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Posts published in “Movies”

Denzel Washington, Antoine Fuqua in Talks to Remake Film Classic "Magnificent Seven"

By goodblacknews on June 5, 2014
Denzel Washington Broadway Raisin
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua are in early talks to pair up yet again on MGM’s remake of “The Magnificent Seven.”  Both men have the offers and while Washington is still weighing his options. Sources say it’s possible both will commit.
The original movie starred Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen and revolved around seven gunslingers that protect an oppressed Mexican village from a group of outlaws.
The script was reworked by John Lee Hancock, with “True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto writing the previous version.
Washington and Fuqua first teamed up on the hit “Training Day” (for which Washington earned a Best Actor Oscar) and their next film, “The Equalizer” opens this September.
article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com

Will Smith to Star In NFL Concussion Drama for Sony Pictures

By goodblacknews on June 3, 2014

Will Smith
Will Smith is ready to tackle the NFL’s concussion problem having attached himself to star in the untitled drama based on the GQ article “Game Brain” for Scott Free and Sony.  Peter Landesman (“Parkland”) is on board to write and direct.
The article was written by Jeanne Marie Laskas and follows Dr. Bennet Omalu, played by Smith, the forensic neuropathologist who single-handedly made the first discovery of CTE in a professional football player and brought awareness to the public. The story is described as a whistle-blower tale in the vein of “The Insider” humanizing the price paid by professional athletes in impact sports — and the political, cultural and corporate interests that fuel the business of professional sports.
The untitled feature is one of a handful of Hollywood projects revolving around the concussion problem in the NFL taking shape in the industry. Parkes/MacDonald Productions are developing a project based on the book “League Of Denial: The NFL, Concussions And The Battle For Truth” and Isaiah Washington is set to star in the indie drama “Game Time Decision,” both of which focus on the concussion issue.
Smith can be seen next in the Warner Bros. movie “Focus” opposite Margot Robbie.
article by Justin Kroll via variety.com

Lupita Nyong'o Joins 'Star Wars' Cast

Lupita Nyong'o Joins 'Star Wars' Cast

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2014

Lupita Nyong'o Options Film Rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah"

By goodblacknews on June 1, 2014
Lupita Nyong’o attends the 2014 Annual Garden Brunch at the Beall-Washington House in Washington, DC.
(PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL MORIGI/WIREIMAGE)

Back in March, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie hinted that she was working on something with Lupita Nyong’o but wouldn’t go into detail.  The secret is finally out and Adichie announced Thursday that Nyong’o has optioned the film rights to her novel Americanah.  

According to The Root, the news was revealed by Adichie and announced via Stylist Magazine’s Twitter account saying, “Lupita Nyong’o has optioned rights for the film version of Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie confirms #stylistbookclub.”

The novel is a love story that follows a young couple from Nigeria who face hard choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. Americanah was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review, also winning the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
Adichie is not stranger to the big screen, her book Half of a Yellow Sun is playing in theaters now and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton.
This will be Nyong’o’s first major film announcement since her Academy Award winning performance in 12 Years a Slave.
article by Dominique Hobdy via essence.com

Spike Lee Film Retrospective Coming to Brooklyn in June

By goodblacknews on May 29, 2014

Spike Lee is bringing it back to where it all began. BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, New York, will host a retrospective of the homegrown auteur’s films in a series titled By Any Means Necessary: A Spike Lee Joints Retrospective. The program will run for twelve days, from June 29-July 10, and showcase Lee’s classic works and even some of his rarely-seen films.

BAM’s series will even include a screening of Lee’s least-seen film, his NYU Master’s thesis Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The filmmaker’s most popular film, Do the Right Thing, will be the closing night film and will be attended by Lee and the cast.
Tickets for the full program are scheduled to go on sale soon, but passes for Do the Right Thing are available now for museum members.  Lee is a true American auteur whose films defined a generation and made Brooklyn a mecca for artists. Fans will surely relish this rare opportunity to see his (almost) complete body of work.
article by Evelyn Diaz via BET.com

