Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has achieved EGOT status.
He’s now the 21st person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
Robert Lopez is the only double-EGOT winner.
You would be forgiven for thinking that he was already there given his career to date, but thanks to a Grammy win as one of the producers on ‘Music by John Williams,’ a tribute to the storied career (and the director’s longtime friend and collaborator), Steven Spielberg has joined the EGOT club.
For those thinking, “EWhat?” it means those who have won the four major awards, an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
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Spielberg becomes the 21st person to achieve the illustrious status (see more below).
But despite his many awards, Spielberg has some way to go to compete with ‘Frozen’ co-songwriter Robert Lopez, who has managed to win them all at least twice.
When will Spielberg’s next movie arrive?
The director has his latest movie, sci-fi thriller ‘Disclosure Day’, due on June 12 this year.
Emily Blunt in ‘Disclosure Day’, directed by Steven Spielberg. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bobby Cannavale about his work on ‘Ezra’, his first reaction to the screenplay, his character, working with William Fitzgerald and playing a stand-up comic on screen.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Cannavale, Rose Byrne and director Tony Goldwyn.
(L to R) William A. Fitzgerald and Bobby Cannavale in Bleecker Street’s ‘Ezra’. Credit: Bleecker Street.
Moviefone: To begin with, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what were some of the aspects of this character that you were excited to explore on screen?
Bobby Cannavale: I loved the script. First, it was sent to me by Tony Goldwyn, who I’ve been friends with for a while. We’d been wanting to do something together. He gave me the whole backstory of (screenwriter) Tony Spiridakis being his best friend, and how he has an autistic son. So, I knew that going in, reading the script, and it did add a weight to it. I just thought it was well-crafted, well written, and I was just very moved by it. I still get moved thinking about the actual first time that I read that script. I was really taken aback by it. I have three sons of my own and that feeling of going to the bat for your child and doing whatever it takes to get them to be seen the way they need to be seen, is something that’s intimate for me. So, I was excited to take on the role. I liked the idea of playing somebody that was so reactive and how I could make that character yet still have some kind of empathic quality to him. Sometimes, that’s hard to accomplish, somebody who is that reactive and at times violent, for instance. But if his heart is in the right place and he’s doing it for the right reasons, sometimes you can get people on board with that. I thought that would be an interesting problem to solve and so I did. I just enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the idea of finding a neurodiverse actor to work with. We looked for a long time. We saw so many kids. I really appreciated that experience and getting to know William and his family and the journey that they’re on.
Bobby Cannavale in Bleecker Street’s ‘Ezra’. Credit: Bleecker Street.
MF: Finally, can you talk about your approach to portraying a stand-up comedian in this film? Did you go to any comedy clubs and get on stage to get a feel for it?
BC: I didn’t go up on stage. I’ve got a lot of stand-up comedian friends. For some reason, I just have a lot of comic friends. I have for many years, some very well-known, others not. So, I’ve spent a lot of time in comedy clubs. But more to the point, I’ve spent a lot of time with these guys and some women. What’s always fascinating to me, it’s not so much the joke, it’s the process of them coming up with their material. I’ve been in a car with stand-ups who have the yellow legal pad there, and I’m looking at it. I’m like, “What’s this joke?” I’ve had comics say to me, “I’m not really going for the joke tonight. I just want to sort of play around in that neighborhood and see what kind of a reaction it gets.” I find that fascinating, the putting together of an act. This guy is clearly going through something on stage, the only place where he could really be himself and really speak plainly and speak his mind. There’s that scene. We have a scene with the other comics where they’re saying, “The point of comedy is to be funny.” And he says, “I’m not doing that. I’m telling stories up there.” That resonated very much with me because I do know comics who work like that. I’ve gone to see comics who are very funny, not be funny because they’re looking for something. I thought that’s something that was very attractive to me, to see somebody in process, trying to put this act together while at the same time trying to work out whatever demons he was trying to work through.
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What is the plot of ‘Ezra’?
Max Brandel (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father, Stan (Robert De Niro), struggles to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife, Jenna (Rose Byrne). When faced with difficult decisions about their son’s future, Max and Ezra set out on a cross-country road trip.
Who is in the cast of ‘Ezra’?
