Film
Michael B. Jordan Making Directorial Debut with Creed III
Michael B. Jordan in Creed II (MGM) Michael B. Jordan has been confirmed as the director of Creed III, the upcoming sequel in which he will also continue to star as Adonis Creed. According to The Wrap, Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad are also expected to reprise their roles as Adonis’ girlfriend and adopted mother, respectively. The film is slated for release on Thanksgiving in 2022. “Directing has always been an aspiration, but the timing had to be right. Creed III is that moment — a time in my life where I’ve grown more sure of who I am, holding agency in my own story, maturing personally, growing professionally, and learning from the Greats like Ryan Coogler, most recently Denzel Washington, and other top tier directors I respect,” Jordan said in a statement. Jordan continu...
Tracy Morgan Playing Louis Armstrong in Self-Financed Biopic
Tracy Morgan’s next role could show off a different side of his acting. As confirmed by Coming 2 America co-star Jermaine Fowler, Morgan plans to portray late jazz great Louis Armstrong in a self-financed biopic. Fowler shared the revelation in an interview with NME after being asked whether he thinks Morgan’s acting chops are underrated. “I do. I would love to see him do something dramatic,” Fowler said. “In fact, he showed us a clip of a movie he’s financing that’s really, really dope. He wants to play Louis Armstrong in a biopic and I believe he can do it.” He continued by saying Morgan sounds and looks exactly like Armstrong in the clip. “If he can truly pull that off I think it’ll put Tracy on another level altogether,” Fowler added. Taraji P. Henson also confirmed Morgan’s ...
Johnny Depp Investigates The Notorious B.I.G.’s Death in New Trailer for City of Lies: Watch
Three years ago, City of Lies was one month away from hitting theaters before it was pulled by its distributor due to Johnny Depp’s less-than-flattering public image at the time. Now, the crime drama is finally scheduled to hit select theaters and VOD on March 19th, and a newly revealed trailer is streaming below. In case you forgot — which, considering how much time has passed since the first trailer came out in 2018, would be understandable — City of Lies is based on the true story of The Notorious B.I.G.’s death in 1997. Directed by Brad Furman, the movie follows a retired LAPD detective named Russell Poole (Depp) and a journalist (Forest Whitaker) as they try to uncover the identities of those responsible for the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Allegedly a handful of co...
Eddie Murphy Briefly Quit Acting After Receiving Decade’s Worst Actor Razzie Award
Over the past few years, Eddie Murphy has experienced a career resurgence, thanks to movies like Dolemite is My Name and the recently released Coming 2 America, as well as an Emmy-winning return to Saturday Night Live. The renaissance came after a five-year period in which he only released one movie. During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (transcribed by The Independent), Murphy explained the hiatus was prompted by his winning of the Worst Actor of the Decade Razzie. “I was making shitty movies,” Murphy told Maron. “I was like, ‘This shit ain’t fun. They’re giving me Razzies…’ Motherfuckers gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie. [So I thought], ‘Maybe it’s time to take a break.’” However, the hiatus lasted longer than Murphy originally planned. “I was only gonna tak...
Zack Snyder’s Justice League Accidentally Shown to HBO Max Subscribers Attempting to Watch Tom & Jerry
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t due to hit HBO Max until March 18th, but some subscribers got an early, inadvertent look on Monday. HBO Max confirmed to Deadline that a glitch temporarily caused the first section of Justice League to stream for users trying to access the new Tom & Jerry movie. “The error was addressed within minutes,” according to HBO Max, but not before several people caught wind of the error and shared video and screenshots of the leak to social media. Snyder’s director’s cut runs four hours long and adds the Joker into the movie, with Jared Leto reprising his Suicide Squad character for the newly shot scenes. Warner Bros. provided Snyder with a reported $40 million for additional footage after he convinced the studio to do reshoots, on top of ...
The Zamundan Palace in Coming 2 America Is Actually Rick Ross’ House
Eddie Murphy reclaimed his acting throne last week with the release of Coming 2 America, a sequel to the 1988 comedy flick. In it, Murphy stars as the iconic Prince Akeem Joffer of the fictional country of Zamunda, and he lives in an enormous palace with his ultra royal family. Not everything is as it seems in the movie, though. As it turns out, Zamunda was recreated in Georgia, not Africa, and the stunning mansion is the real-life home of Rick Ross himself. Ross’ home is a casual 45,000 square-foot mansion in Fayetteville, Georgia with 235 gorgeous acres surrounding it. There are 12 bedrooms, a dining room that seats up to 100 people, and a gold ceiling trim throughout the entire mansion. It’s an absurdly ornate palace both internally and externally, and the team behind Coming 2 America w...
