Actress Shoniqua Shandai has landed a series regular role in the ABC comedy pilot, The Greatest American Hero, a ‘diverse’ reboot of the 80s comedy series of the same name.
The potential series stars Hannah Simone as the leading woman.
The description: Meera loves tequila and karaoke and has spent her life searching and failing to find meaning, much to the chagrin of her traditional Indian-American family. An inexplicable event occurs that will change the course of Meera’s life forever: She is entrusted with a super suit to protect the planet. Meera finally might have found purpose, but the world has never been in more unreliable hands.
Shandai’s character is Tawnia Nichols, the office manager and resident gossip at the marketing agency where Meera works.
The actress will also have upcoming recurring roles on TV Land’s Nobodies and TNT’s miniseries, One Day She’ll Darken.
Source: Shadow & Act
We’ve got the first trailer for the Tracy Morgan’s TBS comedy series, The Last O.G. Jordan Peele is an executive producer.
The show will kick things off on April 3. After that, episodes will air on Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m.
Starring Morgan, alongside Tiffany Haddish, Cedric the Entertainer, Dante Hoagland (Young Michael Bivins in The New Edition Story), Allen Maldonado (black-ish, Survivor Remorse) The Last O.G. is Morgan’s return to television. Haddish, who also starred in the recently-canceled, yet critically acclaimed The Carmichael Show, is having a moment, coming off of what is her breakout performance in Girls Trip.
The Last O.G. revolves around Tray (Morgan), an ex-con who is shocked to see just how much the world has changed when he is released from prison for good behavior after a 15-year stint. Returning to his newly=gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, he discovers that his former girlfriend, Shay (Haddish), has married an affable, successful white man (Ryan Gaul) who is helping raise the twins (Taylor Mosby & Hoagland) Tray never knew existed. Wanting nothing more than to connect with his kids, but having neither the money to support them nor himself, Tray falls back on the skills he learned in prison to make ends meet while treading unfamiliar territory.
Cedric the Entertainer stars as the head of the halfway house where Tray is staying, and Allen Maldonado as Tray’s cousin Bobby, who helps him adjust to life on the outside. Guest stars will include Edi Patterson, Chrissy Metz (This is Us), Malik Yoba, Heather Simms and more. Executive-producing with Morgan, Peele and co-creator John Carcieri are Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum and Joel Zadak of Principato Young.
Check out the trailer below:
Source: Shadow & Act
Duane Martin has joined the cast of the potential series for Gabrielle Union’s Bad Boys TV spinoff.
Ernie Hudson was cast as Union’s father earlier this year.
Martin plays “smart and competitive” LAPD homicide detective Ben Baines. He is partnered with Ben Walker, who will be portrayed by Zach Gilford, and together they are described as “the Bens.”
After landing at NBC after an intense bidding war, and receiving a pilot commitment at the network, the potential series was officially ordered as a pilot earlier this month.
The series would see Union reprising her character, Special Agent Sydney “Syd” Burnett from the second Bad Boys film. Burnett was an undercover DEA operative and sister of Martin Lawrence’s Marcus Burnett and love interest for Will Smith’s Mike Lowrey.
Her status in the show: “Syd Burnett, last seen in Miami taking down a drug cartel, now is an LAPD detective and can pursue all the pleasures Los Angeles has to offer and leave her past behind. But things will get complicated when her new partner, Nancy McKenna, learns that Syd’s unapologetic lifestyle might be masking a greater personal secret.”
The key role of Nancy McKenna, Syd’s partner, has yet to be cast.
The project is from Jerry Bruckheimer and Doug Belgrad and Sony Pictures TV Studios is the studio.
The spinoff is being written by NBC’s The Blacklist writers and producers Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier.
A third film itself, Bad Boys 3, has been in development for some time, and Belgrad was one of the financiers. Just a few months ago Lawrence said he believed the movie wasn’t going to happen.
Source: Shadow & Act
Fox’s comedy pilot Rel, produced by Jerrod Carmichael, has found its second lead.
Newcomer Jordan L. Jones has joined the cast.
He’ll play the young brother of Lil Rel Howery’s Rel.
It revolves around a “prideful, self-made success who lives by the code to ‘always believe in yourself and great things will come,’ who finds that attitude put to the test when he learns his wife is having an affair with his own barber. He tries to rebuild his life post-divorce as a long-distance single father on the South Side of Chicago who is on a quest for love, respect and a new barber.” Howery is writing the script and Carmichael is an EP. Mike Scully is the would-be showrunner.
This is Jones’ first series regular role. Deadline says it was a competitive pursuit from networks/studios to land Jones in a role before he went with Rel.
Source: Shadow & Act
Lena Waithe is on a roll right now!