Bobby Cannavale as Max Brandel
Robert De Niro as Stan
Rose Byrne as Jenna
William Fitzgerald as Ezra
Vera Farmiga as Grace
Whoopi Goldberg as Jayne
Rainn Wilson as Nick
Tony Goldwyn as Bruce
(L to R) Robert De Niro, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, and William A. Fitzgerald in Bleecker Street’s ‘Ezra’. Credit: Bleecker Street.
(L to R) Mario Van Peebles and Mandela Van Peebles in ‘Outlaw Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mario Van Peebles and Mandela Van Peebles about their new Western, developing the screenplay, returning to the genre, if it is a sequel to Van Peebles’ 1993 movie ‘Posse,’ playing father and son on screen, working together on set, putting together the terrific cast, preparing for their roles, and if Allen Payne’s final line is a ‘New Jack City’ Easter egg.
You can read the full interview below of click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Mario and Mandela Van Peebles, as well as John Carroll Lynch, William Mapother, Jake Manley, and Amber Reign Smith.
(L to R) Mario Van Peebles and Melvin Van Peebles in 1993’s ‘Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
Moviefone: To begin with, Mario, can you talk about returning to the Western genre with ‘Outlaw Posse,’ and do you consider it just a companion piece or an unofficial sequel to 1993’s ‘Posse’?
Mario Van Peebles: I would say companion. Like you saw Clint Eastwood in multiple spaghetti Westerns, this one has its own thing. Now, let me just say this, when I did ‘Posse’ 30 years ago, my first Western, my dad (Melvin Van Peebles) was around, and my son wasn’t born yet. When I did ‘Outlaw Posse’ recently, my dad wasn’t around, and here Mandela is. When I wrote the script, I was thinking about that Johnny Cash song, ‘A Boy Named Sue,’ about a boy who has got a challenging relationship with his pop. I thought, “Who better to play my onscreen son than Mandela here?” So, here we are again.
(L to R) Mario Van Peebles and Mandela Van Peebles in ‘Outlaw Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
MF: Mandela, what was it like for you to be directed by your father?
Mandela Van Peebles: It was a lot of fun. We have a relationship where we get to wear many different hats, and this time around, we got to wear cowboy hats, ride horses, and basically enjoy life in Montana together. So, the experience was great. We’ve been father-son on set before, where he’s directed. We’ve been father and son where we’ve both been acting. This was one of the ones where we got to do both together, and that’s a lot of fun. The stunts, doing that was also a blast, because it’s an indie. So, a lot of the effects, a lot of the things you see on screen were as practical as can be. ‘Outlaw Posse,’ it’s a Western, but the genre is very much still relevant to what’s going on today, as far as the issues we’re touching on in the film.
Mario Van Peebles in ‘Outlaw Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
MF: Mario, can you talk about developing the screenplay and the themes that you wanted to explore as a director?
Mario Van Peebles: One of every three cowboys was Black. The very named cowboy, they gave to Black guys as sort of a derogatory term, and they used to give them the dirty jobs. They said, “Take care of the horses, boy. Take care of the cow, boy. Where’d those cowboys go?” The white guys liked being called Rough Riders, which is a cool name. But once Hollywood started to glorify cowboys, then they brought in white actors to play them and even to play Native Americans. So, the Westerns we grew up on were more whitewashed than the reality of what the West was. Before women could vote, you had Stagecoach Mary, who’s a badass sister with a rifle and a stagecoach and a deal with the US Postal Service. She’s played by Whoopi Goldberg and played well. At the end, you go, “Wow, she looks like the real Stagecoach Mary.” So not only do you see the real diversity of the West, but you see the pictures of the real people that we’re portraying at the end. I always love that, truth is stranger than fiction, right? When I did ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ with Clint Eastwood, he talked about the incredible diversity, which is why, in ‘Unforgiven,’ he put Morgan Freeman right there, because that was the ratio of cowboys. It’s fun to get it out there and say, “This is more the reality than what we’ve been seeing, and we can learn from it.” As the French say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
(L to R) Mandela Van Peebles, Mario Van Peebles and Amber Reign Smith in ‘Outlaw Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
MF: Mario, can you talk about what it means to you personally to have had this opportunity to work with your son, as well as putting together the rest of the talented cast?
