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Posts tagged as “Forest Whitaker”

Forest Whitaker Works on Training Youth and "Overwhelming the World with Good" Through the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative

UNOCHA
Forest Whitaker (photo via huffingtonpost.com)
Three days ago, the world celebrated its 34th International Day of Peace. Two days from now, leaders from around the globe will gather at the United Nations and pledge their commitment to 17 Sustainable Development Goals, among them, Goal 16, promoting peace and justice. This week, then, is a perfect occasion for us to reflect on a concept that we all strive toward but whose true meaning often escapes us.
We usually think and talk about peace as the absence of bad things. Peace is a lack of war. Peace is a lack of violence. But true peace isn’t just the absence of bad; it is the presence of good. Peace is people having their most-basic human needs met. Peace is people exchanging knowledge and ideas. Peace is people sharing an abiding and mutual respect. Peace is people working together toward a common goal.
On the surface, this might seem like a small, semantic distinction. But, in practice, the difference between a negative peace — the absence of bad — and a positive peace — the presence of good — carries enormous consequences.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of former child soldiers. I’ve seen firsthand that, for these young men and women who have been forced to commit some of the most brutal atrocities imaginable, it is not enough to simply remove the violence from their lives. We can take a young man out of an army, but unless we fill that void with something positive — with an education, a job, a community — he is not truly free. He is still a soldier at heart, and when the next conflict breaks out five or 10 years in the future, he will be among the first recruited back to the battlefield.

True peace isn’t just the absence of bad; it is the presence of good. – Forest Whitaker

For these children — and in the world around us — building a lasting peace requires not only that we end conflicts and violence, but that we build societies that allow all women and men to learn freely, to become active participants in their local economies, and, most importantly, to feel safe in their homes and villages.
This principle is especially relevant in South Sudan, a country that has been at the forefront of my thoughts recently. A few weeks ago, the South Sudanese government and rebel forces finally signed a peace agreement after a 20-month civil war that has resulted in an unbearable amount of human suffering — tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of approximately 2.2 million people. This peace agreement is an important step in the right direction, and all of us in the international community hope that both sides honor its terms. But even this cessation of violence is no guarantee of a true peace.
The agreement makes me optimistic that the people of South Sudan will soon have some relief from this terrible conflict, but what truly gives me hope for that nation’s future are the remarkable young women and men I’ve met and worked with there. I’ve spoken with youths at the protection-of-civilians camp in the capital city of Juba who, in spite of all they’ve been through, speak with such unwavering passion about working together to rebuild their country. I’ve met teachers who have told me how excited they are to finish their training and go back to their communities and help ensure that every child in South Sudan receives the education she or he deserves. I have seen women and men reaching across ethnic lines to warn others of danger and coming together to advocate for non-violence and reconciliation.
That is what true peace — a positive peace — entails. All of these young women and men have identified some need in their communities, and they have been working in whatever way they can, despite the violence, to fill that need. Their courage is an example for us all.

Academy Award-Winning Actor Forest Whitaker Joins Cast of "Star Wars: Rogue One"

Forest Whitaker Star Wars Rogue One
Actor/Producer Forest Whitaker (GETTY IMAGES)

Forest Whitaker is in negotiations to join the cast of Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars” anthology pic “Rogue One.”  The film stars Felicity JonesRiz Ahmed, Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn, with Gareth Edwards directing.  Disney and Lucasfilm had no comment on the casting.
At April’s Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, Edwards revealed that the plot of “Rogue One” revolves around the heist of the Death Star plans by a group of rebel fighters, with Jones starring as one of the rebel soldiers. Sources say Ahmed and Luna also play Alliance fighters. Whitaker’s role is unknown at this time.
The film will take place between Episode III and Episode IV, but closer chronologically to “A New Hope.” It’s set to bow December 16, 2016.
Whitaker is currently filming Denis Villeneuve sci-fi drama “The Story of Your Life” opposite Amy Adams, and is in negotiations to follow that film with “The Crow” remake in the fall before jumping into production on “Star Wars: Rogue One.”
He’ll next appear in Antoine Fuqua’s boxing drama “Southpaw,” a potential Oscar contender bowing later this summer, and is a producer on critically acclaimed Sundance hit “Dope,” which opened Friday.
article by Justin Kroll via Variety.com

NAACP Image Awards: Kevin Hart Named Entertainer of the Year, "12 Years A Slave" Wins Best Picture

Kevin Hart wins Entertainer of the
(Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Kevin Hart was named Entertainer of the Year while 12 Years a Slave racked up another four awards including for Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards, which were held Saturday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.  Hart said he was a “real mama’s boy” and dedicated his prize to his mother, who recently passed away.

