It’s almost that time of the year where The American Black Film Festival starts to ramp up The Comedy Wings Competiton in preparation for their upcoming festival.
With that being said, we know that the folks over at the ABFF are trying to narrow down the final five that shall attend the festival to compete, and unlike last year where they were selected in Los Angeles, it seems that this year the finalists are going to square off in Atlanta at The Uptown Comedy Corner.
We hear that the show is April 20th and will be hosted by comedian Rodney Perry, with the final contestants of TuRae Gordon, Jason Weems, Brandon Houston, Damon Sumner, Jasmine Ellis, Cyrus Steele II, Bianca Christovao, Brandon Cole (B- Cole), and Shereen Kassam are set to square off for a trip to Miami June 14-18th.
As you may recall, last year Comedy Wings Competition crowned comedian Daphnique Springs as the winner, which was hosted by Cedric The Entertainer. This year, the competition sets out to crown its 5th annual winner.
If you are not familiar, The Comedy Wings Competition is a national search for the new stars of comedy. The goal of the competition is to provide a platform for talented yet undiscovered comedians to break into film and television. Semifinalists are selected from around the country to participate in the live audition, and the finalists are hand picked by the judges to proceed to the event at the 2017 ABFF in Miami.
More details soon!
LOS ANGELES — Comedian Katt Williams was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading no contest to stealing a celebrity photographer’s camera.
Los Angeles prosecutors said Monday that Williams will also need to attend anger management classes.
In September 2014, a celebrity photographer accused Williams and former rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight of stealing her camera. The photographer said she suffered a concussion after an associate of the men attacked her.
Williams’ attorney has said in court the comedian briefly took the camera from an associate only to erase any images of Knight’s son, who was with his father visiting a Beverly Hills studio.
His attorney didn’t immediately comment Monday.
Charges against Knight are still pending. He’s also charged in a separate murder case and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Source: Associated Press
Montreal, PQ [April 18, 2017] — The over-the-top comedy streaming service Laugh Out Loud (LOL) and the Just For Laughs Festival, presented by Videotron in association with Loto-Québec, have joined forces in search of the funniest short films in the U.S. and Canada with Laugh Out Loud Presents: Just For Laughs Eat My Shorts, an initiative bringing together the world’s biggest comedy star and the world’s biggest comedy festival. Laugh Out Loud, an OTT partnership between Kevin Hart and global content leader Lionsgate, launches this summer.
Starting today, filmmakers are invited to review the submission guidelines at http://comedypro.hahaha.com/submissions/ and then follow the instructions to submit their work. The deadline is May 13, 2017.
Twenty films will be selected by a team of Just For Laughs and LOL programming experts to stream on the LOL website and app when it launches this summer. LOL fans will then have the chance to vote for their favorites. The top five films selected will be screened at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal on Thursday, July 27, 2017, where Hart will personally announce the winner. The winning individual or team will receive a development deal to direct a new short film that will air exclusively on LOL.
Kevin Hart, CEO of Laugh Out Loud commented, “I want to create a stage for the next generation of comedic storytellers. I’m excited about partnering with Just for Laughs to find talented filmmakers and give them a platform on LOL.”
Bruce Hills, CEO at Just For Laughs, added, “Kevin is a generous supporter of young, diverse and creative talent. We are thrilled to partner with Kevin, Jeff Clanagan and LOL to introduce the funniest short films to a new generation of viewers and festival attendees.”
Films submitted must speak to a diverse, multicultural, millennial audience and be no less than 3 nor more than 22 minutes in length (including credits). All types of comedic genres will be accepted — from mockumentaries to romantic comedies. All languages will be accepted but subtitles must be in English. For full submission details and guidelines visit: http://comedypro.hahaha.com/submissions/.
Kevin Hart is one of comedy’s biggest stars with a celebrated and award-winning career that has seen the talented entertainer become one of the industry’s most important and influential voices. He has a long association with Just For Laughs, which he credits with helping launch his career. Hart has been a regular at the Just For Laughs Festival since debuting at “New Faces” in 2001. In 2016, Hart teamed with Just For Laughs to present Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Network Pitch Panel. He astounded everyone at the pitch panel when he optioned all 10 pilot ideas for the Laugh Out Loud Network. Hart will be appearing in two upcoming feature films: Jumanji and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.
Just For Laughs ComedyPRO runs from July 26 – 29, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Montreal, part of the 35th annual Just for Laughs Festival, which takes place from July 12 – 31st, 2017.
“What is it you think we do here?” the jaded Cold War vet asks the angry recruit. “Kill people who deserve to be killed.” Yeah, pretty much.
Here is the first trailer for American Assassin, starring Dylan O’Brien as Mitch Rapp, a burgeoning CIA “ghost” whose parents died when he was 14 and whose new fiancee is wiped out by terrorists on a beach moments after he proposed. Kicked out of multiple boarding schools, he lands an interview with the deputy director of the CIA (Sanaa Lathan) who looks at his file, looks him in the eye and proclaims, “I know exactly what to do with you.”