Mario Van Peebles: Well, working with him is fun. It’s a dream come true. We wrestle, we play, we laugh, we agree sometimes, we disagree sometimes, but I think, when I’m directing him, he knows that it’s coming from a place of love. Because when you hit the ground running, you want to know that everyone knows their part. Well, one thing I know, he knows how to play my son and I know how to play his dad. So, we’ve been practicing that for a few years. But also, what I try to do as a director is I like to give the foot rub I want to get. What does that mean? That means that John Carroll Lynch is going to get a great introduction as the big guy with the little bird. No animal’s ever lied to him yet. Whoopi Goldberg’s going to great and M. Emmett Walsh and Neal McDonough. So, you’re going to get great actors in even just cameo roles that are going to come in. I like to look at an actor and know that they know way more than they need for that character, that there is an intelligence there that I get. I think, when you’re that kind of filmmaker, and you say, “My own ego can get out of the way, because I don’t care about that. I want the movie to be great. If you can bring some great secret sauce and we can collectively bring the generosity, let’s do that and let’s get in the saddle and make it happen.”
Mandela Van Peebles in ‘Outlaw Posse.’ Photo: Quiver Distribution.
MF: Mandela, can you talk about preparing for this role?
Mandela Van Peebles: Yeah, the prep work was fun. We spent, what was it, around two months, just being in that environment, being in the wardrobe, seeing that landscape and that just puts you in the head space to make a Western. The wranglers, who helped us out, they were great and professional. We got plenty of time to basically, I like to call it free riding, but practicing. I got to ride horses as much as I wanted, and that’s a win for me. I had a great time. The stunts were fun. We did our own stunts. It was all kind of great stuff. Shooting a lot of the old guns is very different than modern guns.
(Center) Allen Payne in ‘New Jack City.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
MF: Finally, Mario, actor Allen Payne’s last line in ‘Outlaw Posse’ is a callback to his famous line from ‘New Jack City,’ “Am I my brother’s keeper.” Was that line originally in the script, or was it a ‘New Jack City’ Easter egg that was improvised on set?
Mario Van Peebles: Totally. No one’s gotten that yet, but there’s a lot of things that, if you watch this movie, there’s some layers, even from the Native American brothers and sisters that are in this movie. But yeah, when I brought Allen in and we talked about that, I was like, because what we were saying is that, in that tunnel, when we all dropped the peyote, and again, in Westerns, you don’t typically see that, but I was like, “Oh, I always loved that scene in ‘Easy Rider,’ where they get stoned, and you see this different side of them.” So, Allen Payne’s character sees his mother alive, and his mother said to him as a kid, “A Black man will never get any respect, unless he’s got money, unless he’s got gold.” So, he has this whole thing, and yet, Chief has respect from a multiracial group of people, which is kind of a mindblower to him. Then, he’s like, “But you’re supposed to be my keeper.” So, Allen and I were unpacking that character and saying, “Let’s bring these levels.” So, I’m glad you noticed that.
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What is the Plot of ‘Outlaw Posse’?
In 1908, Chief (Mario Van Peebles) returns from years of hiding in Mexico to claim stolen gold hidden in the hills of Montana. In his quest, he reunites an ensemble of fresh & familiar faces – together they fight off Angel (William Mapother), whose rationale to the gold leaves a trail of deception and dead bodies.
In season two of ‘Harlem,’ after blowing up her career and disrupting her love life, Camille (Meagan Good) has to figure out how to put the pieces back together. While Tye (Jerrie Johnson) considers her future, Quinn (Grace Byers) goes on a journey of self-discovery, and Angie’s (Shoniqua Shandai) career takes a promising turn.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Meagan Good and Jerrie Johnson to talk about their work on ‘Harlem’ season 2, how their characters have changed since last season, what will happen to them this season, and the overall themes of the series.
(L to R) Jerrie Johnson and Meagan Good star in Prime Video’s ‘Harlem’ Season 2.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Good, Johnson, Grace Byers, Shoniqua Shandai, Tyler Lepley, and Tracy Oliver.
Moviefone: To begin with, Meagan, can you talk about where we left Camille at the end of last season, and what she’ll be dealing with in season 2?
Meagan Good: At the end of season one, she is dating this amazing guy who is a lot of the things that she’s wanted, but she still feels feelings for Ian, her ex. She’s deciding between Jameson (Sullivan Jones) and Ian (Tyler Lepley). Then she doesn’t really have a choice with Ian because now he’s getting married and we finish last season with Quinn going to take Ian’s fiancé’s dress that she designed and all those wonderful things. Camille goes inside of the building and runs into Ian, they have this moment and they end up kissing. That’s where we end season one.
