Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou is set to join the growing ensemble of Sony’s “Charlie’s Angels” reboot, joining Elizabeth Banks and Patrick Stewart as one of the film’s multiple Bosleys.
Banks is also directing with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska set to portray the film’s Angels. Jonathan Tucker and Luis Gerardo Méndez are also on board.
The latest draft of the script is written by Jay Basu and Banks, based on earlier drafts by Craig Mazin and Semi Chellas. Banks and Max Handelman will produce under their Brownstone Productions banner, along with Doug Belgrad, who is also co-financing through his 2.0 Entertainment, and Elizabeth Cantillon.
The film will focus on the next generation of Angels working for the mysterious Charlie. Since the original films, the Townsend Agency has grown considerably and gone global, providing security and intelligence services to a wide variety of private clients with offices and highly trained teams worldwide. This film focuses on one of those teams.
The pic is slated for release on Sept. 27, 2019.
Hounsou has stayed busy in recent years, specifically within the Marvel and DC universes. For Marvel, he plays Korath the Pursuer, who first appeared in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and will reprise the role in “Captain Marvel.” For DC, he is set to play the Wizard in “Shazam!,” which bows next spring, as well as the Fisherman King in “Aquaman.”
He is repped by CAA and Safran Company.
Source: Variety
Paramount Players has signed “Black Panther” actor Winston Duke to star in its action-thriller “Heroine.”
Dan Casey will direct “Heroine” from his own script about a young mother on the run who moves to a new city in search of a clean start, only to realize that a mysterious and enigmatic new neighbor may in fact be a profoundly dangerous criminal. Duke will play the neighbor, a dark and seemingly tragic figure at the start who turns out to be much more than we expect.
“Heroine” is being produced by Matt Kaplan through his Ace Entertainment production company, which has a first-look deal with Paramount Players. A spring shoot for “Heroine” is being planned.
Duke portrayed the villainous M’Baku in Marvel’s “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” Duke is also attached to star in Jordan Peele’s horror film “Us” along with Lupita Nyong’o, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker.
Duke is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. Prior to scoring the M’Baku role, he appeared on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Person of Interest,” “Major Crimes,” and “Modern Family.” Casey wrote the script for Lionsgate’s recent sci-fi thriller “Kin,” adapted from the short film “Bag Man.”
Duke is repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson. His casting was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
Source: Variety
Sony Pictures is close to greenlighting “Bad Boys For Life,” Variety has learned.
Reuniting Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two of Miami PD’s most infamous officers has taken years to pull off, but a new draft of a script appears to have met with the producers’ approval and it looks as though production on the sequel could begin in early 2019. The plan is for the third “Bad Boys” to be in theaters by Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in 2020. Smith is on board to reprise his role as Detective Mike Lowrey. Lawrence has yet to come to terms, but the comic continues to circle the project.
Sony declined to comment on specifics related to negotiations or even address the possibility that the cameras will soon be rolling on another installment in the series. However, in an earlier interview the studio did speak to Variety more broadly about its vision for several key franchises.
If we’re going to make another ‘Bad Boys’ after 15 years, it’s got to be next-level great,” said Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch.
Panitch’s team is keeping the details under wraps, but the studio believes that screenwriter Chris Bremner (“The Wedding Ringer”) has delivered the right mixture of action set pieces and laughs. Bremner is the latest writer to take a crack at the film — David Guggenheim and Joe Carnahan have also made attempts, with Carnahan on board to direct at one point. He’s now handed those duties off to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who are best known for directing episodes of FX’s “Snowfall.” Michael Bay previously oversaw the Bad Boys franchise, but Panitch thinks the new team is the right fit.
“These guys are amazing,” he said. “They loved the first movies, but they’re not afraid to change things up.”
Panitch said making another “Bad Boys” would have been inconceivable without the key actors, but bringing back the original stars isn’t the only way that studio has been revitalizing older franchises. Sony’s problem is not unique. The studio is punching up against Disney, which boasts an arsenal of Marvel, Pixar, and LucasFilm that gives them control of series such as the Avengers, Toy Story, and Star Wars. It has fallen to Panitch and Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman to go through the cupboards and try to find ways to reintroduce franchises that in many cases are decades old. That can be difficult, since older properties can sometimes look dangerously out of touch.
