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Posts published in “Entertainment”

Sony Pictures Television Launches Diverse Directors Program (Apply by June 6)

By goodblacknews on June 2, 2014

SPT Diverse Directors ProgramThe new Los Angeles-based initiative will provide an opportunity for candidates to shadow established TV directors on episodes of various hour and half-hour scripted Sony Pictures TV series. “The Diverse Directors Program will provide access and training to promising future directors and at the same time provide us with new, emerging talent behind the camera with various points of view,” SPT President Steve Mosko said. Submissions are being accepted online from May 23-June 6, or until 500 applications are received. Candidates must submit one completed example of a past directing project, letters of recommendation from entertainment industry professionals and an interview. Twenty semi-finalists will take part in an episodic directing workshop and attend networking events. The workshop will begin in June on Sony’s Culver City lot, and the curriculum will consist of six evenings of discussion and instruction from working directors and production personnel. Starting in August, three finalists will have an opportunity to shadow participating TV directors on various series and receive a weekly stipend. Participants be invited back to direct an episode of a scripted SPT series the following season. “Diversity on all levels is a central focus to many of our programs,” said Paul Martin, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer at Sony Pictures Entertainment, “and we fully believe that the Diverse Directors Program will not only provide access and experience to a diverse group of potential directors but will also become a key component of Sony Pictures’ business strategy.”
article via Deadline.com

50 Cent-Produced Starz Drama Series "Power" Debuts June 7

By goodblacknews on June 1, 2014

Omari Hardwick
Starz’s highly anticipated new original series Power will debut on Saturday, June 7th at 9pm ET/PT. Ahead of that premiere, the network has released the season’s premiere episode online, as part of a multi-platform, nationwide sampling of the first episode.

From the press release:

Power is the first-ever television show to premiere on Twitter using the service’s new in-line video feature that enables one-touch playback. The new video experience is based on Twitter Cards, which extends user interactions beyond favoriting, retweeting and replying and makes it possible for people to do things like watch videos, download apps, or view articles and photos — all from within a Tweet. Select multi-channel video distributors will offer linear, on-demand and online sampling opportunities of the first episode beginning today, May 31, one week in advance of the TV series premiere next Saturday. Approximately 79 million multichannel video households will have access to the sampling opportunities through select cable, satellite and telco affiliates in the United States.

The first episode of Power will also be available at www.starz.com/power, and online through select Starz cable, satellite, telco, and online distributors’ websites, including the Starz Power Twitter page at https://twitter.com/starz_channel, Starz Power MySpace page, the Starz YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/user/Starz, Starz Power Facebook page at www.facebook.com/power.starz, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Sony Entertainment Network and CinemaNow.

The series premiere of Power will also be available for sampling through the free Starz Play app for all users in the United States.

Executive produced by Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Power is a crime drama set in two different worlds – the glamorous New York club scene and the brutal drug trade.

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

Miles Davis' Birthday (Today) Celebrated with Official Unveiling of "Miles Davis Way" on New York's Upper West Side

By goodblacknews on May 26, 2014
miles-davis

The late Miles Davis (1926-1991) was an icon who changed the world of jazz and music forever. This Memorial Day, also the birthday of the beloved trumpeter, New York City will honor his legacy with a block party celebrating the official unveiling of “Miles Davis Way” (West 77th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue). This location is the site of Davis’ infamous, former brownstone, where he lived for nearly a quarter of a century and created some of his best music.

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I recently had the opportunity to chat with Miles Davis’ son Erin and nephew Vince Wilburn, Jr. for my podcast Whine At 9. The cousins shared their feelings about this special upcoming honor, their own music careers, and their family’s role in keeping the Miles Davis legacy alive.

Find out more about the NYC Memorial Day Block Party and Unveiling of “Miles Davis Way”.

When it comes to New York City’s block party celebration of his father, Miles’ son Erin admits, “We couldn’t be more excited–we’re just trying to wrap our heads around the whole situation.” He and cousin Vince, along with sister Cheryl Davis oversee Miles Davis Properties LLC and are intimately involved with maintaining the integrity and creativity of the music great’s legacy. The family plans to be in New York City to participate in this special honor.

Michael Jackson Makes Top 10 History with New Single

By goodblacknews on May 23, 2014

Watch Michael Jackson’s “Love Never Felt So Good” video

Jackson “returned” to the stage as a hologram, performing last weekend at the Billboard Music Awards. His performance ended with a standing ovation.

article by Kyle Harvey via thegrio.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

Spike Lee To Adapt His Feature "She’s Gotta Have It" As Series For Showtime

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2014

She's_Gotta_Have_It_film_posterSpike Lee is revisiting his debut feature, 1985′s She’s Gotta Have It, on the small screen. Showtime has put in development a half-hour series adaptation that updates the film, with Lee set to write and attached to direct. The project is taking a new, contemporary look at the characters and willspike leeexplore Lee’s unique and provocative points of view about race, gender, sexuality, relationships, and the gentrification in Brooklyn.

Showtime is a fitting home for the project as the pay cable network has built a whole slate of half-hour series that straddle comedy and drama in the tone of She’s Gotta Have It.

Lee made his breakthrough with She’s Gotta Have It, which he shot in 12 days during the summer of ’85 on a budget of $175,000.  The film, starring Tracy Camilla Johns as a young, sexually independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors (Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Lee), ended up grossing $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. It helped usher in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and paved the way for other black filmmakers.

article by Nellie Andreeva via Deadline.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

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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.”