So season two we pick up right where we left off, dealing with the aftermath, the consequences, the conversations and what actually is going to happen because technically Camille’s still dating Jameson and Ian is getting married. Is he getting married? Are they going to get back together? Who knows?
In this season, I think that the biggest arc, the through line that I can share for Camille, is that she’s discovering a lot of who she is and she’s discovering a lot of who she isn’t. I think that she’s getting a lot of revelation about things that she thought about herself, or things that she thought about life, or relationships, or whatever it is and just really getting these illuminating realizations.
How it shows itself is pretty interesting and fun to watch because I think everybody can relate to it. It’s not like, you almost kissed the groom and then we cut to a year later and let’s see where everyone’s at. We get in there, we have the moments and we have the real conversations. What would you do and what wouldn’t you do? Why did you do it? Why was that important? I think the biggest thing, the through line, is just self-discovery, self-reflection and discovering who she is, which I think she’s very surprised with what she finds out about herself.
(L to R) Meagan Good, Shoniqua Shandai, Grace Byers, and Jerrie Johnson in Prime Video’s ‘Harlem’ Season 2.
MF: Finally, Jerrie, can you talk about what Tye is going through this season?
Jerrie Johnson: There’s a lot at stake for Tye with the health scare, with her husband showing up and dealing with what that might look like and not wanting to address that, but having that in close proximity. Then also not being completely honest with her friends about her husband and him not leaving. I think she is afraid. She doesn’t want to say that she’s afraid, but she is afraid because Tye has always had control of her life.
Ever since she left home, she’s always had control over her life and she’s banked on having control of her life because she didn’t have that control when she was back home. This is one of the first times in her adult life that everything has spiraled out of control.
So I think for season two she is trying to deal with as much as she can as possible. Some stuff has to fall by the wayside but I think maybe her biggest mission is to prove Brandon (Kadeem Ali Harris) wrong in what he said about her not having love in her life, so now she wants to find love and I think that’s her mission of season two.
‘Harlem’ Season 2 premieres February 3rd on Prime Video.
Out now in theaters, ‘Till’ has a powerful, shocking and important story to tell, but the film delivering the message isn’t always quite up to the task and occasionally dips into such earnestness that it verges on parody.
The horrific lynching of Black teen Emmett Louis Till in Mississippi in 1955 remains both a terrible stain on human history and the spur for real, positive change in American race relations, mostly thanks to his crusading mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
What really makes the movie work is a full-power lead performance from actress Danielle Deadwyler, who completely owns the role of Mamie and absolutely holds your attention in a vice grip whenever she is on screen.
The movie chronicles what happened when 14-year-old Emmett travelled from Chicago to Mississippi to visit his uncle and cousins. A worried Mamie – her anxiety at her son being away for an extended period of time understandably heightened by the seething racism pervading much of the South – packs him off on the train after numerous warnings about not attracting attention and being careful how he interacts with white people.
Emmett, though, a vivacious, bright and sweet lad (played well here by Jalyn Hall) is mostly excited to be taking the trip and to hang out with his cousins. Frustrated by spending long hours in the sun picking cotton, he’s happier making everyone laugh.
That evening, the group heads to a local store to enjoy cokes and conversation. Emmett heads in to buy candy. Working the counter is the nervy Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett), who is none too thrilled when Emmett compliments her by telling her she looks like a movie star. It’s an innocent encounter for him but compounded when he later wolf-whistles at her.
Carolyn goes for a gun and the customers scramble, but while Emmett is convinced that the incident has blown over with no repercussions, tragedy strikes when a group of white men, including Bryant’s husband, Roy (Sean Michael Weber), and his half-brother J.W. Milam (Eric Whitten) abduct him from his uncle’s house at gun point.
Emmett is tortured and lynched (the film chooses to have this happen mostly offscreen), and his bloated, scarred and ruined body shows up in a river days later.
A heartbroken Mamie insists on having her son’s body sent back to Chicago, displayed in an open casket without his injuries being repaired, and allowing pictures to be sent out. Her hope is to spur the arm of justice and to bring such racist attacks to a wider audience.
Teaming up with the NAACP and Civil Rights crusaders such as Medgar Evers (played by Tosin Cole), Mamie travels to Mississippi to speak at Bryant and Milam’s trial, hoping against hope that a jury composed entirely of old White men will actually deliver a guilty verdict.
As history records, it doesn’t work out that way – even later, when the men confessed to the crime in a magazine interview and still remained free – but the stage was set for the eventual passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1957 and, with a typically slow crawl on such matters, the introduction of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which made lynching a Federal hate crime, this year.
