On This Day In Comedy… In 2005 ‘Guess Who’ Was Released By 20th Century Fox!
On this day in comedy on March 25, 2005Guess Who was released by 20th Century Fox.
This comedy remake of the classic Sidney Poitier film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, stars Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher and Zoe Saldana. Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan it tells the story of a Black father who discovers his daughter is in love with a white guy. Mac (the Black father) doesn’t like it. He tries to take Kutcher (the white guy) to a hotel, but they’re all full and so he allows Kutcher to sleep in his basement and to make sure he stays there Mac sleeps with him. Meanwhile Mac is having Kutcher investigated to dig up some dirt to discredit him in Zaldana’s (the daughter) eyes.
The occasion of Mac and Kutcher ever meeting is Mac’s 25th wedding anniversary. Zaldana wants to surprise the family with her engagement announcement. It was such a surprise that Mac ends up running Kutcher off by exposing him as a liar. Turns out Kutcher quit his job and didn’t tell Zaldana. Busted trust, but when Mac finds out that the reason Kutcher quit was because his boss didn’t approve of interracial relationships, he tracks him down and brings Kutcher back to Zaldana. And cut!
Written By Peter Tolan and Jay Sherick, Guess Who got mixed reviews. The cast, which also included Sherri Shepherd, Hal Williams, Judith Scott, Kellee Stewart, Ronreaco Lee, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Niecy Nash and Mike Epps, got positive notices, but by 2005 the topic of interracial love was hardly the searing hot button it was in 1967 when the original was made. Regardless, on a $35 million budget the film grossed $68,915,888 domestically and $32,950,142 internationally for a grand total of $101,866,030 worldwide.
On This Day In Comedy…In 1995 ‘Major Payne’ Was Released By Universal Pictures!
On this day in comedy on March 24, 1995 Major Payne was released by Universal Pictures
Written by and starring Damon Wayans, this satire of military films is a hilarious remake of an old 1955 Charlton Heston film, The Private War of Major Benson. Didn’t try to hide that fact either. Wayans’ character name is Major Benson Winifred Payne. Directed by Nick Castle, Major Payne co-stars Karyn Parson, Orlando Brown, Albert Hall, William Hickey, Michael Ironside and Steven Martini
In the film Wayans plays a veteran of the Marines whose hit the glass ceiling. After a big deal drug mission he is still passed up for Lt. Colonel, so he gets an honorable discharge and retires mentally from fighting anymore battles for the Corps. Once out he joins the cops. That lasts as long as it takes him to knock out a domestic violence suspect on his first call. Payne is put in jail. Fortunately, a friend bails him out and arranges for him to instruct youngsters at a military school; youngsters with disabilities, like deafness and heart conditions.
Payne’s new job is to train the cadets. He overzealously treats them like hardened grown men and soon gets the wrath of the cute lady school counselor. Payne doesn’t care – he wants his new recruits to win the Military Games that hasn’t been won by the school ever. They are always last. Well not again if Payne can help it. He tells his troops that he wants that trophy. So they sneak over to the school that has it and tries to steal it, but Payne drops a dime on them and the cadets from the rival academy ambush his boys.
After their defeat Payne makes a deal. If his guys can win the trophy legit he will leave. They go all out in their training to accomplish that goal. It looks like they’re ready, but Payne gets called back into the service to go to Bosnia. Morale is down, but the boys compete anyway. Even though he’s gone anyway, they’re fired up to win just to win. However, Payne feels he let them down and returns just in time to route his squad on to victory and they . . . win. Throughout the experience Payne himself has gotten more sympathetic, but not totally. In the final scene when a new blind recruit mouths off Payne shaves him and his seeing-eye dog bald.
Major Payne got mixed reviews, but was an audience pleaser coming in at #2 on its opening weekend and taking in a worldwide gross of $30.1 million.
WATCH: ‘Rush Hour’ Star Justin Hires Does His Best Rihanna Impression!
In a new Wrapid Fire round, actor also tells TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell why he had to move on from Ariana Grande and pick a new “bae”
Justin Hires fills the Chris Tucker role in the CBS adaptation of “Rush Hour” when it premieres on Thursday — but first, the actor stopped by TheWrap Studios to play a round of Wrapid Fire.