One of their first experiments, the 2017 “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” was a major success. The decision to cast Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, as well as to inject video game elements into the picture, paid off with a $962 million gross. That’s a strong result considering that 20 years separated the film from the first “Jumanji.” Of course, not every franchise has benefited from a reboot. Sony’s attempts to reboot “Ghostbusters” with an all-female team of paranormal investigators failed to ignite, earning a disappointing $229 million on a $144 million budget.
Analysts say it can be difficult to find the right formula for revisiting older films or series. A successful reboot is equal parts inspiration and luck.
“There are certain benefits,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with ComScore. “There’s built-in recognition and affection for a brand and you know the premise has worked in the past. But it can’t seem exploitative or overly cute either.”
In the coming months, Sony will release reboots of its “Charlie’s Angels” and “Men in Black” franchises, and is hard at work developing a spin-off of “21 Jump Street” that will focus on female undercover cops.
“The north star for us is wanting our movies to feel different, not done before, not recycled,” said Panitch. “Because of the volume of streaming content out there and television content, we spend a lot of time around here talking about a movie’s theatricality and making sure we believe it achieves cinema worthiness.”
It has also meant embracing diverse casting. The upcoming “Men in Black” reboot finds Tessa Thompson cast opposite Chris Hemsworth. Likewise, the Elizabeth Banks-directed “Charlie’s Angels” reboot features Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska alongside Kristen Stewart. Banks’ “Charlie’s Angels” will inevitably lean into the female empowerment angle more than the McG-directed 2000 film (it’s unlikely a character will be introduced dancing in her underwear as Cameron Diaz did in that film).
“Elizabeth Banks is very clued in to what young girls and women are interested in,” said Panitch. “We live in a world where a woman is running the CIA. We didn’t want this to be an anachronism. Elizabeth wanted the mythology of Charlie’s Angels to evolve.”
One idea that has been abandoned is to have the “Men in Black” and “21 Jump Street” franchises overlap in some kind of mashup. That pitch from Chris Lord and Phil Miller is no longer on the front burner. Instead, Sony is focusing on finding the right female comedians to give send back to high school with badges. Rodney Rothman, the writer behind the first two “Jump Street” films, is writing the script and will direct.
“We think that there’s something fun about keeping that irreverent spirit of ‘Jump Street,’ but maybe having it be told through a female undercover cop point-of-view,” said Panitch. “We’ve had enough male buddy comedies. The script is really funny and has a freshness to it.”
To be fair, Sony isn’t just reviving old favorites. The studio is also trying to create new franchises, whether its last spring’s “Peter Rabbit” the low-budget thriller “Searching,” or the upcoming “Venom” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
When it comes to raiding the vaults, Panitch and his team have tried to find one compelling idea that can justify dusting off aging series. In the case of “Charlie’s Angels” it’s giving it a grittier spin. With “21 Jump Street,” it’s leaning into a more feminist perspective. It’s unclear what the big idea is with “Bad Boys 3,” but Panitch says there will be one.
“With these movies you have to have one big idea for the film,” said Panitch. “In some ways, this big idea is ultimately more important than the brand itself.”
Source: Variety
It’s been more than 30 years since that day when international money markets were pierced in the heart by downward-pointing arrows and the Dow Jones average suffered its worst-ever single-day drop. Maybe now it’s OK to laugh it. That’s what Showtime is hoping for with its new comedy starring Don Cheadle, Andrews Rannells and Regina Hall. Watch the first-look teaser above.
Written by creators David Caspe and Jordan Cahan and originally titled Ball Street, Black Monday takes us back to October 19, 1987. No one ever really knew who caused it — until now. The series shows how a group of outsiders took on the Street’s blueblood, old-boys club and ended up crashing the world’s largest financial system, along with a few other things.
In his second lead role in a Showtime comedy set in the world of high finance, House of Lies alum Don Cheadle stars as Rod “The Jammer” Jaminski, a self-educated, self-made, self-destructive master of the universe whose firm the financial press called, “The L.A. Raiders of corporate raiders.” Rannells is Blair Sherman, a fresh-out-of-Wharton trading prodigy whose pure heart struggles to survive Wall Street, and Regina Hall plays Jammer’s top lieutenant, Dawn Darcy, the first female head trader on the street, who rides the second wave of feminism through a sea of horny millionaires.
