with the recent success of Halloween.
James and SpringHill are repped by WME. Lee is repped by CAA and Stone, Genow. Bloody Disgusting first reported the news.
Source: Deadline
Even more than the 40 years worth of sequels it spawned, or even the entire slasher horror sub-genre it practically birthed, probably the most unexpected and wholly unintended outcome of John Carpenter’s eternally influential 1978 thriller HALLOWEEN is the ridiculously convoluted continuity built over five directly related sequels and two reboot films. Who would have ever thought that the sleek, suspenseful, and — most importantly — *simple* tale of masked killer stalking and murdering teenage babysitters over the course of one Halloween night would lead to a jumbled mess of plot and character inconsistencies and contradictions, and *multiple* alternate timelines, not even counting last decade’s pair of refreshed-by-design Rob Zombie-directed films? The fact that David Gordon Green’s 2018 addition to the series bears none of the usual indicators of a sequel in its title and simply shares the name of the original film is a succinct and bold mission statement: to bring this unwieldy series back to the bare essential basics — and he, armed with original, legendary leading lady Jamie Lee Curtis, get that easier said than job done in entertaining, if unavoidably familiar, fashion.
Carpenter and original co-writer Debra Hill are themselves largely responsible for the character and story mess that developed over the last 40 years, thanks to a rather out-of-nowhere but completely game-changing twist in their script for 1981’s HALLOWEEN II: the reveal that the first film’s “final girl” Laurie Strode (Curtis) was the sister of masked murderer Michael Myers. The arbitrary and forced familial connection then informed, if not completely dominated, all of the related sequels ever since, and was the very core of Zombie’s revisionist pair of films. In a rather controversial choice, Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley have truly stripped the premise down to the basic 1978 foundation, completely ignoring any and all sequels that came before this one. So in this latest revised timeline (the mainline series’ *third*, if keeping count: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 being the first; 1, 2, 7, 8 being the other), Myers (played by, in an inspired move, his 1978 portrayer Nick Castle, along with James Jude Courtney) was apprehended by authorities not long after his disappearance at the end of the first film and has spent the last 40 years behind bars. Laurie may no longer be a blood relation (addressed in one of a few cheeky throwaway in-joke lines), but Michael still remains a looming presence over her life to this day. The lingering trauma of that fateful night has resulted in her being a virtual shut-in with a paranoid obsession to prepare for her tormentor’s possible (or, in her mind, inevitable) escape, leading to a strained relationship with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), whom she trained for the day since she was a child; and teenage granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak).
Of course, Laurie’s preparations and training prove to be justified, for Michael is soon back roaming the streets of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night after a botched prison transfer. From this moment on, all of the convolutions to set up this new scenario, including a subplot about a pair of podcasters that proves to be little more than an exposition dump device, pretty much fall by the wayside as the film settles into the expected pattern: Michael kills various people on his way to a climactic confrontation with Laurie. While he does not stray from the time-proven formula, Green hits the required beats with finesse, with one elegantly creepy long take sequence that follows Michael‘s predator-prey stalking of one unfortunate resident being a standout example. Given that the template Carpenter set has played out to the point of parody over the years, there are some welcome, but not distracting nor excessive, dollops of humor, which certainly came courtesy of McBride’s pen.
To put it mildly, the slasher genre has never been the most generous to actors, but Curtis here reminds why she has been the shining exception to the rule. In a true testament to how she brings her well thought-out A-game to an assignment most would dismiss as a throwaway (or, in this case, an easy paycheck), the Laurie found here is a vastly different take from Curtis’s previous decades-later return to the role in 1998’s HALLOWEEN: H20. If that version of the character was a more proactive, pro-forma “kick-ass” one informed less by story history than the ’90s SCREAM style of horror (and, to a certain degree, Curtis’s celebrated turn four years prior in TRUE LIES), the Laurie here, while certainly having a core of strength, has a deeply haunted quality that more believably tracks with the character as left at the end of the first film. Laurie puts on a convincing face of toughness, and indeed she has prepared well for her long awaited moment of truth, but Curtis makes it clear in her eyes that fear is the great motivator here, and for all the weapons training she has had since, she’s still that young woman cowering in the closet, knife reluctantly in hand. So when her face finally meets his mask after all this time, there’s a weight and stakes to the moment unlike any similar one in any other film in the genre.
But the real bread and butter of a film in this genre is the fright and fun factor, and this film delivers enough of both. If Green is ultimately plays it a bit safe by remaining beholden to formula and fan service with his HALLOWEEN, any lack of genuine surprise is made up for by the reliability of its craft, energy, and palpable love for Carpenter’s durable creation and the popcorn power of a shamelessly simple thrill ride experienced with a cinema audience.
Grade: B
By Michael Dequina
Ari Graynor, Jacob Latimore, Karan Soni, Jimmy O. Yang, Natasha Rothwell, Jessica St. Clair and Billy Porter are set as co-stars.
The film will center on “two friends who build a successful company, then find their relationship tested following a buyout offer.”
Haddish, who helped develop the script, is executive producing the film. It landed at Paramount in a competitive situation last October.
Latimore currently stars in Lena Waithe’s The Chi, which returns for Season 2 next year. Rothwell, who stars in Insecure, will also be seen next year in Wonder Woman 1984. Porter stars in the FX hit, Pose and has garnered critical acclaim for his role. He can be currently seen in FX’s American Horror Story.
The release date is set for June 2019.
Source: Variety, Shadow & Act
SHOWTIME has unveiled the official trailer for its new comedy series BLACK MONDAY on the 31st anniversary of the worst stock market crash in the history of Wall Street, dubbed “Black Monday.” The series stars and is executive produced by Emmy® nominated and Golden Globe winning actor Don Cheadle and stars two-time Tony Award nominee and Grammy® winner Andrew Rannells (Girls) and Regina Hall (Girls Trip). Paul Scheer (The League) also stars. BLACK MONDAY was created by David Caspe (Happy Endings) and Jordan Cahan (My Best Friend’s Girl), who will serve as executive producers and showrunners. Emmy nominees Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Preacher, Superbad, Future Man) are executive producers and directed the pilot. The 10-episode series will premiere on Sunday, January 20 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
BLACK MONDAY takes viewers back to October 19, 1987 – aka Black Monday. To this day, no one knows who “caused it” … until now. It’s the fictional story of how a group of outsiders took on the blue-blood, old-boys club of Wall Street and ended up crashing the world’s largest financial system, a Lamborghini limousine and the glass ceiling.
A co-production between SHOWTIME and Sony Pictures Television, BLACK MONDAY guest stars include Yassir Lester (Making History), Horatio Sanz (Glow) and Michael James Scott (Aladdin on Broadway), with recurring guest stars Casey Wilson (Happy Endings), Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer), and Kurt Braunohler (Bunk). Emmy® and two-time Oscar® nominee Bruce Dern (Big Love), Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory), Julie Hagerty (Airplane), Kadeem Hardison (A Different World), Eugene Cordero (Kong: Skull Island), Vanessa Bell Calloway (SHAMELESS), Tim Russ (iCarly) and Jason Michael Snow (The Book of Mormon) have also signed on as guest stars.