Month: April 2021

BET Networks has licensed Carl Weber’s The Family Business, based on best-selling author’s crime drama book series. The project will air as an eight-episode drama series starring and executive produced by Ernie Hudson. It is set to premiere on Nov. 13 on BET.

The Family Business was originally developed and produced as an indie feature franchise based on the books. The first film started filming in July 2017, with Tri Destined Studios and Urban Books Media producing for a fall 2018 release. The companies subsequently put together a sequel with the same cast, which is still in production. Instead of pursuing a theatrical release, the producers took the two movies to BET. They will now be recut into an eight-episode series, which will be a co-production of BET, Tri Destined Studios and Urban Books Media. I hear there is talk about potential future installments.

Meet the Duncans, a prominent family from Jamaica, Queens living fast and luxurious. By day, they’re an upstanding family; by night, they live a dangerous secret life. The patriarch of the family, L.C. Duncan (Hudson), is at the age when he’s starting to think about retirement and has to decide which of his children should take over his thriving exotic car dealership. The Duncans quickly come under siege from some of the top politicians, mafia and drug cartels in the city. The Duncans will have to stick together or die separately.

“Carl Weber’s The Family Business is a gloriously addictive series and a prime example of BET’s on-going commitment to tell compelling dramatic, character-driven original stories, anchored in the Black experience,:” said Maureen Guthman, SVP of Content Strategy, BET Networks. “We look forward to our partnership with Tri Destined Studios, Urban Books Media and are thrilled to welcome Carl Weber to the BET family.”

The cast of Carl Weber’s The Family Business, led by Ernie Hudson (L.C. Duncan), includes Valarie Pettiford (Charlotte Duncan), Armand Assante (Sal Dash), Emilio Rivera (Alejandro Zuniga), Darrin Henson (Orlando Duncan), Javicia Leslie (Paris Duncan), Clifton Powell (Uncle Lou), Miguel A. Nunez Jr. (Harris Grant), Tami Roman (London Duncan), Sean Ringgold (Junior Duncan), Christian Keyes (Niles Monroe), Nick Turturro (Ronald Sims), KJ Smith (Sasha Duncan), Malik Yoba (Randy Moss), Gary Dourdan (Trent Duncan), Lisa Ray (Donna Duncan), Frankie G (Juan Rodriguez), and Arrington Foster (Rio Duncan), and introduces Amani E. Boyd (Mariah Duncan) and Dylan Weber (Nevada Duncan) as the next generation of the Duncan clan.

Carl Weber’s The Family Business is executive produced by Nikaya D. Brown Jones for Tri Destined Studios and Carl Weber for Urban Books Media who also serve as the series showrunners. Ernie Hudson, and BET’s Connie Orlando and Maureen Guthman also executive produce. Weber wrote the scripts. Trey Haley (The Man in 3B, The Preacher’s Son) is director/co-executive producer for Tri Destined Studios.

The series hails from Happy Endings creator David Caspe, Black List writer Jordan Cahan (My Best Friend’s Girl), Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg (Preacher) and Sony Pictures TV Studios.

Also joining as guest stars are Julie Hagerty (Airplane, Instant Family), Tim Russ (iCarly) and Jason Michael Snow (Book of Mormon).

Written by Caspe and Cahan, Black Monday takes us back to October 19, 1987 – aka Black Monday, the worst stock market crash in Wall Street history. To this day, no one knows who caused it — until now. It’s the story of how a group of outsiders took on the blue-blood, old-boys club of Wall Street and ended up crashing the world’s largest financial system, a Lamborghini limousine and the glass ceiling.

Dern will play Rod, a legendary trader, while Sanz will play Wayne, a Wall Street wild man who works at Mo’s (Cheadle) Jammer Group. Rauch will play Shira, the loving wife of trader Keith (Scheer). Hagerty is Jackie Georgina, the matriarch of a designer denim empire. Bell Calloway and Russ will play Dawn’s (Hall) artist mother Ruth and professor father Walter. Finally, Snow is playing Mike, a Broadway actor. Previously announced guest star Kadeem Hardison (A Different World) will play Spencer, Dawn’s husband.

Guest stars also include Yassir Lester (Making History), Michael James Scott (Aladdin on Broadway) and Eugene Cordero (Kong: Skull Island), with recurring guest stars Casey Wilson (Happy Endings), Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer), and Kurt Braunohler (Bunk).