TBS has given the green light to a pilot from the Emmy winner called, Twenties.
The show as created by Waithe nine years ago. It follows “the adventures of a queer black girl, Hattie, and her two straight best friends, Marie and Nia, who spend most of their days talking shit and chasing their dreams. It’s a show about friendship, finding love, and messing everything up along the way.”
Waithe executive produces via her Hillman Grad Productions, along with her manager Andrew Coles for the Mission Entertainment.
“I wrote Twenties back in 2009. I always wanted to tell a story where a queer black woman was the protagonist, and I’m so grateful to TBS for giving me a platform to tell this story. Queer black characters have been the sidekick for long enough; it’s time for us to finally take the lead,” said Waithe
Waithe will executive produce through her Hillman Grad Productions.
The Chi, which she created and executive produced, just got renewed for a Season 2 at Showtime. The first season has been critically-acclaimed so far.
Source: Shadow & Act
The first trailer has been released for the upcoming basketball film, Uncle Drew.
From Lionsgate’s Summitt Entertainment, is based on a series of Pepsi commercials starring NBA star Kyrie Irving.
Alongside Irving is Lil Rel Howery, Erica Ash and Tiffany Haddish, as well as basketball stars Lisa Leslie, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller and Nate Robinson.
The film’s description: “Dax (Howery) who, after draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic streetball tournament, is dealt some unfortunate setbacks, including losing his team to his longtime rival (Kroll). Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend Uncle Drew (Irving) and convinces him to return to the court one more time.”
Watch the trailer below:
Source: Shadow & Act
They are thick as thieves and coming together for yet another heist: Gerard Butler, Tucker Tooley, Mark Canton, Alan Siegel, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and director Christian Gudegast with O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (who is in negotiations) have pacted to return for a sequel to the heist thriller Den of Thieves. The project, which will be distributed by STX worldwide and financed by Diamond Film Productions, is being written by Gudegast from an original idea.
Den of Thieves 2, which will also be directed again by Gudegast, will find Big Nick (Butler) on the hunt in the streets of Europe closing in on Donnie (Jackson Jr.) who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia, as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange.
Canton and Tooley will produce the sequel with Butler and Siegel’s production company G-BASE. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will produce through his production company G-Unit Film & Television, Inc.
The original Den of Thieves over-performed at the box office when it was released last month. The film, which took Tooley and Canton about 15 years to bring to the screen, has yet to finish out its international run (it has about 35 markets yet to go). Worldwide, the film has grossed $57M so far.
The original cost around $30M before P&A with an $25M+ P&A backstopped by Diamond Films which also provided gap financing. Roughly 60% of the budget was covered by pre-sales and a tax incentive brought it to roughly 70%.
There is plenty of audience growth which was made evident by the release of the first film and the exit polling which showed equal interest from all male audience quads.
For STX, the first film set a new milestone for STX in the U.K. market last weekend when it became the first of the company’s films to open bigger than £1M.
Gudegast is repped by WME, Management 360, and Patrick Knapp; Tooley is repped by WME and Patrick Knapp. Diamond Film Productions is repped by Glenn D. Feig of Reder & Feig LLP. Butler is repped by CAA and Alan Siegel Entertainment and Jackson Jr. is by WME. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson & G-Unit Film & Television Inc. are repped by APA and attorneys Stephen J. Savva and Eric Feig.
Source: Deadline
On this day in comedy on February 12, 1988, School Daze was released by Columbia Pictures
This is Spike Lee’s second major motion picture following his debut, She’s Gotta Have It. In School Daze the issue is not sexual promiscuity and social morality, but racial identity and division. Its Dark-Skinned Blacks VS Light Skinned Blacks set in the backdrop of a fictional Historically Black College and its fraternity / sorority culture. It’s part comedy, part drama and part musical (but not the corny kind).
Written, directed and featuring Lee, the story is semi-autobiographical from his own college experiences. In the film all his character, “Half-Pint”, wants to do is pledge a fraternity and get some girls. Simple, but crossing the burning sands and being made a Gamma Phi Gamma man is not. He must not only go through the usual hazing, but he’s at a Black college and there’s discrimination; from one frat to the next based on skin pigment, eye color and hair texture. Then he’s got his older cousin who is a militant and fraternally a GDI (Go**amn Independent) played by Laurence Fishburne (back when he was Larry) giving him a hard time about going through that nonsense to be with a group of guys he doesn’t even like (led by Giancarlo Esposito, who Fishburne doesn’t like). There’s conflict and tensions between the local blue collar Black youth and the “spoiled college boys”, jealousy amongst the sisters on both sides of the color line and a faculty that’s more clueless than Stacy Dash. But there’s nothing to worry about – it’s a movie and all this dramedy comes to a head Homecoming weekend when the two rival frats clash and WAKE UP!
