Usher Raymond is on double movie duty with his credit as executive producer of the upcoming education documentary Undroppable, as well as his role in Hands of Stone as legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. The project, written and directed by Jason Pollock, will explore the dropout epidemic in the U.S. educational system with direct feedback from American students. The film will be supported by a social media/video campaign that will allow them to discuss the issues they face in school.
Raymond will executive produce with Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber‘s manager) who introduced him to the project, as well as Adam McKay, Sharon Chang, Alex Soros andJohn Powers Middleton. “I knew Usher was very passionate about the issue of education, so I felt this was a great project to bring him into,” said Braun. “His expertise will be invaluable as we continue this film and movement.”
Undroppable will be completed this year for a 2014 release.
article by via uptownmagazine.com
Posts published in “Movies”
Born on October 18, 1951 in Port Huron, Michigan, University of California, Berkeley graduate Terry McMillan‘s life-long interest in books and storytelling led her to publish her first book, Mama, in 1987 and her follow-up effort, Disappearing Acts, in 1989.
Her work is characterized by relatable female protagonists, received national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remained on The New York Times bestseller list for 38 straight weeks. In 1995, Forest Whitaker directed a film version of Exhale starring Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon and Whitney Houston. In 1998, another of McMillan’s novels, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was made into a successful movie starring Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs. McMillan’s novel Disappearing Acts was subsequently produced as a feature on HBO, starring Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan. She also wrote the bestseller A Day Late and a Dollar Short, soon to be adapted into a Lifetime movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. The Interruption of Everything was published on July 19, 2005. Getting to Happy, the long-awaited sequel to Waiting to Exhale, was published on September 7, 2010, and her latest novel, Who Asked You? was recently published this fall. To learn more about McMillan and her work, visit her website, terrymcmillan.com or follow her on Twitter at @MsTerryMcMillan.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
It wasn’t easy – but Idris Brewster and Seun Summers made it through. The two teenagers made it through a difficult, challenge-filled journey to graduate high school. And they made it through with cameras documenting their every move. The two friends w
ere the main characters in the documentary American Promise, which explores their lives in Brooklyn from kindergarten to high school graduation day.
Idris’ parents Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster are the film’s producers and directors. Both Idris and Seun, who are African-American, are admitted into the Dalton School, a prestigious private school on New York’s Upper East Side.
Both of the boy’s parents decide it’s an opportunity they cannot pass up – but also acknowledge there will be difficulties their sons face on issues of race and class.
How would Idris and Seun handle fitting into the culture of a mostly white prep school?
The answer is complex – which the film shows in situations varying from tragic to mundane. The documentary raises more questions than it provides answers:
- Why do girls say no to Idris when he asks them to dance in middle school? (His black male classmates are convinced they would all “get girls” if they were white)
- Why does the school perceive Seun as unprepared? (His mom swears he is organized and motivated at home)
- What are Seun and Idris ‘missing out on’ by attending Dalton?
Seun – who struggled to connect with other kids socially and had his fair share of academic troubles at Dalton – decides to leave after eighth grade and go to a predominantly black high school in Brooklyn.
Idris stays and attends high school at Dalton but is not without struggle – he is later diagnosed with ADHD during his sophomore year after years of trouble focusing. He also struggles to keep up with the academic rigors of Dalton, but ultimately stays and finds the experience rewarding.
The film first opens in theaters on October 18th.
article by Todd Johnson via thegrio.com
After hitting a home run with Lincoln, DreamWorks looks ready to take on another prominent historical figure. DreamWorks and Warner Bros. are in early talks with Oliver Stone to direct and Jamie Foxx to star as Martin Luther King Jr. in an untitled biopic. Both studios have been trying to get the picture up and running for some time, after putting the project into development in 2009 when it was supposed to team with Warner Bros. for a co-production.
The MLK drama is still far away from a greenlight but getting both Stone and Foxx to sign would speed up the process. Pic would follow the famous civil rights activist from his rise all the way to his assassination in 1968. Kario Salem wrote the original script with Steven Spielberg, Suzanne De Passe, Madison Jones and Samuel Nappi producing.