Rogen and Goldberg will direct the pilot and executive produce with Caspe and Cahan. Black Monday is a co-production between Showtime and Sony TV, where Caspe, Rogen and Goldberg have been under overall deals.

Look out, Jamal: Wynter is coming — and she’s hot under the collar. TVLine has learned exclusively that Empire has tapped actress-singer Joss Stone to guest-star in Season 5 as the key female artist on Jamal’s London label.

Wynter comes to New York to confront Jamal for taking off, leaving her mid-project, and abandoning his promise and commitment to her musical career. Stone’s episode is slated to air in November.

Although primarily known as a singer-songwriter, Stone has acted before — most notably on Showtime’s The Tudors (where she recurred as Anne of Cleves).

Empire kicked off its fifth season last week with 6.1 million viewers and a 1.9 demo rating — up from its Season 4 average.

Roadside will release the movie Feb. 22, 2019.

Roadside Attractions has picked up faith-based feature Run the Race, which was exec produced by Tim Tebow and his brother, Robby.

The movie follows Zach and David, two brothers reeling from the death of their mother and their father’s abandonment. Zach, who is an All-State athlete, finds glory on the football field, working to earn a college scholarship in the hopes of earning he and his brother, David, a ticket out of town. But when a devastating injury sidelines Zach, David laces up his track cleats to salvage their future.

Tanner Stine and Evan Hofer star, along with Mykelti Williamson and Frances Fisher. Chris Dowling directed from a script he wrote with Jake McEntire and Jason Baumgardner.

Reserve Entertainment and 10th Leper Productions are behind the movie, which was produced by Darren Moorman, McEntire and Ken Carpenter. Along with Tebow, exec producers include Erik Weir, Trey Brunson, Joe Kosakowski and Erik Dellenback.

Roadside recently released faith-based drama I Can Only Imagine, which grossed $83.5 million at the domestic box office.

“I Can Only Imagine, Roadside’s highest-grossing film, affirmed that inspirational, quality faith-based stories can reach a huge, highly valued audience,” said Roadside Attractions co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff. “Tim and Robby Tebow are fantastic partners, and we believe their Run the Race will be embraced as enthusiastically by audiences nationwide.”

Added Tebow: “I wanted to be part of something that’s encouraging and inspirational to the viewer. I believe Run the Race accomplishes this by showing two brothers struggling with real life, but them getting through it by supporting each other and their faith. I hope those who see it can walk away with more faith, hope and love.”

Singaporean actress Tan Kheng Hua, who played Rachel’s (Constance Wu) mother in Crazy Rich Asians, has signed with Beverly Hills-based GVA Talent Agency and Los Angeles-based Zero Gravity Management. A veteran of Singaporean stage and screen, the award-winning actress earned a bachelor of science degree from Indiana University before embarking on a career in her home country. Before her beloved role in Hollywood’s most successful romantic comedy of the decade, she was first seen by international audiences as a very different type of matriarch, the Empress Dowager in Netflix’s Marco Polo. Tan is now producing a satirical stage show in Singapore, and recently filmed HBO Asia’s adaptation of Tan Twan Eng’s The Garden of Evening Mists and U.K. Channel 4’s adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica.

Liam Neeson and Kate Walsh are set to star in Honest Thief, a film to be directed in Boston next month by Mark Williams, who co-created the hit Netflix series Ozark.

Career bank robber Tom Carter (Neeson) meets the love his life in Annie (Walsh), who works at the front desk of a storage facility where he hid $7 million in stolen loot. They fall head over heels, and he resolves to wipe the slate clean by turning himself in. When the case is turned over to a crooked FBI agent, everything becomes far more dangerous and difficult.

Jai Courtney is in talks to play the crooked agent and Jeffrey Donovan and Jeffrey Wright also are in the mix for roles. Tai Duncan, Myles Nestel, Mark Williams and Craig Chapman are producing.

Solution Entertainment Group is selling world rights. Nestel’s Solution Entertainment partner Lisa Wilson is exec producing and will be repping the title at upcoming AFM.

Neeson opens next in the Steve McQueen-directed Widows, which just opened the London Film Festival, and the Coen brothers-directed The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

It came out of the sky, and now it has a premiere date. History has set Tuesday, January 8, for the debut of Project Blue Book, its period UFO drama from EP Robert Zemeckis. Check out the new trailer here: https://youtu.be/Jv2k2nXKTfE.