Mo’Nique & Khandi Alexander Join Queen Latifah in HBO Films’ Bessie Smith Biopic

By goodblacknews on May 27, 2014

khandi6moniqueMo’Nique (Precious) and Khandi Alexander (Scandal) will co-star opposite Queen Latifah in Bessie, HBO’s film about iconic blues singer Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah).
Written and directed by Dee Rees based on the life story of Smith, the project chronicles how Smith overcame her tempestuous personal life to become one of the most acclaimed performing and recording artists of the 1920s and ’30s, earning the nickname Empress of the Blues.
Mo’Nique will play Ma Rainey, one of the first professional blues singers billed as The Mother of the Blues. Ma Rainey (born Gertrude hbofilmsPridgett) was already well known when she met then-young Bessie. According to a popular story, which has been disputed, Rainey kidnapped Smith, making her join the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and teaching her to sing the blues.
Alexander will play Bessie’s older sister, Viola. By the time Bessie was nine, both of her parents and one brother had died, with Viola taking care of her siblings. Bessie is produced by HBO Films in association with Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere’s Flavor Unit Entertainment and Lili and the late Richard Zanuck’s the Zanuck Co., with Lili Fini Zanuck, Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Shelby Stone and Randi Michel serving as executive producer and Richard Zanuck also getting a posthumous exec producer credit.
article by Nellie Andreeva via deadline.com

Angela Bassett to Direct Whitney Houston Movie for Lifetime

By goodblacknews on May 22, 2014

Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston
Angela Bassett will make her directorial debut with a Lifetime Original Movie based on the life of Whitney Houston, Lifetime announced Thursday.
Scheduled for a 2015 world premiere under the working title of “Whitney Houston,” the film chronicles the headline-making relationship between the iconic singer, actress, producer and model, and singer-songwriter Bobby Brown — from the time they first met at the very height of their celebrity, to their courtship and tumultuous marriage.
“I have such regard for both Whitney’s and Bobby’s amazing talents and accomplishments; and I feel a responsibility in the telling of their story,” said Bassett in a statement. “Their humanity and bond fascinates us all. I’m beyond excited to have this opportunity to go behind the camera and into their world.”
Produced by The Sanitsky Company, “Whitney Houston” will be executive produced by Larry Sanitsky. Shem Bitterman wrote the film’s script.
Bassett and Lifetime previously collaborated on last year’s original movie “Betty & Coretta.” Starring Bassett and Mary J. Blige, the Humanitas Prize finalist told the dual real-life stories of Coretta Scott King (Bassett) and Dr. Betty Shabazz (Blige), wives of Dr. Martin Luther King (Malik Yoba) and Malcolm X (Lindsay Owen Pierre), who formed an unbreakable life-long bond after their husbands’ tragic assassinations.
article by Laura Prudom via Variety.com

American Black Film Festival Moves from Miami to New York With "Think Like a Man" Sequel and Spike Lee Film

By goodblacknews on May 14, 2014

think-trailer-blog480
Romany Malco and Meagan Good in “Think Like a Man Too.” (Screen Gems)

The 18th edition of the American Black Film Festival will make its New York debut next month with films directed by Tim Story and Spike Lee bookending the June 19-22 event, organizers announced last week.
The festival, which promotes work by and about people of African descent, is presented by Film Life, a New York City-based entertainment company. The Miami area was home to the festival for most of its existence. Now, Jeff Friday, the festival’s founder and Film Life chief executive, said in a phone interview that he hoped the move will be a permanent one, with the goal of reaching a larger, more diverse audience.
“Last year proved if nothing else, that black films can be more mainstream,” Mr. Friday said. “We want to encourage audiences to consume, ingest and enjoy black cinema as much as multicultural audiences enjoy other forms of black culture.”

"Belle" Does Well in Limited Release; Expands to 10 More Cities Next Weekend

By goodblacknews on May 5, 2014

belleFox Searchlight had another solid debut this weekend with its initial limited opening of Belle in four New York and L.A. theaters.  British-set period drama Belle,directed by Amma Asante and staring Gugu Mbatha-Raw,  managed a regal bow, grossing over $104K, giving the film a $26,123 theater average. Searchlight said the feature outgrossed “Spider-Man 2” at the Landmark Theatres in West LA and was the second-highest grosser at the Arclight Theatre in Hollywood. In New York, it also had strong numbers at Lincoln Plaza and Sunshine theaters.

