Charlese Antoinette Jones on Dressing History in “Judas and the Black Messiah”
With ample photographs and documentary material to peruse for inspiration, designing costumes for a film set in recent history has its upsides. On the other hand, the descendants of the subjects you’re working to dress—or the subjects themselves—may be spending time on set, checking for historical accuracy. Such was the case for Judas and the Black Messiah, director Shaka King’s (Shrill, Newlyweeds) depiction of the lead-up to and FBI assassination of community activist and Black Panther chapter chairman Fred Hampton...
“One Night in Miami” Star Eli Goree on Channeling Muhammad Ali
The first time Eli Goree tried to be Muhammad Ali in the movies, he failed. But when Ang Lee picked another actor for his ill-fated biopic about the heavyweight champion of the world, Goree forged ahead. In between TV gigs like Riverdale and The 100, he trained in boxing gyms, hired a dialect coach to master the fighter’s Louisville accent, and commissioned a stage play about Muhammad that he intended to star in for L.A.’s annual Fringe Fest...
Director Sam Pollard on the Legacy of Black Art in his New HBO Documentary
HBO viewers likely know the names Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, the artists who painted Barack and Michelle Obamas’ respective official portraits. The network’s latest documentary, Black Art: In the Absence of Light, an expansive, joyous 90-minute look at art history directed by Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI, Atlanta Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children) and executive produced by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., lets viewers in on their processes,...
“F9” Drops a Super-Charged Super Bowl Spot
Universal let off the brakes—just a little bit—to reveal a 30-second F9 spot during the Super Bowl. It turns out that this glimpse of Dom, Letty, Han (!!), and the gang’s next adventure was way more exciting than the entirety of the game itself. Go figure!
The spot reveals—well, affirms—that Han (Sung Kang) is back, and F9 represents a real family reunion in which just about everyone who’s mattered in recent Fast &...
M. Night Shyamalan’s “Old” Reveals Creepy Super Bowl Teaser
It’s only a bite-sized teaser, but it’s enough to let you know that yes, this is an M. Night Shyamalan movie, and yes, uncanny, unnatural, and unnerving things will happen posthaste. Old originally began its life as a graphic novel, which means that we actually have some cause to suspect we might know a little bit more about the perpetually secretive Shyamalan’s new film. But, alas, we really don’t. Shyamalan adapted his script from the French graphic novel “Sandcastle” by Pierre Oscar Levy and artist Frederick Peeters,...
“The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” Official Trailer Revealed During Super Bowl
If WandaVision is Marvel’s weird, wonderful, and supremely odd shot on Disney+, you can think of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the chaser. Whereas WandaVision is centered on a loving (if fantastically bizarre) couple in Wanda Maxmimoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s duo are the bickering odd couple. The Falcon, known to his family and friends as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), has never gotten along all that well with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)...
Sundance 2021: Composer Kathryn Bostic on Scoring Two Docs About Trailblazing Women
As we near the close of the first week of Black History Month, it’s important to recognize those who are making history now. Given the overall lack of working female composers of any race, as a Black female composer, Kathryn Bostic has been carving out a road few have traveled, and she’s been doing it for decades. She arrived at this year’s Sundance with not one but two films for which she has supplied the score, both highlighting powerful,...
“Miss Juneteenth” Writer/Director Channing Godfrey Peoples on Her Potent Feature Debut
Writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples‘ feature debut Miss Juneteenth is a subtlety powerful lesson in compassionate observation. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, with a theater degree from Baylor University (just a 90-minute drive south from Forth Worth on the I-35), Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth is a moving portrait of her hometown, and, more to the point, the tight-knit community of mostly Black people she grew up with. After graduating from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (where she met her husband and creative partner,...
How Costume Designer Paolo Nieddu Worked With Prada For “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”
Few musicians are as iconic as Billie Holiday. So much about Holiday was avant-garde for the time, and as a queer Black woman of power, she ruffled more than a few feathers just by existing. Lee Daniels’ new film The United States vs. Billie Holiday is focused around one specific event in the singer’s life, chronicling her determination to sing the protest ballad “Strange Fruit,” and the consequences of that commitment. Outfitting such an icon was a huge undertaking,...
Golden Globes 2021: Female Directors Make History
The Golden Globes nominations are in, and female directors have made history. For the first time, the Globes have nominated more than one woman for the Best Director category. The nominees are Regina King (One Night In Miami), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman). This trio joins David Fincher (Mank) and Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7) in the category...