In his interview with TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell, Hires revealed his backup profession, did his best Rihanna impression and explained how Alicia Vikander replaced Ariana Grande as his celebrity crush.
“That’s my new bae,” Hires said of the “Ex Machina” star. “I got a lady, but still, though. I’m just saying: hello.”
Source: The Wrap
WATCH: New Teaser Trailer For ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Released!
The brand new teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story just debuted on Good Morning America and, is now available for viewing. Lucasfilm’s Rogue One, which takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, tells the story of unlikely heroes who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star.
The cast includes Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, and Riz Ahmed. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and produced by Kathleen Kennedy.
—
Tracy Morgan In Talks To Star With Ed Helms In Dito Montiel’s ‘The Clapper’
Tracy Morgan is in talks to star opposite Ed Helms and Amanda Seyfried in writer/director Dito Montiel’s new comedy The Clapper. The project would reunite Morgan with filmmaker Montiel who cast him in 2011 cop drama TheSon of No One.
Adapted from Montiel’s own book of the same name, The Clapper is about a professional clapper for infomercials who gets plucked by a late night talk show host to be on his TV show. That notoriety then ends up costing him personally. Morgan will play Helms’ best friend Chris Plork who is a loyal and devoted confidante and provides a good deal of the humor and charm of the script. Morgan will be on his stand-up tour Picking Up the Pieces in June so the production is going to work around his schedule.
The film is said to be a testament of how easily fame is achieved in today’s reality-program driven society and how it can complicate ordinary people’s lives. The project is being produced by Montiel with Robin Schorr. Helms and Mike Falbo are also producing through their Pacific Electric shingle. Alex Lebovici and Michael Bien and executive producing and Steve Ponce is producing through their Oriah Entertainment.
Morgan is coming back in a big way as the former 30 Rock co-star is also shooting a comedy pilot (series commitment) for FX Networks this summer. This after a year of physical rehab following a horrible truck/auto accident in which he almost lost his life. The film follows an appearance at the Emmys in September and also a hosting gig with his old buddies on Saturday Night Live. Morgan recently wrapped production on Fist Fight with Ice Cube and Charlie Day. Morgan is attached to star in The Weinstein Co.’s Richard Pryor biopic Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said? as Redd Foxx opposite Mike Epps as Pryor.
Morgan is repped by CAA and Hansen Jacobson Teller Hoberman Newman Warren Richman Rush and Kaller.
Source: Deadline
Keegan-Michael Key To Host 75th Peabody Awards Ceremony
“Key & Peele” star Keegan-Michael Key will host the 2016 Peabody Awards ceremony gala, Variety has learned exclusively.
The 75th Peabody Awards will be held on the evening of Saturday, May 21, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York, and this year’s ceremony will usher in a number of changes for the event. For the first time, the jurors will select 60 finalists, which will be announced on April 12. From those 60, a group of 30 winners — The Peabody 30
— will be chosen and revealed in a succession of announcements by category, beginning on April 19.
“There are now more than 400 scripted primetime television shows, new locations for documentary television, a flood of podcasts, and a wealth of quality digital storytelling,” Peabody Awards Director Jeffrey P. Jones said. “Peabody has to reflect that change in order to continue to award the best of the best, while also recognizing and highlighting this expanded field of quality media production.”
The gala will again be televised in a 90-minute special that will air on Pivot on Monday, June 6, at 8 p.m., with Den of Thieves producing the telecast.
In addition, several New York events will be held to commemorate the 75th anniversary in the week leading up to the gala. On May 18, the cast and showrunner of one of this year’s winners will be present for a screening and discussion, sponsored by Pivot, which will take place at the New York Institute of Technology auditorium. On May 19, Peabody will host a retrospective on the career of Sheila Nevins and a selection of the 49 Peabody winners that the HBO documentary unit has won over the last 35 years, with an event held in the HBO screening room at HBO headquarters.
The Peabody Awards, based at the University of Georgia, celebrates projects in the fields of news, entertainment, documentaries, children’s programming, education, interactive programming, and public service, encouraging the media industries to reach for and achieve the highest standards.