Enter Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), the grizzled veteran of covert geopolitical actions who — reluctantly, of course — takes Rapp under his wing. “He’s ready, Stan,” Lathan’s Irene Kennedy insists. “He’s not ready,” he replies. “But he will be.” They and Rapp will discover a pattern in the violence that leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent (Shiva Negar) to stop a mysterious operative (Taylor Kitsch) intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.
Directed by Michael Cuesta from a script by Stephen Schill and Michael Finch and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz, the film is is based on the 15-book Mitch Rapp series by the late author Vince Flynn. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Nick Wechsler are the producers. Lionsgate and CBS Films will release American Assassin on September 15. Check out the trailer and tell us what you think.
Netflix is supercharging its investment in stand-up comedy, and Dave Chappelle’s first of three new specials was the streaming giant’s most-viewed comedy special of all time.
Netflix “stepped up” its investment in comedy by releasing a whopping 17 stand-up comedy specials this quarter, including a pair by Chappelle.
“Early results are promising,” Netflix wrote in a letter to shareholders Monday. “The triumphant return of a comedy legend in Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 was our most viewed comedy special ever. We are also finding this to be true in international markets as well, with comedian Gad Elmaleh’s Gad Gone Wild, a breakout hit in France last quarter.”
Why is Netflix going after comedy so aggressively?
“There’s always been an interest in stand-up comedy,” Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos said on the earnings call Monday. “It was actually back in our early original content days and the red envelope entertainment, it’s all we did was produce original stand-up comedy and acquired documentaries and foreign language films. Always had good luck with it, just on a very small scale. And the format lends itself really well to what we’re doing … it’s uncensored, it’s commercial free, and that allows for a lot of creative freedom. And the fan base for these folks is very big.”
Chappelle’s return to stand-up was a “big event in the culture,” according to Sarandos. He said that if Netflix picks the right specials and invests in them properly, they can draw “series level and movie level of viewing … So we’re thrilled with this so far.”
In short: Expect many more comedy specials in Netflix’s future.
Source: Business Insider
NEW YORK, April 18, 2017 — Comedy Central today released its 2017-2018 development slate, including three series pick-ups and nine pilot orders. The slate is headlined by series orders for scripted series Corporate; stand-up and music hybrid variety series The New Negroes; and Taskmaster, a game show format imported from the U.K. which will be hosted by Reggie Watts. The 2017-2018 slate was announced by Kent Alterman, President, Comedy Central.
“There is more high-level talent in this announcement than I could ever hope to convey in a corporate quote,” said Alterman.
Following the recent additions to its storied late night line-up, including the upcoming premiere of The President Show on April 27, a Jim Jefferies weekly late night series debuting this summer, and the addition of Jordan Klepper’s Daily Show persona to its late-night line-up weeknights, beginning in the fall, Comedy Central’s current development slate continues to open the aperture with a focus on creator-driven projects helmed by burgeoning talent who write, produce and star in their own projects including: Awkwfina, Neal Brennan, Arturo Castro, Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, Jak Knight, Franchesca Ramsey, Baron Vaughn and Open Mike Eagle and Flint Wainess and Noël Wells, among others.
Information on the slate follows:
2017-2018 CONTENT DEVELOPMENT SLATE
SERIES GREENLIGHTS
PILOT DEVELOPMENT
(all titles listed are working titles)
Like the recent specials, the series will be hosted by Steve Harvey, the Big Four’s new de facto emcee. Harvey, who also fronts NBC’s Little Big Shots and spinoff Forever Young as well as ABC’s Celebrity Family Feud and the upcoming Funderdome in addition to several syndicated series, seems almost too extended to add another gig at this point. And yet he has.
“We all had such a blast on the two specials that aired earlier this season, that we thought it really deserved being a weekly event,” Harvey said Monday in a statement. “But our mission is a little different this time around. Instead of just putting on a great show, we’re going to do that and find the next great comic and the next big music star. That’s what the Apollo is all about. My roots are on that stage and I can’t wait to be there every week, looking for great talent. Who said you can’t go back home again?”
Harvey is referring to the original impetus for Showtime at the Apollo, the famed talent search taped weekly at the namesake Harlem venue. The institution is credited for launching the likes of James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill and Michael Jackson.
The Fox announcement wasn’t immediately clear on where Showtime at the Apollo will end up, but a weekday primetime slot seems unlikely. The recent Apollo specials weren’t exactly ratings pay dirt, and real estate on the network is pretty slim — with only 13 programmable hours Sunday through Fridays. A Saturday roost for the show seems possible, but there likely won’t be any news on that front until Fox presents its fall schedule during its May upfront.
The new Showtime at the Apollo will be executive produced by Jim Roush and Chris Wagner, showrunners Reginald Hudlin and James McKinlay, director Don Weiner, the Apollo Theater’s Jonelle Procope and IMG’s Michael Antinoro.
