Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson are joining Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr in the latter pair’s CBS family comedy.
The untitled project, which picked up a pilot order in February, has also set Andy Ackerman as director and exec producer of the pilot.
It centers on a legendary talk radio host and happily divorced “Poppa” (Wayans) who has his point of view challenged at work when a new female co-host is hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son (Wayans Jr.), a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.
Atkins plays Dr. Ivy Reed, an intelligent, savvy and bold, Ivy is the host of the “Ask Doctor Reed” radio show where she gives helpful advice to listeners with a modern approach on life. When the network wants to modernize Poppa’s outdated routine, Ivy joins him as a co-host; she quickly dismantles his old-school arguments, and a new rivalry is instantly born.
Jackson plays Nina, Junior’s loving, real and detail oriented wife. She is his biggest supporter, but his biggest motivator as well. She doesn’t want Junior to give up his dream, but hopes he can focus more on work in the meantime – she’s already raising two kids and can’t have him acting like a third. Even with all the distractions and family drama, Nina and Junior always make a great team.
Atkins is currently recurring on the BET+ series First Wives Club and ABC’s Milo Ventimiglia new series The Company You Keep. She previously starred for two seasons opposite Marlon Wayans in NBC’s Marlon. She is repped by Buchwald and Kathy McComb Management.
Jackson is currently recurring on Freeform’s Good Trouble and for the past two seasons she had been recurring on ABC’s Home Economics. She is represented by BRS-Gage and The Priluck Company.
Wayans, Kevin Hench and Wayans Jr. executive produce. CBS Studios, where Wayans Jr.’s Two Shakes Entertainment has been based since its launch, is the studio. Kameron Tarlow, VP Productions, will be overseeing the project for Two Shakes.
Source: Deadline
The Humor Mill catches up with cast members Grasie Mercedes and Aaron Jennings of NBC’s Grand Crew to learn more about season 2; what they enjoy doing when they’re not sipping wine on TV, and whether we’ll see sparks fly among the friends this season.
Watch the interview with our host Eunice Elliott below;
The “Queen of Hip Hop Soul,” will be the queen of this summer with two new original movies inspired by Mary J. Blige’s biggest hits — Mary J. Blige’s Real Love and Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman, set to premiere on back-to-back Saturdays, beginning June 10 at 8p/7c. The two-pack of movies are headlined by Ajiona Alexus (Empire,13 Reasons Why) and Da’Vinchi (BMF, All American) with Princess Davis, Austin Anozie, Millan Tesfazgi, Shiraine Haas, Garfield Wilson, and Hamza Fouad rounding out the cast and portrays the highs and lows of young Black love.
Mary J. Blige’s Real Love follows 18-year-old Kendra (Alexus) as she sets off on her own for the first time at an HBCU in North Carolina. Attending on a scholarship, Kendra is determined to focus on school while balancing work study and keeping things professional with Ben (Da’Vinchi), her photo class partner. Despite disapproving parents, financial hardship, and even an unexpected pregnancy, Kendra and Ben find themselves falling hard for each other and ultimately learning the meaning of “Real Love.” Even when Kendra realizes that in order to pursue her dreams, she must leave Ben behind, it’s certain that their story isn’t over…
The story of Kendra and Ben continues in Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman, jumping ahead more than 15 years. Now a successful photographer, Kendra finds herself in a failing marriage and must reckon with the decisions she made for the life she thought she wanted. When Ben unexpectedly comes back into her life, she is forced to a crisis point and must dig deep to find the strength to take control of her life and accept the love Ben may be offering again.
In support of the content, Lifetime has partnered with Take Back The Night Foundation(R), an international event and non-profit organization with the mission ending all forms of sexual violence, including sexual assault, sexual abuse, trafficking, stalking, gender harassment, and relationship violence, and to support survivors in their healing journeys.