Both Foxx and Stone are no strangers to tackling projects dealing with historical events and iconic individuals — Stone with JFK, World Trade Center and W and Foxx with Ray Charles in Ray, for which he won an Academy Award.
article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com
The MLK drama is still far away from a greenlight but getting both Stone and Foxx to sign would speed up the process. Pic would follow the famous civil rights activist from his rise all the way to his assassination in 1968. Kario Salem wrote the original script with Steven Spielberg, Suzanne De Passe, Madison Jones and Samuel Nappi producing.
Both Foxx and Stone are no strangers to tackling projects dealing with historical events and iconic individuals — Stone with JFK, World Trade Center and W and Foxx with Ray Charles in Ray, for which he won an Academy Award.
article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s a boy for Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez. A representative for the 47-year-old actress confirms that the couple welcomed their son on Saturday. Publicist Meredith O’Sullivan Wasson offered no other details. E! News reports Berry delivered the baby at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
This is the second child for Berry. She has a 5-year-old daughter with her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry. The two settled their custody battle over the child in 2012. This is the first child for Martinez. The French actor and Berry married in July.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via usatoday.com
Forest Whitaker is on a real winning streak. This year his leading role in the blockbuster Lee Daniels’ The Butler is generating serious Oscar buzz, and now he has reportedly signed on to play former Secretary of State Colin Powell in an upcoming biopic. Actor Jeffrey Wright previously played Powell in Oliver Stone’s 2008 film W, but the influential Republican has never had a standalone film of his own.
According to the A.V. Club, the new movie, entitled Powell, will “focus on that pivotal moment of Powell’s 2002 speech to the U.N., in which he dramatically claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and sacrificed his sterling reputation in the service of Bush’s desire to invade at all costs.”
The intended release date and the rest of the cast are currently unknown.
article via thegrio.com
Jet magazine has teamed up with NBC Universal’s movie The Best Man Holiday to present a scholarship awarded to five deserving college students. The two partners have announced that they will be providing The Best Man Holiday Spring 2014 Scholarship – which has also received the sponsorship from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
“Jet is committed to the advancement of education for all individuals, especially those in the Black community, and I’m very excited that we have the opportunity to partner with NBC Universal to offer five students scholarship funds that may help further them toward earning a college degree,” said Jet magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Mitzi Miller in a statement.
“I love the first installment of The Best Man because it told a dynamic story of a group of diverse, adult friends who maintained a strong friendship since their years at college. What better way to celebrate such an inspiring narrative than to help a student finish college so they might one day enjoy that same experience.” Students who are interested in applying should submit all materials by Tuesday, October 15 and winners will officially be announced in the November 25 issue of JET.
Visit JetMag.com for more information.
article by Lilly Workneh via thegrio.com
Lifetime has greenlit a biopic on the life of two-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas, tentatively titled The Gabby Douglas Story. The movie will follow Douglas from childhood, when she began formal gymnastics as a 6-year-old, to the present; and so 2 actresses will play her – Sydney Mikayla will be Gabby Douglas as a child, and Imani Hakim will be Gabby Douglas in her teens, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she won gold medals in both the individual and team all-around competitions.
Regina King will play her mother, and S. Epatha Merkerson will be her grandmother. Douglas will also appear in the film herself, which is produced by Sony Pictures TV.
From the press release description:
A prodigy from a very young age, Gabby Douglas originally made her mark on the world of competitive gymnastics at age eight. She won numerous state championship titles in her age group throughout her early competitive career. While her star was fast rising in the arena, Gabby and her family faced economic challenges at home and she made the difficult decision to leave her mother Natalie (King), three siblings and grandmother (Merkerson) in Virginia Beach and move to Des Moines, Iowa, to train with renowned coach Liang Chow (Brian Tee, The Wolvernine) to pursue her dream of Olympic glory. Buoyed by her early success, dedication and unyielding love from her family, Gabby made it onto the 2012 U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team, with whom she faced intense competition in the London Games. Her sacrifice and perseverance were triumphantly rewarded with Team Competition and Individual All-round gold medals, placing Gabby and her teammates – known as “The Fierce Five” — among the world’s all-time greats in gymnastics.
The telepic will be directed by Gregg Champion (Lifetime’s Amish Grace) from a script written by Maria Nation(Lifetime’s The Two Mr. Kissels). Zev Braun and Philip Krupp (also Lifetime project alums) will serve as executive producers, with David Rosemont producing. The Gabby Douglas Story will film in Manitoba, Canada, and debut in 2014.
article by Tambay A. Obenson via ShadowAndAct
Although it’s been in theaters for more than a month, Lee Daniels’ The Butler continued its strong box-office performance with a fourth-place finish that saw North American ticket sales cross the $100 million mark. With a production budget of approximately $30 million, in limited release internationally and awards season still ahead, The Butler is in strong contention for becoming one of the most profitable movies of 2013.