School Daze boasts an impressive cast. Tisha Campbell is Esposito’s girlfriend. Samuel L. Jackson plays a local homeboy, who doesn’t like the college homeboys. Joe Seneca is the President of the college, Ossie Davis the coach and Art Evans an administrator. The rest of the cast is rounded out with Bill Nunn, Jasmine Guy, Darryl M. Bell, Branford Marsalis, Kadeem Hardison, Phyllis Hyman and of course, Joie Lee.
The usually controversial Spike Lee was on his artistic and polarizing ascension during this period and School Daze helped fuel his reputation. Behind the scenes he’d housed the light skinned Blacks in better accommodations than the dark-skinned Blacks to add to the tension on the set. It did. The animosity was so great that an actual fight broke out between the two groups of ‘actors” and Lee told his crew to keep filming. That fight was in the movie. It vividly demonstrated the realistic relationship dynamics that were themed in School Daze and the purity translated, as well as stirred up opposing viewpoints. Whereas mainstream critics found the film frank, honest and revealing; exposing a slice of society they were unfamiliar. The Black colleges on the other hand took exception to Lee’s use of real life language used in those colleges to describe language used in those colleges. They resented his portrayal of racial separatism and during filming Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta University kicked him off their campuses. Filming had to be completed at nearby Morris Brown College.
School Daze was the inspiration for the NBC sitcom, A Different World. It also spawned a number one hit on Billboard’s R&B chart (Da Butt) and featured the Phyllis Hyman song, Be One. On a budget of $6.5 million School Daze grossed $14,545,844.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
On this day in comedy on February 12, 1956, Comedian, Talk Show Host, Arsenio Hall born in Cleveland, OH
Starting off in entertainment as a child magician, Hall developed the disciplines required to navigate the unchartered waters that would make him a household name. He was the first Black late-night talk show host; having grown up watching legends in the field such as Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson and knowing that’s what he wanted to do. However, having no idea that once he did it Hall would put such an indelible stamp on what it meant to be a Black late-night host that not only he could surpass it. Nobody could.
Hall’s journey began when he moved to Los Angeles to refine his standup comedy chops. He did the requisite club circuit and even popped up a few times on Soul Train. Then in 1984 he got a break as the on-camera sidekick of talk show host, Alan Thicke on Thicke of the Night. It was an instructive opportunity, but unfortunately, one that didn’t last long. Didn’t matter, another break for Hall came in the form of Fox networks failed The Late Show starring Joan Rivers. This project was developed specifically to challenge late night king, Johnny Carson and the venerable Tonight Show on NBC. The upstart entry couldn’t topple the institution and that along with bad blood between Rivers and the show’s producers gave an early exit to its title star. The show was renamed The Late Show and a series of interim hosts were tried. Nobody hit the right chord, but Hall’s brief tenure was the most resonate and he soon got the call to host his own show.
The Arsenio Hall Show was nothing short of a television revolution. Unlike previous late-night talk shows that were designed to lull its viewers to sleep with safe monologues, an orchestra playing standards, banal conversations and advertising targeting the older demographic, Hall threw a party. His band was a hard driving combo that he called his posse. His audience was hyped, not drowsy. Their barking and fist pumping got them labeled “The Dog Pound” and their signature gestures infiltrated pop culture in films (Pretty Woman, Passenger 57, The Hard Way, Aladdin, Robin Hood: Men in Tights) countless TV sitcoms and commercials. His guests were not the kind that graced the covers of magazines you’d find at your dentist. He introduced Bobby Brown to late night TV. That alone could’ve got him cancelled. Hall made a president when then Governor Bill Clinton slapped on some shades and played his saxophone. No amount of church visits could’ve bonded a white candidate better to a potential black constituency. That appearance branded Clinton as cool and won him a close election. Whereas, Hall himself was all swagger. His monologues were edgy; interviews probing and fearless. Who else would’ve booked Louis Farrakhan on their show? Hall was a powerful force; perhaps too powerful. Shaping public opinion is fine if the powers that be tell you how to shape it. You got the feeling Hall had cut the strings as soon as the puppeteers weren’t looking. Thus, The Arsenio Hall Show was cancelled after five years.
The void left by The Arsenio Hall Show was gaping. Popular figures were brought in to fill it. Keenen Ivory Wayans and Magic Johnson mounted shows. Both failed – quickly. Music titan, Quincy Jones, spun off from his successful magazine, Vibe and envisioned its essence as broadcast entertainment. It tanked with two hosts (Chris Spencer, Sinbad) and it became evident that it was not the amiable personalities presented as substitutes, but that the bar had been raised so high there was no substitution. It was Hall or back to the white guys; white guys who’d gotten increasingly younger and hipper over the years. Once the era of Jay Leno and David Letterman (the last vestiges of the Johnny Carson age) came to an end they were replaced by the grittier Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.