It is the sort of story that demands faithfulness and care, and director Chinonye Chukwu certainly delivers on that front, eschewing showy style and (usually) unnecessary dramatics to bring it to life.
Working with co-writers Michael Reilly and Keith Beauchamp, she largely allows the importance of the message to shine through, but the real ace up her sleeve is her leading actor.
Deadwyler is a revelation here: she has been working for years and impressed recently in Western ‘The Harder They Fall’. But in ‘Till’, she’s on another level, by turns crusading and crushed, human and heroic.
She’s so magnetic, the movie sometimes suffers when she’s not on screen. Mamie is truly put through the wringer in this narrative, and Deadwyler has the skill to make every moment work. She is endlessly watchable whether she’s interacting with her son or keening over his battered body.
We’ll be surprised if her name doesn’t crop up in awards talk as a real Best Actress contender, such is the impressive level of work on display here. Directors will hopefully be beating down her door to cast her after this.
Which is not to say the rest of the ensemble is in any way lacking. As mentioned, Hall infuses Emmett with such joyous life that his slaying is all the more tragic. Whoopi Goldberg, in a smaller role as Mamie’s own mother (she also co-produced the movie), is quietly powerful when called upon, though her character somewhat fades into the background when Mamie heads to Mississippi.
On the troublesome side, the movie does tend to dip into indulgence at times, scenes and certain shots left to linger long past when they should have cut away. Other editing choices are confusing, scenes cutting away abruptly when they needed room to breathe.
One or two of the performances also verge on cliched and overwrought. The issues with the movie don’t dilute the power of the message, though, and if you only know the tale Emmett Till as a vague, troubling moment in history, this is a way to educate yourself.
If films such as this can sometimes feel like you’re being told to eat your vegetables, the story itself is worth digging into, as relevant today as it ever was. Which might be one of the saddest truths of all.
Opening in theaters on October 14th is the new biographical drama ‘Till,’ which was directed by Chinonye Chukwu (‘Clemency’) and is based on the heartbreaking true story of Emmet Till.
The film tells the true story of 14-year-old Emmet Till (Jalyn Hall), who in 1955 traveled from Chicago to Mississippi and was murdered by white supremacists. The story also follows the aftermath of the tragedy and how Emmet’s mother, Mamie (Danielle Deadwyler) became an educator and activist in the Civil Rights Movement following her son’s death.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Danielle Deadwyler and Jalyn Hall about their work on ‘Till,’ the true story it is based on, approaching their roles, and what they hope audiences learn from the film.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Deadwyler, Hall, and director Chinonye Chukwu.
Moviefone: To begin with, Danielle, what does it mean for you personally to be a part of a project like this, and how did your research help you prepare for this role?
Danielle Deadwyler: This project is a part of a continuum of my experience in being a recipient of the legacy of civil rights. I’m from Atlanta. My family attended Cascade United Methodist Church, where the pastor at the time was Dr. Joseph Lowry. Dr. Joseph Lowry had the relationship with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, and they started the SCLC, which is the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
And that is where I did years along with my siblings of volunteer work and learned about organizing and learned about civil rights. I learned about the contributions of SCLC to the Civil Rights Movement, and from women who are unsung in a way that Mamie Till is unsung.
So, all of that connects to Mamie Till, and that Dr. King was deeply impacted by her, Rosa Parks was deeply impacted by here, and by the choices that she made at this time. So, all of that personal history for me and experience goes into my understanding, my own spiritual personal research of what this project, what Mamie Till’s role was historically, and within the context of this, based on the true story narrative.
In conjunction to that, there was just a host of other resources that I dove into, be them archival images, photographs, videos, a wealth of academic thesis, music, poetry, all kinds of stuff. As well as personal anecdotes that come from people, Chicagoans who had Interfacings with Mamie Till in the latter years of her life.
Also talking with Keith Beauchamp, who was a mentee of Mamie, and was one of our producers and a co-writer of the film. So, I’ve just had a super well rounded, spiritual, familial, personal, academic, artistic resource well that enabled me to have as much as I could to go into this role with.
MF: Jalyn, what does it mean to you personally to be part of a project like this?
Jalyn Hall: This project means so much to me in a sense of, I myself am only one year older than how old Emmett was when these series of events happened. So, it’s that seeing myself in this person, in this child, and having the same personality traits, love for my mom, love for my family, love for the world in general, and just wanting to be happy and have fun.