The top movie this weekend was horror film Insidious: Chapter 2, which debuted in first place with $41 million, more than tripling the opening take of the 2010 original. Another newcomer, Relativity Media’s Robert De Niro-Michelle Pfeiffer crime caper The Family, opened in second place with $14.5 million. That bumped last week’s champ, the Vin Diesel starrer Riddick, to third. Jennifer Aniston vehicle We’re The Millers rounded out the top five.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson
THINGS NEVER SAID Cast: Shanola Hampton (Kalindra Stephney), Omari Hardwick (Curtis Jackson), Elimu Nelson (Ronnie), Tamala Jones (Daphne), Michael Beach (Will Jackson), Dorian Missick (Steve), Charlayne Woodard (Charlotte), Tom Wright (Daniel) Written & Directed by: Charles Murray Rated: R Ohio Street Pictures
I might as well get out the disclosure right up front: I have known Things Never Said writer/director Charles Murray for well over fifteen years, and at every turn of his career (executive at Magic Johnson’s production company, television writer on Third Watch and Criminal Minds, independent filmmaker) I have rooted for him. Charles is smart, funny and more than a bit of an unapologetic iconoclast, which could only mean two things for him – career suicide or artistic success. After seeing Things Never Said, I am thrilled to report he is a creative force only beginning to mine the gifts he has to share with this world.
The story of Things Never Said is deceptively simple: Kalindra (Shanola Hampton), a young woman haunted by a miscarriage and stuck in a bad marriage to former basketball star Ronnie (Elimu Nelson), seeks an outlet through spoken-word poetry. Kal succumbs to an affair with Curtis (Omari Hardwick), a fellow poet who seems to see into her soul, but has his own heavy baggage Kal may not want to take on. While that might sound prosaic and maybe even a little pretentious (note: the poetry is extremely well-performed and relatable, so if you weren’t a poetry fan before, you will be after this), what’s special about this movie is the nuanced, complex and unpredictable ways Murray has his characters grapple with their conflicts.
At first, you don’t want Kal to cheat on her husband – she is too intelligent and creative a woman to fall for the game the sexy-but-mysterious Curtis spits at her. But then again, you also wonder why Kal is staying with the sullen, unsupportive Ronnie, who seems to be going nowhere in his life and holding her back from hers. As the layers start to unfold, you learn not only has Ronnie gone through the hardship of losing his future, but also that Kal was brought up by her mother Charlotte (Charlayne Woodard) to believe that sticking with one’s husband no matter what is what defines a woman as a good person and wife. So when Kal finally does give in to her attraction to Curtis, they have so much chemistry and tenderness and understanding between them you want her to get away with the affair… until you realize Curtis may have even less to offer Kal than Ronnie when it’s revealed he’s an ex-con and why he landed in jail in the first place.
Actress Shanola Hampton carries the organic twists and turns of this movie so beautifully it’s surprising she’s never had a major role in a film before. She has an equally able partner in Omari Hardwick, who makes you root for Curtis despite the palpable possibility he may be more trouble than he’s worth. Which, I think, is Murray’s point – no matter how much you connect to another person and no matter how they make you feel about yourself or even challenge you to become your better self – the real romance and discovery lies within knowing and healing oneself. This is the thing not said about love – it alone does not conquer all. This is the thing not said about art or creative outlets – they alone do not solve deep issues. Kalindra is not “saved” by Curtis or her poetry, but rather, they both shed light on her path to saving and healing herself from all of the preconceived notions she’s grown up on, from all the ways she’s limited herself, and from all of the abuse she’s accepted – external and internal.
Things Never Said is an important addition to African-American independent cinema and humanistic storytelling that should not be missed. Its Los Angeles run has been extended through September 19 and the film opens in Atlanta, Boston, Washington DC, and Gary, Indiana on September 13 – TODAY! Please get out and support the movie — you can get updates on other showings around the country from thingsneversaid.com or on the Things Never Said Facebook Page. Also, check out the trailer below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1BFiyFqXfQ&w=560&h=315]