Paul Scheer, Yassir Lester, Michael James Scott and Eugene Cordero co-star in the series, and Ken Marino and Kurt Braunohler are guest stars. Set Rogen and Evan Goldberg directed the pilot and exec produce with Caspe and Cahan. Showtime will bow the 10-episode series in early January. Until then, check out the first footage — set to the decided not-period-specific tones on Kids See Ghosts’ “Freeee” — and tell us if your money is on Black Monday.
Source: Deadline
Host Steve Harvey went on quite the diatribe while filming a recent episode of Family Feud. In a video clip, the longtime comedian starts laying into Pusha T after it was brought to his attention the G.O.O.D. Music President dissed him on “The Story Of Adidon.”
“Monkey-suit Dennis, you parade him/A Steve Harvey-suit nigga made him/Confused, always felt you weren’t Black enough/Afraid to grow it ’cause your ‘fro wouldn’t nap enough,” Pusha spit.
Harvey evidently wasn’t bothered and assures his audience he doesn’t care about what people think of him.
“Do you know how that don’t move the needle in my life?” he says. “Do you think I care what a rapper thinks of me? A rapper, dawg? I don’t give a shit what a singer thinks of me. I don’t really give a fuck what a politician thinks of me.”
Harvey then quotes the controversial televangelist Joel Osteen. “People’s opinions of you are none of your business, nor should you make it yours,” he says.
From there, he starts bagging on Pusha — or as he calls him — PUSHER T.
“Who the fuck is that?” he says. “‘Pusha T cracked on you in a rap song.’ Well, fuck Pusha T … Who is this broke ass boy? Where he come from? Pusha T don’t help me with none of my bills. Don’t send none of my kids through school. Pusha T don’t answer my prayers. Pusha T don’t give me health. Pusha T. Who the fuck is Pusha T?”
To cap it off, Harvey spits a freestyle aimed at Pusha.
This isn’t the first time Harvey has set his sights on rappers. In an old Kings Of Comedy routine, he explains why “stank ass rappers” make him sick.
“Everybody on the god damn stage got a mic,” he says. “Forty muthafuckin’ people. All of ’em got a mic. Muthafucka, why? We can’t even understand what one of your ass is sayin’. How you gonna give everybody a god damn mic?”
Watch his latest rant up top.
In DARK PHOENIX, the X-MEN face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.
DARK PHOENIX arrives in theaters everywhere February 14, 2019.
Watch the trailer below:
Hart. Haddish. The surname-only star billing at the top of NIGHT SCHOOL’s marketing materials also serves as a tagline of sorts, positioning the pairing of combustible comics Kevin and Tiffany as something akin to a championship bout–a perception reinforced by the trailers prominently featuring the two literally grappling in an MMA octagon. While those drawn in by that promise will indeed find it fulfilled, the sight and resulting sparks of these two stars literally and figuratively butting heads are only a piece of what ultimately makes Malcolm D. Lee’s agreeable trifle of a film a fun watch.
Even being a light entertainer, the film does not quickly find its footing and groove. The script (credited to Hart and frequent collaborators Harry Ratchford, Joey Wells, and Matt Kellard, in addition to hit comedy veterans Nicholas Stoller and John Hamburg) takes its time to get Hart’s high school dropout Teddy Walker from riding high with a recent wedding engagement and a forthcoming job promotion to occupying a humbled seat in the GED night school classes taught by Haddish’s no-nonsense Carrie. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the antics along the way justified their time in laughs, but the gags in the early-going too often come off as try-hard, forced, and in one notable case literally overblown, as in the large building explosion that sends Teddy flying into the windshield of a car and his life into disarray. Fortunately, the build-up of background circumstances–and, for that matter, the rather muted chuckles that come with them–are rendered moot once the two stars meet on screen and the film settles into its central scenario and the emphasis is less on the broader gags and more on the organic comedy that arises when its characters collide. While the combative chemistry between Hart and Haddish proves to be a worthy hook in its proper context, the classroom is also where the writers and Lee deploy their secret comedic weapon: the crack ensemble surrounding and supporting the central pair. From Teddy’s classmates played by Romany Malco, Rob Riggle, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Al Madrigal, Anne Winters, and Fat Joe to Taran Killam as Teddy’s old high school nemesis-now-principal, Lee gives each the necessary moments and space to show their stuff and make an impression with their oddball characters, with Malco’s conspiracy-minded Jaylen a particular scene stealer.