So, being able to portray that in such a manner so that the whole world can see this human being, this human child for who he was, was something that was so important to not only me, but to my team, my family, and my community in general. That’s something that wasn’t always shown.
Unfortunately, not everyone knows about the story, but those who do know only know a little bit, a tiny fraction of who he was. Or not even who he was, but what happened to him that changed the world, that started revolutions. But not him as a single person. Not his relationship with his mother, not the love that his mother had for him, and what that made her do.
So, it’s understanding the essence of these two people and what actually happened. That authenticity is amazing, and that’s what it is to me. It’s the authentic story that people can learn, educate, feel, connect with, and take back whatever it is that they do.
MF: Finally, what do you hope audiences take away from Emmett’s story?
JH: They will take back whatever is significant to them, and they will change in whatever way is unique to them. But hopefully just knowing the love and unity that was shown between Emmett and his mother and seeing the love and unity that was not shown from others in Mississippi at that time.
Seeing the loving unity around people today, around themselves, around their people, around their family, around others, and just seeing where that came from and where it will go in the future. So, hopefully they see that. Hopefully they come back with knowing that.
The tragic real-life murder of Emmett Till in 1955 is one that still resonates today. And United Artists’ ‘Till’ chronicles the story of his mother’s fight for justice.
‘Till’ stars Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley, who was the mother in question.
You can find the trailer above, which features emotional narration from Deadwyler’s Till-Mobley, and new images both from the film and behind the scenes are now available below.
14-year-old Till (played in the film by Jalyn Hall) travelled from Chicago to Mississippi to spend time with his cousins. Till was abducted and killed in 1955 after a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, falsely accused him of whistling at her, grabbing her, and making lewd remarks toward her in a store.
Two white men, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, later kidnapped, tortured, and murdered Till. They were acquitted that year by an all-white, all-male jury, but later confessed to killing Till in an interview with Look magazine. And Donham later admitted that she fabricated the encounter with Till.
Till-Mobley’s insistence on an open casket funeral for her battered teenage son at the hands of a white mob became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. The likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks both cited Till’s death as fueling their own activism.
The film is based on the extensive research of award-winning documentarian Keith Beauchamp and his relationship with Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till’s cousin, Simeon Wright. Latter was an eyewitness to the kidnapping of Till and served as a consultant to the project before his death in 2017.
“I am deeply honored to be telling this story and working with such an incredible producing team,” Chukwu said in a statement when the movie was first announced. “Amidst the pain and brutality that is inherent to Mamie and Emmett’s story, I intend to delve deeply into their humanities, the love and joy they shared, and the activist consciousness that grows within Mamie as she seeks justice for her son.”
“Today the return of open racism reminds us that the real danger is in not telling Emmett Till’s story,” Whoopi Goldberg, who also produces the film alongside ‘Bond’ veteran Barbara Broccoli, adds. “Chinonye Chukwu taking the helm as our director is an opportunity for us to step forward artfully and without fear to tell the truth. We could not be in better hands.”
The movie will premiere at this year’s New York Film Festival, with screenings planned for high school students in the city and across America with post-film conversations as part of an educational initiative.
‘Till’ will be in select theaters on October 14th, before going wide from October 28th.
The cast of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ (1965 – 1969).
Nichelle Nichols, who found stardom thanks to her iconic role as Lt. Uhura in the original ‘Star Trek’ TV series, has died. She was 89.
Though Nichols was best known for her years on the classic science fiction show, she also enjoyed a long, respected career.
Born Grace Nichols in Robbins, Ill. on Dec. 28, 1932, she initially pursued singing and dancing as a career, creating a ballet at the age of 16 from one of Duke Ellington’s compositions and singing with him at performances of it. She also performed with his band.
From there, she studied in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles and then pursued a career in musicals, her biggest success coming with ‘Porgy and Bess’ on stage and scoring an uncredited role as a dancer in the movie version. She won various awards for her work, but following some small movie roles, her life would change when she was cast as Lt. Uhura in ‘Star Trek’ in 1966.
It was a groundbreaking part in many ways, not least because it was a role for a Black actor that wasn’t as a maid or other subservient position. Instead, as the communications officer on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, she was a part of the main crew. And while there remains debate in the matter, she participated in what is still seen as a TV first, an interracial kiss with Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner.