Harvey is repped by WME.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
“The Fate of the Furious”
Just call me an old fogy. I just don’t understand these “Fast and Furious” films. I liked them at first (well, maybe not the John Singleton one as much as) but they were fun. No one would claim that they’re classics (the ghost of Orson Welles can rest easy), but they sure were entertaining, and the car chase sequences were well done. (The opening car race sequence in “Tokyo Drift” set in a housing development under construction was a real standout in my opinion.)
But along the way they gotten more ridiculous and cartoonish. Out went any semblance of reality, and in came the CGI with cars flying thousands of feet in the air, through high rise buildings or, in the latest one – “The Fate of the Furious” – outrunning a Russian submarine in the Arctic. Like seriously?
OK, I sort of get it. It’s meant to be stupid and ridiculous. But just because it’s stupid and over the top does not mean that it has to be dumb. Or maybe what defines an action film today is not what it used to be anymore, when they uses real effects, real stunt people and actually blowing up stuff for real. I can’t get into most action sequences in movies today because so much of it is created by computers. Or maybe it’s these kids today. I don’t get them (Hey you kids get off my lawn!!). Back in my day we used feathered quill pens and paper to write letters, not this smartphone things turning everyone into walking zombies. Doe anyone look anybody in the eye anymore?
Now that I’m finished ranting, of course “The Fast and the Furious” was the No. 1 film this weekend with $100.2 million, which is by any means extraordinary. But it is actually less than the previous F&F movie, “Furious 7”, which opened with $147 million. But it’s still more than 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6” which opened with $97 million. But who’s going to complain about a film grossing over $100 million over a weekend?
And in terms of global box office, “Furious 8” has broken the all-time record for the highest opening of any film worldwide, with $532 million. This is not surprising, since the film also had the highest advance ticket pre-sales in China for any film ever, Hollywood or Chinese. And that global box office tally beats the previous record holder – “Star Wars The Force Awakens” – which opened with $529 worldwide.
But “Furious 8” also makes another kind of history as director F. Gary Gray becomes the black director with the highest worldwide box office grossing film ever! And it doesn’t stop there. With that $532 million worldwide weekend opening for “Fate”, Gray is now the most successful black director to date, with the highest worldwide box office totals (counting all his films), just edging out Tim Story.
Since 2005, Story’s films have grossed $1.21 billion worldwide, but Gray’s films, since his first – 1995’s “Friday” – have grossed $1.24 billion; and as “Fate’s” numbers continue to grow over the next several weeks/months that the film is in theaters around the world, that Gray’s totals will get even bigger.
As for the rest of the weekend, Fox’s “The Boss Baby” comes in a very distant second place with $15 million, for $116 million total domestic; and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” comes in third (It has already passed the $1 billion earnings mark worldwide).
Meanwhile, “Kong Skull Island” has been a huge hit for Universal, making some $161 million domestically, and has grossed almost $553 million worldwide. And “Get Out” continues to add to its total, and has yet to break into some major foreign territories, but it’s proven to be a huge hit in the UK, and it has even has grossed almost five times more in the United Arab Emirates than it has in South Africa. Who can explain that? The film has grossed $183.5 million worldwide to date, easily heading for at least $200 million globally.
The weekend’s top 12 earners follow below:
1) The Fate of the Furious Uni. $100,181,640
2) The Boss Baby Fox $15,540,000 Total: $116,323,907
3) Beauty and the Beast BV $13,634,000 Total: $454,649,751
4) Smurfs: The Lost Village Sony $6,500,000 Total: $24,728,326
5) Going in Style WB (NL) $6,350,000 Total: $23,376,352
6) Gifted FoxS $3,000,000 Total: $4,369,910
7) Get Out Uni. $2,917,865 Total: $167,547,880
8) Power Rangers LGF $2,850,000 Total: $80,563,748
9) The Case for Christ PFR $2,720,000 Total: $8,447,704
10) Kong: Skull Island WB $2,670,000 Total: $161,246,181
11) Ghost in the Shell Par. $2,400,000 Total: $37,023,283
12) The Zookeeper’s Wife Focus $2,064,945 Total: $10,667,900
Source: Shadow & Act
You can preorder bThere is a sample joke that is currently available. Amazon pre order link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071QX666F/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OMb8ybKZRGNR8j
We hear that comedian and radio show host DL Hughley has just been recently cast in the new CBS comedy series that’s begun to film titled Brothered Up, taking place of actor Romany Malco.
GThe show is from the co-executive producer of Man With A Plan and Mike & Molly that centers on an emotionally guarded African-American cop who is partnered with an emotionally available Pakistani cop. They’re forced to find a way to connect as they patrol a Detroit neighborhood.
The cast also includes Adhir Kalyan (Rules of Engagement), Nishi Munshi (The Originals), and Glynn Turman (Cooley High) and more.
Story is still developing!