With Oscar ballots heading into Academy voters’ hands on April 15, we’re forging ahead with our fourth annual series of interviews with Academy voters from different branches for their candid thoughts on what got picked, overlooked, and overvalued in this strange pandemic year.[The Oscars] did a good thing moving back. I’m catching up.Because my business […]
Continue readingAn official biopic of iconic blues musician B.B. King is going into pre-production in 2021, Vassal Benford, chairman of King’s estate, tells Variety. This is a separate project from “The Thrill Is On,” which is a drama about King’s friendship with drummer Michael Zanetis starring Wendell Pierce as King.Confusion first arose when “The Wire” and […]
Continue readingActor Wendell Pierce — best known for his work on The Wire and Treme — announced that a long-dormant biopic on blues legend B.B. King, The Thrill Is On, is back on in a series of tweets posted Monday night.“We are official,” Pierce wrote. “Preparation has begun on a film where I will be honored […]
Continue readingMadrid-based The Mediapro Studio (Tms), one of Europe’s biggest independent film and TV players, had a smashing 2019 with the release of 126 titles. And then the pandemic struck, forcing the company to shut down 56 shows. Months later, the Spanish outfit is slowly getting back on track by enrolling major U.S. players and Spain’s […]
Continue readingLadj Ly’s César-winning drama explores life on a poor Paris estate as tensions with the police reach boiling pointThe ghosts of Victor Hugo’s downtrodden 19th-century rebels haunt Ladj Ly’s César-winning contemporary urban drama, a streetwise tale of France’s dispossessed masses, brought once again to the brink of rebellion. Nominated for best international feature at the […]
Continue readingSet to collect Special Award for his contribution to industry and focus on diversity.Idris Elba has scooped this year’s Bafta Special Award for his contribution to TV, with a focus on his work in the diversity space.The Luther star, who just signed a first-look deal with Apple and also runs his own indie, will be […]
Continue readingWendell Pierce, the fan favorite actor from “The Wire” and recent star of “Clemency” and “Burning Cane,” has launched a social media campaign to be the new voice actor of Cleveland on “Family Guy.” Mike Henry, the original voice of Cleveland, announced last week he would be stepping away from the long-running Fox animated sitcom […]
Continue readingOver the course of his television career, David Simon has singlehandedly raised the bar for what to expect from a TV show. His projects, from “The Wire” to “Treme” to “The Deuce,” share a pervasive yet subtle complexity; these are entertaining, character-driven tomes that transform granular research into vivid portraits of myriad systemic injustices. “The […]
Continue readingCurrent global events are bad, but HBO is offering free streaming of “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” and hundreds of hours of other content, which is good.HBO will begin offering free streaming of the aforementioned series and dozens of other projects, starting Friday, April 3. The limited-time offer will be available on the HBO Now and […]
Continue reading“Screenwriting saved my life.”That was the simple and heartfelt statement delivered by Richard Price, the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter behind such notable works as “Clockers,” “Mad Dog and Glory,” “The Night Of” and “The Wire,” as he collected the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for career achievement from the WGA East on Saturday night during the […]
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