Source: Variety
Cedric The Entertainer Says Making Movies With Ice Cube Is Good For Comedy
Cedric the Entertainer reprises his role as Eddie in Barbershop: The Next Cut, which hits theaters April 15, and we’re hella pumped. However, according to the actor, The Next Cut is coming out in a much different era for Black films compared to the first two installments. Cedric claims the scope of comedians finding success in the Black Hollywood has diminished since the heyday of the ’90s and early 2000s, when everyone from Martin Lawrence to Bernie Mac and the Wayans brothers had something going on.
Now, Cedric says Black filmmaking is reduced to “one-offs”–one Black entertainer dominating the industry at a time. “It used to be–it was a time when there was a lot of people famous,” Cedric told Sway Calloway on VH1’s “Behind The Movie: Exploring Chicago with the Cast of Barbershop: The Next Cut,” which airs April 11. “Everybody [had] their own space. Now, it’s Kevin Hart.”
But don’t think Cedric was throwing shade at Hart. He’s more irked at the industry. “This ain’t got nothing to do with Kevin Hart. This is about the business,” he said. “He makes money. He makes good movies.”
And that’s exactly the solution to this problem, according to Cedric: good movies. Exhibit A: Ride Along (2014), which grossed six times more than its production budget and spawned a sequel that slayed, too.
“[Hart] and [Ice] Cube did well,” Cedric said. (The two starred in both Ride Alongfilms.) “That set everything else back up. That’s how the movie business works.”
Cedric continued, “It’s down to one guy at a time. If you make a lot of money, you can be who you are. If you’re not making a lot of money, it’s one guy at a time.”
Here’s hoping things surge after The Next Cut. If you can’t wait until April 15, check out “Behind The Movie: Exploring Chicago with the Cast of Barbershop: The Next Cut,” the inaugural episode in our Behind The… series. The special takes you to the streets of Chicago and explores issues young people face in the city, including gun violence–a central theme in The Next Cut. It airs Monday, April 11 at 10 p.m. on VH1.
Fox has renewed dramas “Lucifer” and “Rosewood” each for a second season, the network announced Thursday. The two series are the first from Fox’s 2015-16 freshman class to net renewals.
“Rosewood” premiered in September as the lead-in to the network’s most-watched series, sophomore drama “Empire.” It has been a decent performer for Fox, averaging a 1.8 rating in adults 18-49 and a little over 6 million total viewers in Nielsen’s “live plus-3” averages. It has fared best in the weeks when “Empire” was alongside it, typically seeing a noticeable surge in the final quarter-hour before the soap came on.
“Lucifer” premiered in January and has been among Fox’s best-performing new series. According to Fox, it is averaging 10.5 million total viewers across multiple platforms.
“Lucifer,” based on the DC Comics series, stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer, prince of darkness, living and solving crime modern Los Angeles. The series os produced by Warner Bros. Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television. It is executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Ildy Modrovich, Joe Henderson and Len Wiseman.
Police procedural “Rosewood” stars Morris Chestnut as the titular medical investigator. Created by Tom Harthan, it is produced by Temple Hill in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Harthan, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen serve as executive producers.
“We knew we had something special with ‘Lucifer,’ from the engaging performances of Tom, Lauren and the rest of the charismatic cast, to Len Wiseman’s visually stunning look of the show and the amazing storytelling savvy of the Bruckheimer team,” said Fox entertainment president David Madden. “With ‘Rosewood,’ creator Todd Harthan has put a fresh, playful spin on the procedural format, infusing it with wit and warmth, while Morris, Jaina and the show’s gifted supporting cast have turned in fantastic performances. We look forward to two stand-out sophomore seasons from both series.”
Fox effectively canceled fellow freshman drama “Minority Report”earlier this season when it was removed from the schedule. Another new drama, “Second Chance,” appears unlikely to be renewed after having been moved to Friday nights early in its run. New comedies “Bordertown” “Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life,” “Grandfathered” and “The Grinder” are still awaiting word on their fates for next season.
With long-running reality franchise “American Idol” set to end Thursday night, Fox will have a significant amount of space to fill on its schedule next season. In addition to “Lucifer” and “Rosewood,” dramas “Empire,” “Bones” are returning next season in addition to comedies “Bob’s Burgers,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “The Last Man on Earth” and “The Simpsons.” Renewals are still pending for “The Family Guy,” “New Girl” and “Sleepy Hollow.”