Starring Aidan Gillen and Michael Malarkey, the 10-episode series is based on the true, top-secret investigations into unidentified flying objects and related phenomena conducted by the U.S. Air Force from 1952-69. Neal McDonough, Michael Harney, Laura Mennell and Ksenia Solo co-star.

Project Blue Book is inspired by the personal experiences of Dr. J. Allen Hynek (Gillen), a brilliant college professor recruited by the Air Force to spearhead the titular clandestine operation that researched thousands of cases — more than 700 of which remain unsolved to this day. Each episode draws from the actual case files blending UFO theories with authentic historical events from one of the most mysterious eras in U.S. history. Delving into such themes as trust, instinct, real news vs. fake news and government cover-up, the series straddles the world of science and the exploration of the unknown, History said.

David O’Leary created, writes and co-executive produces Project Blue Book, with Robert Zemeckis executive producing alongside Jack Rapke, Jackie Levine, Barry Jossen, Arturo Interian and writer-showrunner Sean Jablonski.

Madison Iseman, one of the young stars of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, has nabbed a lead role in New Line’s latest Annabelle movie project.

Iseman will star in the as-yet untitled third installment of the popular horror franchise, itself a spinoff from the Conjuring films, opposite McKenna Grace, who portrayed a young Tonya Harding in I, Tonya.

Gary Dauberman, who wrote the two previous Annabelle installments, penned the latest chapter and also will make his directorial debut on the pic. The project is set to begin shooting later this month, and New Line has set July 3, 2019, as a release date.

James Wan is producing via his Atomic Monster banner along with Peter Safran of The Safran Company. Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear will executive produce.

The script once again centers on the demonically possessed doll, this time as she is placed by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in a location where they believe she can no longer wreak havoc: their Artifacts Room. (Boy, are they going to be wrong.)

Grace will play the Warrens’ daughter, while Iseman will play the babysitter, both of whom have to deal with terror as, in Night at the Museum fashion, the Artifacts Room comes alive thanks to Annabelle’s instigation. (Told you they were going to be wrong.)

It is unclear at this stage whether Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who portrayed the Warrens in the Conjuring movies, will make an appearance in the new Annabelle feature.

The project will be the sixth movie in New Line’s horror franchise known as The Conjuring Universe and spun out of the 2013 original pic. The franchise has grossed over $1.68 billion worldwide and the most recent outing, The Nun, just became the highest-grossing entry yet, topping $330 million.

In 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Iseman played Bethany, the vain social media-addicted popular girl who learns a few lessons when she is later turned into the avatar played by Jack Black in the Jumanji world. The actress next stars in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which is set to open Oct. 12, and also will appear in the indies The F* It List and Riot Girls.

Iseman is repped by Paradigm, Zero Gravity Entertainment and Morris Yorn.

Voltage Pictures has acquired Allan Ungar’s spec script Tenfold.

Ungar is set to direct his script about a former operative who returns home for his estranged daughter’s wedding, only to witness her brutally gunned down in a hotel lobby. When the police are unable to help, he decides to rely on his training and instincts to track down the men responsible.

Nicolas Chartier will produce the film for Voltage. Jonathan Deckter will serve as executive producer with Babacar Deine co-executive producing. Voltage is financing and handling global distribution.

Ungar most recently wrote and directed the Uncharted short film starring Nathan Fillion, based on Sony’s bestselling video game franchise. The film went viral when it launched at Comic-Con in July.

Voltage recently announced the action thriller Eve starring Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Common, with principal photography underway in Boston. Voltage’s most recent release, the Amy Schumer comedy I Feel Pretty, opened this past April and grossed more than $95 million worldwide.

Ungar is repped by Verve and Zero Gravity Management.

Into The Badlands’ Sherman Augustus has signed with APA for theatrical and commercial representation. Augustus plays the series regular role of Nathaniel Moon on AMC’s Into the Badlands. His other credits include Westworld, Bones, Dexter and a recurring on American Odyssey. Augustus also was featured in the August issue of Emmy magazine. Augustus signed with Zero Gravity Management in June.

Samaire Armstrong has signed with Zero Gravity Management. Best known for her work on The OC and Entourage, Armstrong starred as lead June O’Malley in feature Carter and June. She was also a series regular on Resurrection and Dirty Sexy Money. Armstrong continues to be repped by Abrams Artists Agency and attorney Rick Genow.