Helming both movies as executive producers are John Davis and Jordan Davis of Davis Entertainment Jordan recently produced Lifetime’s highly rated film, Love You to Death, inspired by the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Jordan is also a producer on Netflix’s upcoming science-fiction/fantasy film The Uglies, starring Joey King and Laverne Cox. Set to be released this year, development on the project dates back to 2006 as it was a favorite novel of Jordan and her daughter’s. Veteran film, television and award-winning producer John Davis is known for more than 115 top grossing feature films including Jungle Cruise, Predator, Grumpy Old Men, Waterworld and most recently Prey, to name a few.
Mary J. Blige also serves as an executive producer on both original films through her own production banner, Blue Butterfly with Ashaunna K. Ayars and Q. Nicole Jackson as co-producers. Blige has a proven track record of resonating with Lifetime’s audiences, having previously executive produced Lifetime’s top-rated original movie of 2020, The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel alongside fellow EPs Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott. In 2020, The Clark Sisters reached more than 13.9 million Total Viewers1 and was 2020’s #1 original movie on cable.2 Blige also starred as Dr. Betty Shabazz in her first movie role in the Lifetime civil rights biopic Betty & Coretta, with Angela Bassett.
In addition, Mary J. Blige’s Real Love and Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman are also produced by Front Street Pictures and are being distributed by Sony Pictures Television. Camrus Johnson directs Real Love from a script written by Sonja Warfield and Rachel Ingram, and Shari Lynette Carpenter directs Strength of a Woman from a script written by Ingram.
Netflix dropped the official trailer for Mo’Nique’s newest stand-up special, My Name is Mo’Nique.
Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award-winning actress and comedian Mo’Nique is back with a new stand-up special, My Name is Mo’Nique, premiering globally on Netflix on April 4th.
Mo’Nique delivers a career-defining, powerhouse stand-up performance in her unprecedented return to the stage. Filled with laugh-till-you-cry stories as well as soul-baring emotion, Mo’Nique promises that by the end of the show you will understand why she is the way she is, and true to form, she delivers. From the mean streets of Baltimore and remembering her Grandma Mimi’s warnings about men, to why she “ACCEPTS” the sometimes-harsh realities that come with life, Mo’Nique with her unique brand of candor, fearlessness, and humor reveals all of herself, and leaves nothing on the table.
Directed by L. Frazier
Executive Producers: Sidney Hicks & Monique Hicks.
As previously announced, Mo’Nique is also set to star in the Netflix film The Deliverance from Lee Daniels.
NEW YORK, NY – Lifetime reteams with Meagan Good (Harlem, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) to executive produce and star in the Ripped from the Headlines feature, Buying Back My Daughter (working title), inspired by actual events of mothers who fight back when their teenage daughters go missing and are sex trafficked online. Good continues her relationship with Lifetime after having starred in and produced the films Death Saved My Life and Love By the 10th Date. Buying Back My Daughter will continue to bring to light important issues and continue to drive messaging for network’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign.
On the heels of the network’s recent successful features, Black Girl Missing, Girl in the Closet, and The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story, Buying Back My Daughter is the latest movie for the network’s Ripped from the Headlines slate. Currently filming now, the movie also stars Ariana Madix (Vanderpump Rules), Roger Cross (Arrow), and Faith Wright (Riverdale).
When Dana (Meagan Good) and Curtis’ (Roger Cross) 16-year-old daughter, Alicia (Faith Wright), sneaks out of the house to attend a party, a bout with teenage rebellion quickly escalates into a widespread search party spearheaded by Dana and the police. After almost a year of searching for her missing daughter, mother’s intuition leads Dana to the salacious world of online escort ads where, to her horror, she finds her Alicia listed for sale. Dana and Curtis spring into action and attempt to “buy their daughter back” in order to rescue her from the trafficker who abducted Alicia and subjected her to unspeakable harm. Ariana Madix stars as Karen, a police officer who helps investigate the case and has a personal connection to the story.