But there’s no stealing the film from the draw of the dynamic duo, from whom Lee knows to generally step back and let naturally work their mojo and magic. Hart, who also wears a producer’s hat in addition to being on the pen and in front of the camera, doesn’t stray too far from his tried and true wheelhouse here; as in his stand-up, much is mined from Teddy’s insecure fear of inadequacy, and, yes, his short stature is an issue. Comfort zones are that for a reason, though, and if the part isn’t exactly a challenge, the ease of Hart’s timing and physicality only sell the comedy more effectively. Even better is Haddish, proving not only that she is indeed the real deal on the big screen but also no one-trick pony. While Carrie can get brash and outrageous, especially when it comes to her sometimes unorthodox teaching techniques, Haddish grounds her with genuine poise, professionalism, and intelligence–which makes the contrast with Teddy that much more defined and their physical and verbal sparring all the more entertaining. NIGHT SCHOOL may be a prototypically formulaic, star-driven Hollywood comedy programmer, but when the modest goals are easily met with an identifiable and infectious personality, any nitpicks remain beside the point.
By Michael Dequina
Singers Kelly Price and Kelly Rowland are the latest additions to the cast of American Soul. BET’s newest scripted drama series tells the story of the emergence and national rise of the groundbreaking ‘70s television show Soul Train —“the hippest trip in America”— created by the late Don Cornelius.
Price joins the cast as a series regular, playing Brianne Clarke. Clarke’s character is described as the “wise yet cautious” head of the Clarke family whose children Simone and Kendall are rising stars in Los Angeles. Music fans know Price as the Grammy Award-nominated singer whose R&B hits include “Friend of Mine,” “Heartbreak Hotel” (with Whitney Houston and Faith Evans) and “As We Lay” as well as the platinum albums Soul of a Woman and Mirror Mirror. Price most recently held a recurring role on digital network Bounce TV’s Saints & Sinners.
Rowland steps into a multi-episode, guest-star role portraying soul legend Gladys Knight. Knight was one of the first performers that Cornelius booked during Soul Train’s early days. Four-time Grammy winner Rowland, a co-founding member of the seminal girl group Destiny’s Child, will also record an original version of Knight’s signature hit with the Pips, “Midnight Train to Georgia” for the role. Rowland’s acting credits include guest stints on the television series Empire, Girlfriends and Being Mary Jane. She also executive produced her own BET docu-series Chasing Destiny. Rowland most recently served as a guest mentor on NBC’s The Voice.
Production for American Soul, helmed by Jesse Collins Entertainment, began Sept. 17 in Atlanta. The series will premiere in 2019.
Whoopi Goldberg is preparing to get back in the habit, but it won’t be for long. The actress and The View panelist revealed on Good Morning Britain while promoting her upcoming UK appearances that she will be appearing in a new Sister Act film according to a report from Pride.com. However, the catch is that Goldberg’s role might just be a cameo. Another catch: the film won’t be another sequel, but a reboot. —
“We’ve been all over Disney begging,” she said to the British talk show. “They’ve decided that they’re going to go in a different direction with Sister Act. It won’t be Sister Act 3. It will be a brand new rendition of Sister Act, and I guess I’ll walk through a scene and that’s how they’ll say I was a part of it.”
According to the article, Goldberg has been adamant to reprise her role as Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence and according to Digital Spy, Goldberg also offered to direct a sequel last year. But apparently, Disney has its heart set on rebooting the franchise. How they will reboot it is still information that’s being held close to the vest.
The original Sister Act came to theaters in 1992 with Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena, Mary Wicks, Harvey Keitel and Bill Nunn rounding out the cast. The sequel Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit came out a year later with Goldberg, Najimy, Smith, Makkena and Wicks reprising their roles. The film also introduced audiences to Lauryn Hill as one of the Catholic students being whipped into musical shape for the church’s youth choir.
Source: Shadow & Act