Uzee Usman: Piracy is endangering Kannywood industry
Nigerian filmmaker, actor, and CEO of Uzee Concept, Uzee Usman, has called on the government to help kick piracy away in the movie Industry, particularly in Kannywood. He made this known during an interview with newsmen at the movie shoot of White Blood (Farina Mini) in Abuja recently. He said though no doubt that the Nigerian film industry is growing fast, what requires greater attention is the problem of piracy, which has become a menace that has eaten deep into the industry and may grind it to a halt. He pointed out that although Nigeria has laws against piracy, it remains a thriving business partly due to poor implementation of copyright laws, a near-lack of prosecution of offenders, and corruption in governance agencies. He added that it’s still becoming a huge problem in the northern...
TCM’s New Series Examines Problematic Films Like Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tarzan Through Modern Lens
Turner Classic Movies has launched a new film series called Reframed: Classic Films In The Rearview Mirror. Taking place every Thursday night during the month of March, the series addresses racism, sexism, and bigotry present in old movies through a modern lens. That means a bunch of iconic flicks — Psycho, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tarzan, you name it — are being reassessed with nuance and care, and likely prompting a wave of “cancel culture!” fearmongering in the process. Since its formation, TCM has committed itself to preserving the most iconic movies from the beginning of film history and onwards, and most people associate it with the black-and-white flicks their grandparents used to watch. But as our country works towards equality onscreen and off, that means everyone m...
Lola Bunny Gets New Look, Will Be Less Sexualized in Space Jam: A New Legacy
Lola Bunny (photos via Warner Bros. and Entertainment Weekly) Lola Bunny has a new look for the new Space Jam movie. In the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 original, the only female member of the Tune Squad will no longer have a hyper-sexual appearance compared to her male teammates. Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly provided a first look of Space Jam: A New Legacy, which features LeBron James and his Looney buds: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, and Lola Bunny. Along with a handful of promising stills from the upcoming film, EW also spoke with its director, Malcolm D. Lee, about the noticeable alterations to Lola’s character. In Michael Jordan’s version of the film from 25 years ago, Lola was clad in a skimpy two-piece and was basically cast as a sexual obj...
Coming 2 America Is Not 2 Bad: Review
The Pitch: The king has returned! Eddie Murphy is back to check in on his 1988 invention Akeem, the now-ruler of the fictional African nation of Zamunda. As established in Coming to America, Zamunda is both a lavish and antiquated locale: not a lot of TVs, multitudes of rituals and ceremonies, beautiful interior design that would make a real estate mogul blush, all affectionately anachronistic. Akeem’s content with his three daughters and his loving queen Lisa (Shari Headley) by his side. Yet for the sake of kick-starting a sequel, he needs a male heir to avoid war with General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), leader of Nextdoria (you come up with a better fake name). And as it just so happens, Akeem hooked with up a woman named Mary (Leslie Jones) in the ‘80s, and unknown to Akeem, Mary raised his s...
Michael B. Jordan Wages a One-Man War in First Trailer for Without Remorse: Watch
In the first trailer for Without Remorse, masked assassins shoot Michael B. Jordan and leave him for dead, but it’s okay because he’s definitely not coming back to murder them all, right? Right!? Based on the 1993 Tom Clancy book of the same name, Without Remorse provides the origin story for recurring character John Clark, aka John Kelly. This tale of Cold War revenge has been updated to modern times, with conflict in Syria replacing the Vietnam War. But while portions of the book have been given a facelift, the overall structure is the same: Kelly loses his pregnant wife while he himself is shot. Everyone expects him to die, but lo and behold, he survives, and the experience leaves him… well, you’ve seen the title. “There’s something inside of me that I can’t turn off,” Ke...
Ed Burns on What He Learned from Steven Spielberg
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Their obsession. Their words. Someone else’s movie. Hosted by Paul Davidson, The Side Track interviews filmmakers, producers, writers, actors, and film fanatics, then hands them the mic to present their own personal feature-length audio commentaries of the movies that moved them and made them who they are today. In the Season 2 premiere, writer, director, and producer Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen, She’s the One) explains how he broke into Hollywood with a micro-budget indie smash, what he learned from Steven Spielberg, his new EPIX series Bridge and Tunnel, how Sarah McLachlan wrote a song just for him and w...