Buying Back My Daughter is produced by Front Street Pictures for distribution by Lifetime. Produced by Charles Cooper. Executive producers are Orly Adelson, Allen Lewis, and Meagan Good with James Jope as co-executive producer. Troy Scott directs from a script written by Barbara Marshall.
Good is repped by The Gersh Agency, Atlas Artists, The Initiative Group, and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman.
Back in January 2022, South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced that they’d signed on to produce an untitled live-action comedy for Paramount alongside Kendrick Lamar and his creative partner Dave Free. Emmy-winning South Park scribe Vernon Chatman wrote the script, but the report specifically said that there was no director attached to the project.
Sources now tell Above the Line that Parker will direct the film himself, though it remains unclear when production will start. The project was initially scheduled to start shooting last spring before Parker’s South Park commitments got in the way.
Chatman’s script finds the past and present coming to a head when a young Black man who is interning as a slave reenactor at a living history museum discovers that his white girlfriend’s ancestors once owned his.
Parker and Stone are producing under their Park County banner, while Free and Grammy-winning rapper Lamar will produce via their company pgLang, which launched in 2020 and serves as a record label, as well as a production and publishing house. The untitled Paramount feature will be the pgLang’s first.
Paramount Pictures CEO/President Brian Robbins called the producing team “creative visionaries” in a statement last year and boasted that the project would be “a powerful storytelling experience.” The studio will handle theatrical distribution, home entertainment, and television licensing rights, with the film also slated to stream on Paramount+.
In addition to South Park, which will return to Comedy Central for its 26th season, and the Oscar-nominated movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Parker and Stone are the creators of Team America: World Police and BASEketball, as well as the co-creators of Tony-winning Broadway musical Book of Mormon along with Robert Lopez. Parker is represented by WME.
A representative for Paramount had no comment. The studio has Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves set for release on March 31, while Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will hit theaters on July 14th.
Source: Above The Line
Here is our latest movie review, and it’s on the new film titled AIR. If you are not familiar, the film tells the story of how the underperforming sneaker brand known as Nike and Chicago Bulls rookie Michael Jordan revolutionized the sneaker business with the birth of Air Jordans.
The film is directed by Ben Affleck (and he also stars in the film) along with Matt Damon, Viola Davis, Chris Tucker, and Marlon Wayans.
Watch our new review by our newest correspondent Eunice Elliott below;
The HBO Original Emmy(R)-winning sketch comedy series A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW will return for its fourth season FRIDAY, APRIL 14 (11:00-11:30 p.m. ET/PT). The six-episode season will debut on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
The narrative sketch comedy series features a core cast of Black women living relatable and hilarious experiences in a magical reality that subverts traditional expectations.
Returning core cast members include Robin Thede, Gabrielle Dennis, and Skye Townsend. Season 4 stars three new featured players: DaMya Gurley, Tamara Jade, Angel Laketa Moore, and more than 20 celebrity guest stars.
New York Times heralded the third season of A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW as a “spectacular showcase,” describing its stars as “the most exciting comics (and the silliest).” The Root hailed this season as “the smartest, freshest, funniest comedy on TV.” Entertainment Weekly praises the show’s emphasis on “Black woman joy” saying it “sets it apart” from anything else on television.
A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW has received 13 Primetime Emmy(R) nominations and three Emmy(R) Awards including Outstanding Directing For A Variety Series and Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming.
Jordan Peele’s next film is coming to the big screen in time for Christmas… of 2024.
Universal Pictures, which released the filmmaker’s prior features “Get Out,” “Us” and “Nope,” added an “Untitled Fourth Film Directed by Jordan Peele” to its release calendar. It’s set to open in theaters nationwide on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024.
On its current date, Peele’s upcoming project will premiere one week after James Cameron’s “Avatar 3” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” which will both debut on Dec. 20, 2024. Universal’s big-screen adaptation of the “Wicked” musical was previously slated to land on the same weekend, but the studio recently pushed up its release date to Thanksgiving.