The cast of ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ (1991).
Despite the seeming opportunities offered by ‘Trek’, Nichols considered leaving the show after the first season to relaunch her Broadway career. A famous fan strongly advised her to stay aboard: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“‘You cannot, you cannot… for the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful, people who can sing dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers,’” Nichols recalled King saying to her in a 2013 interview. “‘If you leave, that door can be closed because your role is not a black role, and is not a female role, he can fill it with anybody even an alien.’”
Nichols would indeed gone on to star in the next two seasons, and the six ‘Star Trek’ movies featuring the original cast, as well as the animated series. Whoopi Goldberg, who realized her own ‘Trek’ dream via a part on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, cited Nichols as inspiration for her own entertainment career.
Following her primary run on ‘Star Trek’ Nichols also became an advocate for bringing women and minorities into the sciences and was hired by NASA to help encourage astronaut recruitment.
Though none of her other TV or movie work quite matched the level of ‘Trek’, she still had plenty of roles, lending her voice to a variety of animated series and appearing in movies such as ‘Snow Dogs’, ‘Are We There Yet?’ and ‘White Orchid’. She also had a recurring run on ‘Heroes’.
“I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years,” her son, Kyle Johnson wrote on Nichols’ Facebook page on Sunday. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”
The cast of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ (1965 – 1969).
John Lasseter was once the king of American animation – the genius storyteller and director who led Pixar to huge box office wins, Oscar success and massive popular acclaim with movies such as ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Cars’ and being anointed as the creative boss at both the Emeryville studio and Walt Disney Feature Animation.
He was ousted from his position, though, after revelations about toxic and misogynistic behavior. Yet that situation didn’t seem to worry Skydance Animation, which hired him as its chief in 2019. And now he’s one of the main producers behind new Apple TV+ ‘toon movie ‘Luck’.
The real driving force here, though, is director Peggy Holmes, who works from a script by Kiel Murray, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.
‘Luck’ is the story of Sam Greenfield (Eva Noblezada), who is convinced she’s the unluckiest person on the planet. She’s always late, things go wrong constantly around her and she never seems to catch a break.
Then she discovers a mysterious, mystical lucky penny, which turns everything around for her… until she flushes it down a toilet. That leads to her meeting a talking black cat named Bob (Simon Pegg) who in turn accidentally gives her access to the Land of Luck, where on top everything runs smoothly and goes right, but bad luck is banished to the bottom.
(L to R) The Dragon (voiced by Jane Fonda), Bob (voiced by Simon Pegg) and Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) in “Luck,” premiering globally on Apple TV+ on August 5, 2022.
“The tiniest amount of bad luck can shut down our entire operation,” cautions the CEO of Good Luck, a dragon who has the voice of Jane Fonda.
Humans are strictly not allowed, so Sam’s presence of course causes all sorts of chaos. She’s looking to bring some luck back to her world, but when she severs the connection between good and bad luck… bad things happen.
Now Sam and Bob must put things right, with the help of cheery leprechaun Gerry (Colin O’Donoghue), strict leprechaun leader The Captain (Whoopi Goldberg) and eccentric unicorn Jeff (Flula Borg), who has a thing for exercise routines.
The likes of Lil Rel Howery, Maurice Irvin and Adelynn Spoon (plus former Pixar good luck voice charm John Ratzenberger) also star here.
‘Luck’ itself has not always had the best, well, luck, as it lost the services of Emma Thompson back in 2019, who resigned from the cast in protest of Lasseter’s hiring at Skydance, where the movie was in production. “It feels very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr. Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate,” Thompson wrote in a letter published in the Los Angeles Times.
Apple will of course be hoping for some luck, though it doesn’t have to worry about box office, since it’ll be debuting via Apple TV+ on August 5th.
(L to R) Bob (voiced by Simon Pegg) and Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) in ‘Luck,’ premiering globally on Apple TV+ on August 5, 2022.
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Someone apparently decided that today was TV casting news day!
Still, there is a lot of TV casting to report, so let’s kick off with Loki’s return to the small screen. Well, actually, it’s Tom Hiddleston, who is now attached to his second Apple TV+ series following upcoming drama ‘The Essex Serpent’.
‘The White Darkness’ comes from another Apple veteran, ‘Pachinko’ creator Soo Hugh, who will run the show alongside ‘Strange Angel’s Mark Heyman.