“We’re pretty happy with how it opened. It’s an interesting thing with a film that’s very sophisticated like this and you’re hoping to get the cinephile crowd out,” Searchlight’s EVP of Distribution Frank Rodriguez told me Sunday morning. “The secret of this film is to keep it in theaters and see if it can get some traction. We know we have a great art film and we know we’re going to do well with it. The real goal here is to see if it can go a little mainstream. To do that with Spider-Man and the like will be interesting. Perhaps it’s a bit of counter-programming, but if we had had a $15 – 25K [PTA this weekend] I would have been happy, so we’re at the high end of that. In this business anything can happen, but we’re going into the right theaters and targeting a sophisticated audience.”

Fox Searchlight will open Belle in ten more cities next weekend including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston as it lures the film’s natural art-house crowd while also tempting some cross-over. The company expects Belle to be in about 350 theaters by Memorial Day weekend and it will head into about 50 – 60 runs next weekend.

article by Brian Brooks via deadline.com

Gabourey Sidibe's Speech On Confidence Is Incredibly Moving

By goodblacknews on May 4, 2014
GABOUREY SIDIBE CONFIDENT
We’re just going to say it: Gabourey Sidibe is awesome.
She’s made to put up with a lot, but she doesn’t let the haters get her down. Not anymore.
Once again, the 30-year-old actress proved why she’s one of the strongest women in Hollywood with a powerful and moving speech about confidence at the Gloria Awards and Gala in New York City on May 1.
Sidibe opened by declaring that she loathes questions about the source of her confidence.
“I hate that,” Sidibe told the crowd. “I always wonder if that’s the first thing they ask Rihanna when they meet her. ‘RiRi! How are you so confident?’ Nope. No. No. But me? They ask me with that same incredulous disbelief every single time. ‘You seem so confident! How is that?'”
After telling a story about the cruelty of children and the importance of thinking highly of yourself, she circled back:

“Gabourey, how are you so confident?” It’s not easy. It’s hard to get dressed up for award shows and red carpets when I know I will be made fun of because of my weight. There’s always a big chance if I wear purple, I will be compared to Barney. If I wear white, a frozen turkey. And if I wear red, that picture of Kool-Aid that says, “Oh, yeah!” Twitter will blow up with nasty comments about how the recent earthquake was caused by me running to a hot dog cart or something. And “Diet or Die?” [She gives the finger to that] This is what I deal with every time I put on a dress. This is what I deal with every time someone takes a picture of me. Sometimes when I’m being interviewed by a fashion reporter, I can see it in her eyes, “How is she getting away with this? Why is she so confident? How does she deal with that body? Oh my God, I’m going to catch fat!”

The former “American Horror Story” star went on to say that every day she went to school, people made fun of her, and that she had to go home to a place where everyone made fun of her as well. But when she moved in with her aunt, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, whom she described as a “feminist, an activist, and a lifelong friend of Gloria Steinem,” a portrait of her aunt and Steinem together gave her hope and strength.
The actress closed out her speech returning again to the question of confidence — something she hopefully won’t have to address again.

“How are you so confident?” “I’m an asshole!” Okay? It’s my good time, and my good life, despite what you think of me. I live my life, because I dare. I dare to show up when everyone else might hide their faces and hide their bodies in shame. I show up because I’m an asshole, and I want to have a good time. And my mother and my father love me. They wanted the best life for me, and they didn’t know how to verbalize it. And I get it. I really do. They were better parents to me than they had themselves. I’m grateful to them, and to my fifth grade class, because if they hadn’t made me cry, I wouldn’t be able to cry on cue now. [Dabs tears] If I hadn’t been told I was garbage, I wouldn’t have learned how to show people I’m talented. And if everyone had always laughed at my jokes, I wouldn’t have figured out how to be so funny. If they hadn’t told me I was ugly, I never would have searched for my beauty. And if they hadn’t tried to break me down, I wouldn’t know that I’m unbreakable. [Dabs tears] So when you ask me how I’m so confident, I know what you’re really asking me: how could someone like me be confident? Go ask Rihanna, asshole!”

To read Sidibe’s entire speech, head over to Vulture.
article by Stephanie Marcus via huffingtonpost.com