The network has already given straight-to-series orders to comedy “Son of Zorn” drama event series “Shots Fired” and a continuation of drama “Prison Break.”
Source: Variety
Comedy Central Latin America Teams With Mexico’s TV Azteca for Latino Version of ‘Lip Sync Battle’
Comedy Central is spreading the laughs in Latin America.
Now claiming 36 million viewers in the region since its 2013 launch, the Viacom network has partnered with Mexico’s TV Azteca for the first time to co-produce a local version of “Lip Sync Battle,” which will consist of 13 one-hour episodes in which three Latin American talents vie based on their ability to lip sync.
Participating talent for “Lip Sync Mexico” will be announced shortly, said Federico Cuervo, SVP of Entertainment Brands (Comedy Central & Paramount Channel), VIMN Americas
Taping begins shortly for its upcoming debut on Comedy Central Latin America and TV Azteca.
The latest move is in line with Comedy Central’s objective to ramp up its original content in Latin America.
“Recognized as the pioneer of stand-up in the region, this year the channel offers 200-plus hours of new programming including new seasons of its coveted Comedy Central Stand-Up franchise in Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and a local version of ‘Drunk History,’ ” said Cuervo. In Brazil, Comedy Central recently bowed “Portatil,” an improv show with renowned online comedy troupe Porta Dos Fundos, and in Argentina, it just wrapped taping of the second season of “La Culpa es de Colon,” which features local comedic talent who offer their acerbic take on the region’s politics, traditions and societies.
“In past years, we have also produced content in Venezuela and Chile, and will continue to do so in other countries given our commitment is to the entire region and not just one particular market,” said Cuervo.
In a bid to further its accessibility, the network launched in February its Comedy Central Play app, which has so far been downloaded 200,000 times and seen more than 2 million video views. The app offers users immediate access to the network’s most popular series, exclusive content and a live stream to its linear channel.
“Based on our research, our audience craves a combination of original content produced locally as well as global formats from our Viacom portfolio. That said, we’ve created a programming strategy that mirrors their needs and has proven to be successful,” said Cuervo.
“We’ll continue to offer the same amount of canned programming from the U.S. including ‘Inside Amy Schumer’ and ‘South Park,’ which have continuously brought in positive ratings for the brand,” he added.
Despite the economic downturn, pay TV penetration in the region is currently at 45% with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela at the forefront. Comedy Central is among the top 25 networks in Latin America.
“According to Dataxis, by 2017, pay TV penetration in Latin America’s biggest markets will reach 68%, with Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina leading the way,” said Brand.
Source: Variety
Hannibal Buress Surprises Everyone With ‘Hannibal Takes Edinburgh,’ A New Documentary On Netflix
With his participation in the Bill Cosby scandal long behind him, stand-up comedian Hannibal Buress broke new ground with his Comedy Camisado special for Netflix in February, during which he freaked viewers out with a stray hair. The Broad City actor has had quite a lot on his plate lately, so you would think he’d take a break instead of announcing the surprise release of a new documentary, Hannibal Takes Edinburgh, just two days before its available to stream on Netflix. Well, you’re wrong.
Both Netflix and Buress made the announcement on Wednesday, which described Hannibal Takes Edinburgh as having been “filmed over the course of 28 days in August 2013” when the 33-year-old was an “up-and-coming comedian.” According to the press release:
[Buress] performed nightly to packed houses at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest art and comedy festival in the world. The film blends extended moments from Buress’ pin-sharp observational stand-up with scenes of the comedian waxing philosophic on building his comedy routine, life on the road for a comedian and immersing himself in the Scottish culture.
At the time, Buress had already released two comedy albums, appeared on television programs like The Eric Andre Show, and acted in two films. In other words, he was already fast-approaching the Buress we all know and love today. Yet the prospect of seeing a slightly younger version of the native Chicagoan working the crowds in Edinburgh sounds like a delightful surprise.
Hannibal Takes Edinburgh streams Friday, April 8 on Netflix.