In the announcement about Peele’s film, Universal also scheduled an untitled Monkeypaw film (which is Peele’s production company) to release on Sept. 27, 2024, and it took an untitled animated event film off its slate.
In true Peele fashion, there’s zero information — not the title, the genre, nor the stars — available about his fourth film. He’s been similarly tight-lipped in the lead-up to his first three films, which ranged from pure horror to neo-Western science fiction.
Peele’s debut feature, the 2017 psychological horror film “Get Out,” became a critical and commercial smash, grossing $255 million and earning four Oscar nominations. He followed that up with 2019’s doppelgänger thriller “Us,” which also generated $255 million worldwide. Peele’s latest movie, 2022’s “Nope,” which reunited Peele with his “Get Out” star Daniel Kaluuya, played in theaters last summer and collected more than $170 million globally.
As a film producer, Peele has backed Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated “BlacKkKlansman,” as well as director Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman” remake, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Source; Variety
Nickelodeon Studios and Paramount+ today announced the greenlight of GOOD BURGER 2, an all-new original movie sequel to the iconic ’90s feature film based on the sketch from the comedy series “All That.” The movie will follow Dexter Reed (Kenan Thompson) and original cashier, Ed (Kel Mitchell), as they reunite in the present day at fast-food restaurant Good Burger with a hilarious new group of employees. Production will begin in May, with a premiere slated for later this year exclusively on Paramount+. The news was revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In GOOD BURGER 2, Dexter Reed is down on his luck after another one of his inventions fails. Ed welcomes Dex back to Good Burger with open arms and gives him his old job back. With a new crew working at Good Burger, Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet but unfortunately puts the fate of Good Burger at risk once again.
The original ’90s sketch first aired on “All That” in 1994 and was centered around fast-food restaurant, Good Burger and its clueless cashier, Ed, played by Kel Mitchell in Seasons 1-5. The feature film “Good Burger” was released worldwide on July 25, 1997, by Paramount Pictures. Later in the “All That” revival series in 2019, Mitchell returned guest starring as Ed, working at Good Burger for 20 years as manager of the trainees.
Thompson is represented by UTA and managed by Michael Goldman. Mitchell is represented by UTA and managed by Alex Goodman at Levity Live.
GOOD BURGER 2 is penned by Kevin Kopelow & Heath Seifert (“All That”, “Good Burger”) who will also serve as executive producers. Phil Traill (“The Middle,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Single Drunk Female”) will direct. James III (“Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan,” “All That”) has also been engaged as a writer. Production of the movie for Nickelodeon Studios is overseen by Shauna Phelan and Zack Olin, Co-Heads of Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Live-Action. Brittany Cope serves as Nickelodeon’s Executive in Charge of Production.
Said Thompson, “I can’t believe it’s been a little over 25 years since great customer service was born at Good Burger! Being a part of something so many generations of people have come to love has made me so proud and now to be back where it all began working on the sequel is surreal! Love performing with my brother Kel and can’t wait to show the fans what these characters have been up to since we last saw them.”
Said Mitchell, “Ed is one of those timeless characters that has brought so much joy and laughter to fans, and it’s such a beautiful blessing to still be doing it after all these years. It’s super awesome to come back and continue the stories of Dex, Ed and Good Burger for both the people who grew up watching and their kids.”
Said Shauna Phelan and Zack Olin, Co-Heads of Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Live-Action, “Good Burger is such a beloved movie that fans have cherished for years. Packed with comedy, cameos and plenty of Easter eggs from the original, Good Burger 2 will bring the nostalgia fans and a new generation of viewers together for another wild, hilarious Good Burger adventure.”
Said Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer of Paramount Streaming, “We’re thrilled to take audiences’ orders for more laughter and adventures with the ‘Good Burger’ crew. GOOD BURGER 2 will be a great addition to our 2023 programming slate and is sure to serve up everything ‘All That’ fans and new viewers alike will enjoy.”