Director Steve McQueen and writer John Ridley won kudos for “12 Years” during a non-televised portion of the show Friday, while Supporting Actress Lupita Nyong’o said she was honored to win for a film ”that has inspired discourse long overdue.”
Forest Whitaker and David Oyelowo were honored for their roles in Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Angela Bassett won the Lead Actress prize for Black Nativity. Whitaker was also honored with the NAACP Chairman’s Award.  “I’m one of those with a funny accent and an African name,” Oyelowo referencing emcee Anthony Anderson’s earlier jokes about Brit actors with their accents and African names in his speech who cross the Pond to grab roles in Hollywood.  Meanwhile, Whitaker quoted a song from Nat King Cole, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved.”
On the television side, Hart and his BET show Real Husbands of Hollywood were honored for comedy, while Kerry Washington, Joe Morton and ABC’s Scandal picked up three awards for drama. Since showrunner Shonda Rhimes was unable to attend, Washington accepted the Scandal award. In her own acceptance speech, Washington said, “The historic nature of this role is due not to lack of talent, but lack of opportunity.”
The NAACP Image Awards were broadcast live on TV One and hosted by Anthony Anderson. Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Director’s Guild (DGA) president Paris Barclay were inducted into the Image Awards Hall of Fame. Both are the first African-American presidents of their respective organizations. Barclay referenced his upbringing saying, “I’m the first in a long line of factory workers.”  Boone Isaacs said AMPAS invited more women and minority this year than it ever has. “We still have a lot of work to do. I look forward to it,” she said to applause.

"12 Years a Slave" and "Lee Daniels’ The Butler" Among Top SAG Awards Nominees

Chiwetel Ejiofor in '12 Years a Slave'
Chiwetel Ejiofor in ’12 Years a Slave’ (Fox Searchlight)

The Screen Actors Guild released their list of award nominees this morning — one day before the Golden Globes announces their selections of the year’s best television shows and motion pictures.  Among the top nominees for the 20th annual SAG awards were 12 Years a Slave and Lee Daniels’ The Butler – which solidified their status as front-runners for the Oscars.
12 Years a Slave led the pack with four nominations: outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture, outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role (Chiwetel Ejifor), outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role (Michael Fassbender) and outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role (Lupita Nyong’o).  The film also scored big among other awards ceremonies after the Boston Society of Film Critics awarded the film its top prize while the New York Film Critics Online named it best picture of the year.
Lee Daniels’ The Butler was also a top contender with three nominations. Oprah Winfrey was nominated for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role and Forest Whitaker was among the nominees for outstanding performance by male actor in a leading role. The film was also nominated for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.
Meanwhile, in television Kerry Washington and Angela Bassett and Don Cheadle all earned nominations for their work this year, Washington for lead actress in the ABC drama Scandal, Bassett for her turn as Coretta Scott King in the Lifetime television movie Betty and Coretta, and Cheadle for his Showtime comedy series House of Lies.

‘The Butler’ Becomes 1st Black Film with Black Director To Break $100 Million Sales Mark In Over 20 Years

Lee Daniels’ The Butler has reached a new milestone.  According to reports, the drama is the first black film of 2013 to surpass the $100 million sales mark at the box office. In addition, it’s now the first “black film” directed by a black filmmaker to reach the achievement in the last 23 years.  “You’d find very few films that tell stories about black people, and that were directed by black filmmakers, with grosses of over $100 million,” Indie Wire reports.

“Part of the reason for that is that, within the studio system, black directors just haven’t always been given the opportunity to direct “black films” – especially those that did gross over $100 million in recent years, like Django UnchainedDreamgirlsThe Pursuit Of Happyness, and even Big Mommas House, which all grossed over $100 million, in their years of release, un-adjusted for inflation.”  Thanks to the success of the film, Lee Daniels says big box office bucks are no longer a concern for his future projects.

“I don’t think I’m going to have a problem now. I made $100 million for The Butler,” he said. “I’m in a rare group. So this is something I feel good about.”  Sources say the The Best Man Holiday, set for a November 15 release, has the potential to reach a similar height.
article by Myeisha Essex via blackamericaweb.com

Forest Whitaker To Play Colin Powell in Feature Film

Forest Whitaker arrives at the premiere of the movie 'The Butler' during the 39th Deauville American Festival on August 30, 2013 in Deauville, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)
Forest Whitaker arrives at the premiere of the movie ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ during the 39th Deauville American Festival on August 30, 2013 in Deauville, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)

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

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" Crosses $100 Million Mark at Box Office

Oprah Winfrey with (L-R) Lee Daniels, Forest Whitaker and David OyelowoPhoto Credit: © 2013 Harpo Studios, Inc.
Oprah Winfrey with (L-R) Lee Daniels, Forest Whitaker and David Oyelowo Photo Credit: © 2013 Harpo Studios, Inc.