The late-night landscape changed thanks to Hall. It had altered itself so much that Hall felt it would be a natural fit. He’d resisted a much-requested return due to the fact his friend George Lopez had a late-night show. Could the public really keep track of two minorities on at once? Well, once Lopez got replaced on TBS by non-minority (unless you count the hair style), Conan O’Brien, Hall decided it was time to mount the horse he’d trained again. Unfortunately, that horse was ornery. The reincarnation of The Arsenio Hall Show debuting in 2013 had all the previous elements of its 1989 incarnation: band, hyped crowd, fringe guests and even Hall looking preserved; like he’d been frozen all those years, but it lacked the magic. The spark was gone. It was like returning to an old lover. It would never be the same and before the relationship could be reinvented the suits pulled the plug.
Conventional wisdom has always maintained that careers were marathons, not sprints and Arsenio Hall has always had a career that stayed in motion. He was an animated voice over actor when he did The Real Ghostbusters from 1986-87 and other projects. He released the album, Large and in Charge under his alter ego Chunky A. He proved to be an accomplished comedy film actor in the movies, Coming to America and Harlem Nights. Hall showed the world he was ahead of the curve over most other performers when it came to taking care of business when he won the reality-competition show, Celebrity Apprentice and he won it when Donald Trump was the host. Speaking of hosting Hall aptly took over for establishment favorite, Ed McMahon when Hall hosted Star Search and he also hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. Hall had his own sitcom (Arsenio) in 1997 and an action show with Sammo Hung called Martial Law in 1999. Hall guest starred on sitcoms and played himself in films, TV shows and commercials.
For his acting expertise, Arsenio Hall won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for Coming to America and the 1989 American Comedy Award for the same role. In 1992 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Central State University, Wilberforce.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
On this day in comedy on February 11, 1979, Actress, Recording Artist, Brandy Rayana Norwood was born in McComb, Mississippi
The multi-talented Brandy made her comedy debut as a young teenager on the ground-breaking ABC sitcom, Thea starring comedienne, Thea Vidale. The show only lasted one season, but it was good experience. The next time out Brandy showcased her talents in her own sitcom; the UPN hit, Moesha with William Allen Young and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Originally ordered by CBS, the conservative network passed. That forced Moesha to drive up ratings elsewhere. On the show Brandy played a teenager dealing with growing up and doing it with a stepmother. Moesha lasted for 6 seasons, making it one of the longest running Black sitcoms in television history. It also has the distinction of putting a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Youth Actress on Brandy’s mantle. The show was so popular it spun-off The Parkers starring Mo’Nique, Yvette Wilson and Countess Vaughn.
Once Moesha went off the air Brandy stayed busy as an actress. She had a recurring role on One on One playing the TV sister to her real-life brother, Ray J. She guest starred on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Reba, Raising Dad, Drop Dead Diva and The Soul Man. Brandy was a lead on BET’s long running, The Game and won a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. In 2016 her sitcom, Zoe Ever After debuted on BET.
When not playing television leads and guest starring on sitcoms, Brandy has done animation voice-overs (Jungle Cubs, Osmosis Jones), film (The Perfect Match) and Broadway (Chicago). She’s been on over a half dozen reality TV shows playing herself and Mattel released three versions of a Brandy doll to overwhelming success (it was one of their top sellers ever). Brandy was a judge on America’s Got Talent, danced on Dancing with the Stars and was the first Black female to play Cinderella. She’s a philanthropist; co-founding The Norwood Kid’s Foundation (along with brother Ray J) helping disadvantaged children in Los Angeles and Mississippi and she’s an in demand commercial spokeswoman.
Brandy has also managed to fit in an enviable career as a one of the top singers of her generation. The contralto’s unique vocal style influenced the likes of Jordin Sparks, Tank, JoJo, Olivia, Jessie J, Bridget Kelly, Teyana Taylor, Elle Varner and Emeli Santé. Her album Full Moon is revered; the new template for the contemporary way of singing and gained her the nickname of “Vocal Bible”; the architect of 21st Century R&B vocals. With such respect from peers she’s produced/written for artists such as Toni Braxton, Kelly Rowland and Kiley Dean. Brandy has released 6 albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide. She’s won over 100 awards including a Grammy, 3 American Music Awards, 7 Billboard Music Awards, 4 Soul Train Awards, a Blockbuster Entertainment Award and a MTV Movie Award. All proving that most people with a sense of humor are talented in other areas as well.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip: