LOS ANGELES / MONTREAL, December 6, 2023 – Just For Laughs announces today that season two of the immersive VR stand-up comedy series, Surrounded (60×6) will return for six new episodes starting December 29, 2023, with a very festive Holiday Special, exclusively on Meta Horizon Worlds. Filmed at the prestigious 2023 Just For Laughs MONTRÉAL comedy festival, Surrounded is a hilarious unscripted comedy show where the audience inspires the jokes, and everyone is fair game!
With their Meta Quest VR headset, viewers are transported into the comedy show through Meta’s Comedy Night Market, where they get to watch comedians performing improvised sets in the round, using the audience as inspiration. Viewers will be Surrounded with laughter!
Surrounded promises to deliver big laughs with this year’s host, Lil Rel Howery. Episodes will feature today’s top comedians including
Marlon Wayans, Jack Whitehall, Mae Martin, Fortune Feimster, Mark Normand, Chris Redd, Dan Soder, Jay Pharoah, Meg Stalter, Felipe Esparza, Rosebud Baker, Sam Morril, Joel Kim Booster, Hannah Berner, Nate Jackson, Brad Williams, Preacher Lawson, Sasheer Zamata, Brian Simpson, Steph Tolev, Annie Lederman, and Che Durena.
“Really excited about hosting season 2. I had so, so, so much fun. This is crowd work and freestyling at its best.” – Lil Rel Howery
Premiering with a Holiday Special on December 29, 2023 at 10:00 AM PT, additional episodes will drop every Wednesday in January 2024. Each week, be part of the audience and witness an unscripted barrage of crowd work like you’ve never seen before!
Marina Di Pancrazio, Chief Content Revenue Officer for Just For Laughs, shares, “Season two of Surrounded finds us once again at the intersection of entertainment and innovation with our exceptional partners, Meta. We’re always keen to outdo ourselves. This second season builds off the success of the first, delivering an elevated experience and incredible lineup of comedians to audiences.”
Spencer Griffin, the Head of TV Development at Just For Laughs adds, “Comedy shows in the metaverse are another way that Just for Laughs provides platforms for artists to showcase their hilarious talents. Surrounded not only offers an unparalleled experience for the artists but also for the audience who get to have the best seat in the house.”
Adapted exclusively for Meta Horizon Worlds, and filmed in VR, Surrounded originated as a stand-up comedy show created by Mike Falzone. The Just For Laughs MONTRÉAL festival is renowned as the world’s largest comedy festival, with a rich history and reputation for launching the careers of comedy legends. The iconic festival provides the ideal setting for this unscripted humor that defines this one-of-a-kind virtual comedy experience.
Filmed at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montréal in July 2023, Surrounded is executive produced by Marina Di Pancrazio, Bruce Hills, and Spencer Griffin of Just For Laughs; and Thomas Stockwell as Executive Producer for Meta, and Mike Falzone, who created the concept for the show.
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Jamie Foxx made a surprise appearance at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino, and AAPI Achievements event on Monday night, marking his first public outing since he was hospitalized for a medical complication in April.
Foxx, whose honor was not announced in advance, received the Vanguard Award for his performance in The Burial and took to the stage unassisted, showing off his trademark wit and humor as he discusses the health challenges he’s faced this year.
“I couldn’t do that six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk to [the stage]. And I’m not a clone, I’m not a clone. I know a lot of people saying that I was cloned out there,” he jokingly told the crowd at the Fairmont Plaza Hotel in Century City. “It feels good to be here. I cherish every single minute now, it’s different. I wouldn’t wish what I went though on my worst enemy because it’s tough when it’s almost over, when you see the tunnel. I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘Shit, am I going to the right place?’”
Foxx went to explain the new appreciation he felt for his life and his career, saying, “I have a new respect for life, I have a new respect for my art. I watched so many movies and listened to so many songs trying to have the time go by. Don’t give up on your art, man, don’t give up on your art. When you realize that it could be over like that… I got to tell you don’t give up on your art and don’t let them take the art from you either.”
In April, Foxx’s daughter Corinne initially shared the news that the actor was hospitalized while filming Netflix’s Back in Action in Atlanta. At the time, she noted he was “already on his way to recovery,” but shared few other details before a May update confirmed Foxx had left the hospital and was back home “recuperating.” In August, Foxx posted on Instagram that he was “finally startin to feel like myself.” The exact details of Foxx’s medical issue have not been released publicly.
Last month, ahead of the deadline to file lawsuits under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, Foxx was accused of groping in 2015 a woman. He has not commented.
In addition to Foxx, the Critics Choice Association’s celebration recognized a long list of honorees including Charles Melton, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera, Greta Lee, Colman Domingo, Damson Idris, Jeffrey Wright, and Sheryl Lee Ralph.
Melton was recognized with the Breakthrough Actor award for his work in the Netflix film May December. He spoke to how acting helped him find himself when he struggled with his identity.
“As a biracial Korean American growing up on military bases throughout the world, I felt invisible at times and too visible to others. Half Korean, half American, never fully belonging, never quite whole. It was through acting that I was able to discover my place in this world. It was through [his character] Joe that I understood my identity just a little bit more. Working through his eyes I’ve come to know again the feeling of stepping into something whether you’re ready for it or not,” Melton said. “I am the son of an immigrant mother and a military father who at times grew up confused and bewildered by my identity. Now I know that I was never half of anything; I was always whole. A whole human, flawed but complete.”
The cast of The Color Purple was also honored with the Ensemble Award, as star Taraji P. Henson spoke to her journey of portraying Shug Avery in the film.
“My relationship to Shug goes back aways. I turned down the Broadway role for many reasons. I studied musical theater in college and I just knew that my instrument would not withstand eight shows a week, so I declined. But the beautiful thing about destiny and this is why I saw we don’t compete, we don’t have to — what’s yours is coming. I ran from Shug, and some twenty years later she found me,” Henson said. “It was such an honor to inhabit her, for her to come back to me and teach me things about myself I didn’t know. She helped me lean into my sweetness a little more. I felt her power, her spirit, her strength all through me and to be a part of this beautiful sisterhood up here y’all when you see the chemistry we have on screen that’s because that’s who we are off-screen.”
Xolo Maridueña, the star of Blue Beetle, was given the Rising Star Award and credited director Angel Manuel Soto with protecting him during the making of the film.
“My name Xolo means that north star and I really feel that places like the Critics Choice Association are able to help me grow in to my name,” the actor shared. “This is a project that has forever changed my life before we even hit the first day of filming and it’s because Angel protected us. You understood the story that needed to be told and you made sure that not only the actors and everyone in front of the camera was safe and welcomed but everyone behind the camera as well. I don’t know how myself, my family, my ancestors will ever be able to repay you but I hope that this award is a constant reminder of the history that you made brother,” the star told his director.
Eva Longoria received the Breakthrough Director Award for Flamin’ Hot, which marked her first movie as a director. In her acceptance speech, she credited Paul Feig for encouraging to finally step behind the camera.
“I am directing because of Paul and Kerry Washington. Kerry and I had a film at Universal and we were interviewing directors and every time we had a director meeting we just didn’t find the right one. And Kerry said, ‘Why don’t you direct this?’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t. It needs to be somebody like Paul Feig.’ So we got a meeting with Paul and he read the script and talked to us and he said ‘I really think Eva should direct this,’” Longoria remembered. “We didn’t end up doing that movie but we got the script for Flamin’ Hot and it was Paul’s mentorship that really got me through that movie. We need allies and Paul is one of them.”
A total of 23 awards were passed out during the emotional evening, as several honorees came to tears speaking about their journey. Edward James Olmos, Ken Jeong, Charles D. King, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Kemp Powers, Makoto Shinkai, Allen Hughes, Jessica Williams, Oscar Montoya, Lee Sung Jin, Teyana Taylor, Camila Morrone, and Keivonn Woodard were also toasted at the event.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Netflix has picked up another installment of its popular multi-camera comedy series The Upshaws. The blue-collar sitcom created by Regina Hicks and Wanda Sykes has been renewed for a 10-episode fourth season.
After the 10-episode first season, Seasons 2 and 3 of The Upshaws have been released in two parts — of eight and six episodes each, respectively — so the renewal is for Part 6 of the series, as officially referred to by Netflix.
Production on the 10-episode new season, which will be released in one batch, will begin next year. The six-episode Part 5 of The Upshaws (second half of Season 3), is slated to premiere in spring 2024.
Somewhat flying under the radar, The Upshaws has been a sturdy performer for Netflix in a genre — multi-camera sitcom — that has been challenging for streamers. With the renewal, The Upshaws is tying The Ranch as the second-longest-running original multi-camera comedy on Netflix in number of seasons, just behind Fuller House, which lasted five. In number of episodes, The Upshaws (50), is No.3 of all time behind The Ranch (80) Fuller House (75).
In The Upshaws, Bennie Upshaw (Mike Epps), the head of a working-class Black family in Indianapolis, is a charming, well-intentioned mechanic and lifelong mess just trying his best to step up and care for his family — wife Regina (Kim Fields), their two young daughters (Khali Spraggins, Journey Christine) and firstborn son (Jermelle Simon), the teenage son (Diamond Lyons) he fathered with another woman (Gabrielle Dennis) — and tolerate his sardonic sister-in-law (Wanda Sykes), all without a blueprint for success. But the Upshaws are determined to make it work, and make it to the next level, together. In this upcoming part, the Upshaws continue to ride life’s ups and downs, including new jobs, bigger dreams, health struggles, and some major life surprises but still hanging on with the love that comes with family.
Hicks and Sykes serve as showrunner on the series, which they executive produce with Epps, Page Hurwitz, Niles Kirchner, Annie Levine, Jon Emerson, and Mark Alton Brown.
Source: Deadline
In addition to a top-to-bottom organization overall, the Golden Globes has added two new categories for its next awards, for cinematic and box office achievement and stand-up comedy performance on television.
The creation for a box office achievement award is clearly a move to attract viewers who have tuned out kudofests in recent decades because they tend to focus on little-seen movies. The category honors artistically outstanding films that have grossed more than $150 million, with at least $100 million coming from the domestic box office, or have commensurate streaming viewership confirmed by a “trusted industry source.” Films released after Nov. 22 may qualify if their projected box office or viewership meets the benchmarks.
The field of contenders is surprisingly wide, with no fewer than 20 films eligible as of November, ranging from horror films (“Scream VI,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s”), Marvel and DC Universe movies (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” “The Flash”), action spectaculars (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “John Wick: Chapter 4”) and kid-friendly titles (including “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Elemental”) to the child trafficking thriller “Sound of Freedom.” A total of eight films will be nominated.
Ironically, the new award comes in the year that saw two of the best-reviewed films, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” collectively gross more than $2.39 billion worldwide, so there is a very real chance that those films could pick up nominations in the best picture categories (drama or comedy/musical category) as well as the box office achievement award.
The new stand-up honor seems most likely to benefit Netflix, which released 16 standup specials in the first half of 2023 alone. The top contenders for the streamer are “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” “John Mulaney: Baby J” and “Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact.” Its chief competitor is Max, whose high-profile standup specials included “Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark,” “Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love” and “Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me.” Amazon has also become a player in the comic game, most notably with “Nate Bargatze: Hello World!,” which might get a boost from the comedian’s October hosting gig on “Saturday Night Live.”
While the category is open to programs of 30 minutes or more released on a broad array of platforms (broadcast, basic and premium cable, streaming, pay-per-view), shows hosted by individuals’ social media accounts are not eligible, shutting out the substantial number of comedians who self-release specials on YouTube.
Source: Variety
Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (Westworld), Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), Miles J. Harvey (American Vandal), and Pete Davidson (The King of Staten Island) have joined Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge, Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, and Gabrielle Union (The Inspection) in director Dito Montiel’s crime comedy movie Riff Raff, which has begun filming in New Jersey.
The film centers on a former criminal whose ordinary life is thrown upside down when his family shows up for a long-awaited reckoning.
Signature Films and Canopy Media Partners are behind the production, based on a script by John Pollono.
Canopy Media Partners’ Noah Rothman (Small Engine Repair), Signature Films’ Marc Goldberg and Sarah Gabriel (The Estate), and Adam Paulsen (Pig, On The Count of Three) are producing.
Executive producers include David Sullivan, John Pollono, and Chris Dennis for Canopy Media Partners, Capstone’s Christian Mercuri, and Patrick Hibler and Patrick Muldoon from Storyboard Media.
Signature will continue selling international rights at the EFM after launching sales in Cannes earlier this year, with Capstone representing domestic rights alongside CAA Media Finance and WME Independent.
Harris will next star in Jonathan Kent’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Pullman, who played Lt. Robert ‘Bob’ Floyd in Top Gun: Maverick, will next star in Skincare alongside Elizabeth Banks and season two of Amazon’s Outer Range opposite Josh Brolin.
Harvey is known for his role in Netflix’s true-crime satire American Vandal and films such as Supercool, The Babysitter, and The Dinner. SNL alum Davidson is next to be seen in Sony and Black Bear’s Dumb Money and will appear in A24 comedy Wizards!
Harris is represented by CAA and Julian Zajfen of Ziffren Brittenham LLP; Pullman is represented by Anonymous Content and CAA; Harvey is represented by Edge Entertainment Management and Buchwald; and Davidson is represented by WME and Alex Panagos.
Source: Deadline
Netflix posted the first photo (below) of Eddie Murphy‘s long-awaited return as Axel Foley in the fourth Beverly Hills Cop.
The first look shows Murphy’s character emerging with his hands up from what looks like a tipped-over parking enforcement cart while wearing his trademark Detroit Lions jacket. The project is the first Beverly Hills Cop movie in 29 years since the release of the lackluster Beverly Hills Cop 3.
The Netflix sequel — titled Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley — also reunites Murphy with franchise co-stars Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot.
According to Empire, the new film has “Foley’s criminal defense attorney daughter (Taylour Paige), who pulls her dad into a California-based case — where he’ll cause issues for Kevin Bacon’s LAPD special-unit officer, and team up with a new partner, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.”
The sequel is directed by newcomer Mark Molloy and was written by Will Beall (Aquaman). Jerry Bruckheimer, Chad Oman, and Melissa Reid are producing for Jerry Bruckheimer Films, along with Murphy, while Charisse Hewitt-Webster and Ray Angelic executive produce.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were originally on board to direct the fourth installment, but Molloy replaced them after the duo left to direct Warner Bros.’ ill-fated Batgirl.
The project moved from Paramount, which had been developing the film for years, to Netflix in 2019. The film will finally be released in 2024.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
ABC has set return dates for its scripted series, joining CBS in laying out a post-strikes lineup that will see the likes of Abbott Elementary, Grey’s Anatomy, and new addition 911 join the schedule in early 2024.
The broadcast network will also have a handful of unscripted staples — American Idol, The Bachelor, and Judge Steve Harvey — and a 20/20-branded true-crime series from ABC News to round out its midseason slate.
Production on a host of scripted series is ramping back up in the coming weeks, following the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike on Nov. 9 (members of the actors union are currently voting on ratification of the deal). Writers rooms reopened in late September after the Writers Guild of America agreed on a new contract from studios and streamers, ending its strike.
With most shows not starting production until after Thanksgiving, the episode counts for scripted series will be smaller than in a typical year — 10 to 13 episodes, as opposed to between 16 and 22.
ABC’s Wednesday comedy block of The Conners, Not Dead Yet and Abbott Elementary will be the first scripted shows to return to the network’s air; with all three, along with Judge Steve Harvey, are set to premiere Feb. 7, with Abbott getting an hourlong debut. ABC has only three half-hour comedies on its roster at the moment and will announce later how it plans to fill the 9:30 p.m. Wednesday spot.
The network will stack dramas on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Second-year show Will Trent will lead off Tuesdays starting Feb. 20, followed by The Rookie and The Good Doctor. The Thursday lineup will debut March 14, with 911 — which is moving from Fox — leading into Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19.
The Bachelor will return to its usual Monday spot Jan. 22, with the true-crime series following at 10 p.m. American Idol opens its season Feb. 18, paired with ABC News’ What Would You Do? on Sunday nights. Fridays remain the same with Shark Tank and 20/20.
ABC’s midseason premiere dates are below.
Monday, Jan. 22
8 p.m.: The Bachelor
10 p.m.: 20/20 true-crime series (title TBD)
Wednesday, Feb. 7
8 p.m.: The Conners
8:30 p.m.: Not Dead Yet
9 p.m.: Abbott Elementary
10 p.m.: Judge Steve Harvey
Sunday, Feb. 18
8 p.m.: American Idol
10 p.m.: What Would You Do?
Tuesday, Feb. 20
8 p.m.: Will Trent
9 p.m.: The Rookie
10 p.m.: The Good Doctor
Thursday, March 14
8 p.m.: 911
9 p.m.: Grey’s Anatomy
10 p.m.: Station 19
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
William Morris Endeavor wants nothing to do with Billy Cosby or a sexual assault case against the much-accused comedian.
In paperwork filed in LA Superior Court yesterday, WME asserted that they should not be a co-defendant in Linda Ridgway-Whitedeer’s claims that the man once known as “America’s Dad” forced her to perform oral sex on him back in 1971.
Having first went public with the alleged assault in 2015 as dozens of women came forward against Cosby, the plaintiff’s civil suit of September this year says that “at the time of the sexual assault, the William Morris Agency knew, or should have had knowledge of Defendant’s repeated acts of sexual assault.”
Now, the agency that Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell created out of the 2009 melding of William Morris and Endeavor proclaims they had “no control” over what did or did not happen 52 years ago.
“Pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure …WME denies, both generally and specifically, each and every allegation contained in Plaintiff’s Complaint, and the whole thereof, and each and every alleged cause of action thereof,” the November 15 filed four-page answer to complaint, which you can read here, states “WME further denies that Plaintiff has been damaged in any sum whatsoever or is entitled to any relief of any kind against WME, in this action or otherwise.”
In her initial complaint of September 12, Ridgway-Whitedeer details how fellow William Morris client Cosby distinctly requested her in 1971 to audition personally with him for a role in the Robert Culp co-starring Hickey and Boggs film. It was in an “empty director’s office” in an LA studio with a “closed door” that the alleged assault occurred, quickly and ruthlessly it seems.
“Plaintiff, unable to breathe and in shock from what had just transpired, was unable to react,” the four-claim complaint says. “Defendant Cosby used a tissue to attempt to wipe his semen from Plaintiff’s face. Still in shock, Plaintiff was escorted to her car by Defendant Cosby. As she gripped the steering wheel, cheeks streaked with tears, Defendant Cosby, still next to the car, quickly retreated, passing in front of Plaintiff’s car as he walked away.”
Aided by her Jeff Anderson & Associates lawyers, Ridgway-Whitedeer was able to file the suit under a California law that went into effect at the beginning of this year that allows victims of sexual assault up to the end of 2026 to pursue civil remedies not matter how long ago the alleged crime occurred.
However, WME says a statute of limitations should apply, and that Ridgway-Whitedeer “unreasonably delayed in bringing this action against WME and thereby prejudiced the rights of WME.” The agency goes on to say that “Plaintiff’s claims against WME are barred, in whole or in part, because Plaintiff’s alleged injuries and damages, if any, were caused by the independent acts, omissions, faults, negligence and/or other conduct of others over which WME had no control.”
Cosby was with the William Morris Agency and successor WME from 1964 until 2012. He then moved to CAA but was quietly dumped by them in early 2015 as more and more claims against him became known.
WME wants the Negligence claim and more against them to be dismissed with prejudice. As their parent company prepares to possibly go private, WME and their Greenberg Traurig attorneys (which includes Britney Spears‘ lawyer Matthew Rosengart) also want Ridgway-Whitedeer to pay the costs of the suit.
Just like his team has in every allegation against The Cosby Show creator over the years, Cosby’s spokesman back in September said the comedian “vehemently denies the allegations waged against him and maintains his innocence as well as vows to fight these alleged allegations vigorously in the court of public opinion and in the courtroom.”
No hearing date for WME’s request to be dismissed from the case has been scheduled yet.
More than 60 women have claimed over the years that Cosby drugged and assaulted them, often with a combination of pills and alcohol. Kicking off years of legal battles, former supermodel Janice Dickinson formally took the matter to court in May 2015, in the first of several lawsuits. Since then dozens have followed suit, literally and figuratively. In the past couple of years, a New York law similar to those in California and Nevada lifted the statute of limitations requirements and allowed two former The Cosby Show actresses and three other women to sue Cosby and NBCUniversal last December over sexual assault and battery claims.
Cosby was sentenced to up to 10 years behind bars in 2018 by a Pennsylvania judge after a second trial for the rape of Andrea Constand. His sentence didn’t last that long, the now 86-year-old Cosby had his conviction tossed out in June 2021.
However, that wasn’t the end of the claims against him by any stretch. In September 2022, Cosby lost his attempt at a retrial over Judy Huth’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion when the plaintiff was a minor in the 1970s. A Santa Monica jury brought back a verdict for Huth in that civil case on June 21, 2022. The 12-person panel awarded Huth $500,000 in damages. More lawsuits, like Ridgway-Whitedeer’s, have followed since from claims over the decades.
Source: Deadline
WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Kevin Hart has been chosen to receive the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in American humor, capping a three-decade career that has seen him rise from the open mics of Philadelphia to become one of his generation’s most successful performers.
Hart, 44, launched his career as a teenager performing at venues such as The Laff House in his native Philadelphia under the name of Lil Kev. He recalled his early stand-up performances as a string of brutal failures that included being booed off the stage multiple times and at one point, he claimed, having a piece of chicken thrown at him on stage.
Gradually, Hart honed a signature style that combined his diminutive stature, expressive face, and motormouth delivery and made him a wildly successful touring act. He made his movie debut in the 2002 film “Paper Soldiers” and came to mainstream fame through a string of scene-stealing cameos in mega-hits such as 2005’s “The 40-Year-Old-Virgin.”
Hart has gone on to become one of the country’s most bankable and ubiquitous performers, with 11 of his films opening at No. 1 at the box office. All told, his films have grossed more than $4.23 billion in global revenue.
“For over three decades, Kevin Hart has been a source of laughter across America and throughout the world with his iconic characters, inimitable physical comedy, and relatable narratives,” Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said in a statement Wednesday. “We express our gratitude to Kevin for enriching American culture and look forward to celebrating his exceptional career.”
Now in its 25th year, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor annually honors performers who have made a lasting impact on humor and culture. Honorees receive a bronze bust of Twain, the iconic American writer and satirist whose real name was Samuel Clemens.
Hart, in a statement, noted that the launch of the Mark Twain Prize in 1998, with inaugural recipient Richard Pryor, basically coincided with the start of his comedic career.
“To be honored in this commemorative year feels surreal,” Hart said. “Comedy is my outlet for social commentary and observations on life. I am grateful to the Kennedy Center for recognizing my voice and impact on culture.”
Hart will receive his prize at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on March 24. The ceremony will be broadcast later on a date to be determined.
Mark Twain recipients are honored with a night of testimonials and video tributes, often featuring previous award winners. Other comedians receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award include George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, and Dave Chapelle. Bill Cosby, the 2009 recipient, had his Mark Twain Prize rescinded in 2019 amid multiple allegations of sexual assault.
A new universe awaits on Netflix, starting December 22.
From Zack Snyder, the filmmaker behind 300, Man of Steel, and Army of the Dead, comes REBEL MOON, a 2-part movie event decades in the making.
After crash landing on a moon in the furthest reaches of the universe, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a stranger with a mysterious past, begins a new life among a peaceful settlement of farmers. But she soon becomes their only hope for survival when the tyrannical Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee) and his cruel emissary, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), discover the farmers have unwittingly sold their crops to the Bloodaxes (Cleopatra Coleman and Ray Fisher) – leaders of a fierce group of insurgents hunted by the Motherworld.
Tasked with finding fighters who would risk their lives to defend the people of Veldt, Kora, and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), a tenderhearted farmer naive in the realities of war, journey to different worlds in search of the Bloodaxes, and assemble a small band of warriors who share a common need for redemption along the way: Kai (Charlie Hunnam), a pilot and gun for hire; General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), a legendary commander; Nemesis (Doona Bae), a master swordswoman; Tarak (Staz Nair), a captive with a regal past; and Milius (E. Duffy), a resistance fighter. Back on Veldt, Jimmy (voiced by Anthony Hopkins), an ancient mechanized protector hiding in the wings, awakens with a new purpose. But the newly formed revolutionaries must learn to trust each other and fight as one before the armies of the Motherworld come to destroy them all.