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
 

Box Office: ‘Riddick’ Defies Post-Labor Day Slump With $18.7 Million, ‘Butler’ to Second Place

Riddick Movie
Vin Diesel helped light up what is usually a dark post-Labor Day box office period, with Universal’s franchise pic “Riddick” scoring a solid estimated $18.7 million domestically.  The film claimed the weekend’s No. 1 spot, unseating the Weinstein Co.’s “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which stayed strong in second place with $8.9 million. The three-week champ, which fell just 40% in its fourth frame, reached $91.9 million Stateside through Sunday.
Total domestic box office was up over this time last year by roughly 25%, thanks also to a excellent expansion for Lionsgate-Pantelion’s “Instructions Not Included.” The Hispanic-targeted crowdpleaser earned $8.1 million from just 717 locations, up from 384 last weekend, for a U.S. cume now past $20 million.
It was a sci-fi-themed weekend globally: Sony’s futuristic pic “Elysium” ranked first overseas with an estimated $21.2 million, of which China contributed $11.7 million in its first weekend locally. In total, “Elysium” has cumed $127 million internationally and $212 million worldwide.
While “Riddick” defied the post-Labor Day slump, the film still came in on the low-side of expectations. Pic opened with less than its predecessor’s $24 million debut in 2004, but the $38 million three-quel outperformed the original film, 2000′s “Pitch Black,” which grossed $11.6 million during opening weekend.
“We always try to find the right time for the right films,” said Universal distribution prexy Nikki Rocco. “This was an inexpensive venture for Universal, and we wanted Vin to have the No. 1 film.”
Not surprisingly, “Riddick” earned most of its opening from men, at 59%, with Hispanics contributing a sizable 37% of the gross. Imax also helped with fanboy appeal, posting $2.5 million of the domestic opening.
article by Andrew Stewart via variety.com

"Lee Daniels’ The Butler" Delivers Another #1 Showing at the Box Office

 oprah & forest (the butler)According to box office estimates, Lee Daniels’ The Butler the film beat out One Direction: This Is Us to win the Labor Day weekend box office race and become the first movie this year to finish No. 1 three consecutive weeks, according to TheWrap.

It appears the civil rights saga, starring Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker, will bring in a little more than $20 million over the four-day holiday weekend. After looking as if it was going to finish in the top spot, Sony’s boy band music documentary ended the Labor Day weekend with $18 million.
“We’re surprised,” The Weinstein Company’s distribution chief Erik Lomis told TheWrap, “and very proud. We weren’t expecting to come away with this one, especially after starting out $5 million behind ‘One Direction’ after Friday.”
Lomis said “The Butler,” which has now brought in nearly $80 million domestically, was continuing to broaden its demographic base by playing younger.
“With the kids getting back to school, we’re hoping the word of mouth gets even stronger,” said Lomis. There’s not much room to expand in terms of theaters; it’s on 3,330 screens and averaged just over $6,000.
Two other wide openers – the Selena Gomez-Ethan Hawke thriller “Getaway” and the Eric Bana spy tale “Closed Circuit” – were both non-starters. But “Instructions Not Included,” a family comedy starring Eugenio Derbez, recorded the biggest domestic opening ever for a Spanish-language movie – on just 347 screens – and finished fifth with $10 million for the four days.
Get the FULL story at TheWrap.

"Lee Daniels' The Butler" No. 1 for 2nd Weekend in a Row with $17 Million in Box Office

the-butler-3
According to variety.com, three new wide releases, led by Sony-Screen Gems’ Y/A adaptation The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, with an estimated $14.1 million in five days,  were no match for Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which only fell 31% in its second weekend, for a projected $17 million through Sunday. The Weinstein Co.-distributed movie has earned north of $52 million so far.
The holdover success of Lee Daniels’ The Butler can be largely attributed to its broadening audience: Last weekend, the film earned 76% of its gross from audiences over 35, while in its second weekend, that share shrunk to 63%. Moreover, African-Americans contributed a weighty 39% of the film’s opening; just 33% of its total this weekend came from black viewers.  The film’s playability mirrors the stronghold that The Help had on the box office this time two years ago.