“The Suicide Squad” Synopsis Reveals an Epic Mission
We finally have an idea of just how suicidal the mission will be. Warner Bros. has revealed the synopsis for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which “features a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup,” as they put it. Up until now, we’ve known very, very little about Gunn’s vision for his reboot of sorts. We learned during the DC FanDome event that the film would riff on epic 1970s war movies. We learned that major characters could die at any time...
Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, and an A-List Cast Highlight First “Coming 2 America” Trailer
And now we’ve got our most sustained look yet at director Craig Brewer’s Coming 2 America, which really, couldn’t come at a better time. This long-awaited sequel to 1988’s Coming to America brings back a whole royal family’s worth of original characters. The ensemble is led, of course, by Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem, and the new trailer reveals he has risen in the royal ranks to become King. With the newly-crowned King Akeem preparing to take over Zamunda,...
Sundance 2021: Writer/Director Carey Williams on his Romeo & Juliet Adaptation “R#J”
In partnership with producer Timur Bekmambetov, who is known for the innovative film style Screenlife as exampled by Unfriended and Searching, co-writer and director Carey Williams offers his feature debut with a modern and of-the-moment adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” R#J, told entirely through social media and smartphone screens. Using an entirely Black and Brown cast, and blending text messages and Instagram posts with timeless Shakespearian language,...
Zack Snyder Reveals First Image of Joker in “Justice League”
Well folks, we’ve finally got our first, admittedly blurry look at Jared Leto’s Joker in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Snyder has revealed the image of Leto’s version of the Clown Prince of Chaos, who will be involved in some capacity in his upcoming HBO Max cut. The Joker was not a part of the original theatrical release of Justice League, which was shepherded by director Joss Whedon after Snyder had to leave the production...
HBO Unveils the Trailer for “Black Art: In the Absence of Light”
Yesterday, we published our interview with MLK/FBI director Sam Pollard, who is also the director behind HBO’s upcoming Black Art: In the Absence of Light, which will shed light on some of the best Black visual artists working today—and likely introduce them to many folks who haven’t seen their work or heard their names before. In discussing his long career making documentaries on immensely gifted Black talents, which Black Art: In the Absence of Light zeroes in on,...
Ryan Coogler to Bring Wakanda-based TV Series to Disney+
Wakanda forever. With WandaVision now halfway through its run as the first-ever Marvel series to bow on Disney+, Disney has now tapped Black Panther co-writer/director Ryan Coogler to start developing a new series for their streamer. Coogler has a new five-year deal with Disney, via his Proximity Media, to develop a Wakanda-based Disney+ series, as well as working on other shows within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“Ryan Coogler is a singular storyteller whose vision and range have made him one of the standout filmmakers of his generation,” said Disney executive chairman Bob Iger in a statement...
Screenwriter Kemp Powers on Finding Truth & Beauty in “One Night In Miami”
After nearly two decades as a news reporter, Kemp Powers knew a good story when he found one. Discovering that four cultural icons — heavyweight champ Cassius Clay, soon to take the name Muhammad Ali; activist Malcolm X; crooner Sam Cooke; and NFL superstar Jim Brown — had hung out together in Miami in 1964 inspired him to recreate that night.
Powers’ play, “One Night in Miami,” enjoyed a string of regional productions before it was staged at the prestigious Donmar Warehouse in London in 2016,...
Mid-Season “WandaVision” Trailer Highlights Mysteries Revealed & Pending
Assuming that if you’re reading this, you’re all caught up with Marvel’s first-ever Disney+ series WandaVision, showrunner Jac Schaeffer and director Matt Shakman’s gleefully odd show about the MCU’s most beloved odd couple. The fourth episode, which streamed this past Friday, began to reveal some of WandaVision‘s secrets. Or, we should say, began to peel back the edge of their reality—or surreality—that landed Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) in a sitcom world. “We now have first-person intel from inside the Westview anomaly,”...
The Best Skits From John Krasinski’s Debut on “SNL”
Saturday Night Live returned this past weekend with John Krasinski making his debut as host, nearly a year after Krasinski was supposed to have made his first appearance in Studio 8H. Krasinski’s original debut was slated for March of 2020, pegged to the release of his highly anticipated A Quiet Place Part II. Of course, none of that happened—SNL stopped production, and A Quiet Place Part II‘s release date was pushed due to the pandemic...
Documentarian Sam Pollard on his Must-See New Film “MLK/FBI”
A couple of days after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his era-defining “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, J. Edgar Hoover’s second in command at the FBI penned a memo describing him as “The most dangerous Negro in America.” As documented in Sam Pollard‘s new film MLK/FBI (On Demand and in select theaters), that 1963 memo launched the Bureau’s obsession with discrediting America’s foremost civil rights leader by tapping his phones and bugging the hotel rooms he stayed in...