The series is inspired by the true-life account of Henry Worsley, played by Hiddleston, a devoted husband and father, a former soldier, a man of deep honor and sacrifice, but also a man deeply obsessed with adventure, manifesting in an epic journey crossing Antarctica on foot.
Deadline’s report offers no details on when the show will start shooting, but there’s a fair chance that it’ll have to wait until after the next season of ‘Loki’ is filmed.
(L to R) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2005’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’
Next up, there’s a development on the TV version of movie spy thriller ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’, which had been moving ahead with Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, at least until the latter left over creative differences.
Now, though the actress and writer has been replaced by someone who similarly broke big by writing and starring in a show: ‘Pen15’s Maya Erskine will star opposite Glover in the story of married agents whose marriage is strained because they’re both so busy. That gets even more complicated when they discover that they’ve been contracted to eliminate each other.
Continuing with streaming services owned by Amazon, Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of his 2005 novel ‘Anansi Boys’ is adding a wealth of cast led by Whoopi Goldberg.
The Oscar winner, who has recently been seen reprising one of her iconic small screen characters, Guinan, on ‘Star Trek: Picard’, has signed on to play the villainous Bird Woman in the fantasy series.
‘Anansi Boys’ is the story of Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby) — sometimes known as Fat Charlie (it was his father’s nickname for him; he’s not fat) — a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father (Delroy Lindo). But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that he was Anansi: Trickster God of stories. And he learns that he has a brother. Now that brother, Spider (also played by Kirby), is entering Charlie’s life, determined to make it more interesting — but making it a lot more dangerous instead.
Goldberg’s Bird Woman is, as her name might suggest, the God of Birds. Bird Woman is the God of Birds and a key antagonist in the series. Anyone who’s had a close encounter with a seagull knows that some birds are more dangerous than others, and Bird Woman is the most dangerous of them all. Long ago Anansi did her wrong. Now may be her chance to turn the tables.
“I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic,” Goldberg says in a statement.
According to Gaiman, it was a fortuitous meeting that led to Goldberg’s casting. “When I first conceived ‘Anansi Boys,’ decades ago, I imagined Whoopi Goldberg as Bird Woman,” Gaiman said. “I wasn’t able to meet her until 2018, when she interviewed me with some of the ‘Good Omens’ team at New York Comic Con. At which point she mentioned that she had just finished listening to Sir Lenny Henry’s reading of ‘Anansi Boys,’ and that it was one of her favorite books. Sometimes things feel planned and inevitable, and we are incredibly lucky. She’s going to be scary.”
And she’s not the only mythic creature the Nancy family will have to worry about. Alongside Goldberg, the cast now includes Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Tiger, Emmanuel Ighodaro as Lion, Cecilia Noble playing Elephant, Ayanna Witter-Johnson as Snake and Don Gilet playing Monkey.
The various animal deities all have their own reasons for disliking Anansi – they mostly hate him for his trickster behavior, though Monkey is terrified of him.
Gaiman and co-showrunner Douglas MacKinnon (who worked alongside him on ‘Good Omens’ and its sequel series) are busy making the show in Scotland now.
Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane in ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout,’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
On to Netflix next, where the casting is movie related, but we’re keeping it here since it’ll debut on the streaming service. And it’s another fantasy title, this time with Angela Bassettjoining ‘Damsel’.
The movie will star Netflix stalwart Millie Bobby Brown, who plays a princess is shocked to discover that she’ll be sacrificed to the kingdom’s sacred cave dragon, after being married to her prince charming. She must survive long enough until someone comes to save her – only no one is coming.
Bassett will play Lady Bayford, the stepmother to Brown’s Elodie, while Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is directing from a script by Dan Mazeau.
Newton ended up in Cuba and his story was told in a Playboy article by Joshuah Bearman. Now ‘Claws’ showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois is working on a six-part limited series adaptation called ‘The Big Cigar’, which has Don Cheadle amongst its producers (and serving as director for the first two episodes).
In this case, Britain’s Talisa Garcia has been cast in ‘Willow’ as a queen, the mother to Tony Revolori’s character.
The ‘Willow’ series, which is set in the same universe as the 1988 fantasy movie, follows a princess who assembles a party to join her on a quest to rescue her twin brother. Warwick Davis is reprising his role as the title character.
And before you think this is Disney looking to generate some positive press in the wake of the “Don’t Say Gay” controversy over Florida politics, Garcia’s casting happened months ago, and the show is now in post-production for a planned launch this year.
