Category: Rumoured or Announced Projects

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Status:  Optioned
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Ramin Bahrani
Studio(s):  Apple Studios
Cast:  Samuel L. Jackson (Ptolemy Grey), Danielle Fishback (Robyn).

Details:  Apple TV has landed a six-episode limited series, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, that will star Oscar nominee, Samuel L. Jackson in his first lead TV role. The series is based on a novel by Walter Mosley, who will also write the script. Jackson and Mosley will also serve as executive producers.

Story:  The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey centers on a 91-year-old man (Jackson) who is forgotten by his family, his friends and even himself as he suffers from dementia. But when he’s able to briefly regain his memories, he uses those fleeting moments of lucidity to find the truth behind his nephew’s death and come to terms with his past.  Danielle Fishback will play a character named Robyn, described as a friend of the family who helps Ptolemy.  Source(s):  Deadline; Slashfilm.  Photo Source:  lavanguardia.com.

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 The Bull Dogger

Release Date:  1921/1922
Silent
Black & White
Genre:  Western
Director:   Richard E. Norman
Studio(s):  Norman Film Manufacturing Company
Running Time:  50 mins.

Cast:  Bill Pickett, Bennie Turpin, Anita Bush, Steve Reynolds

Details:  The Bull-Dogger was a feature-length Western starring real-life African American cowboy Bill Pickett.

An excerpt from the Exhibitor’s Herald, states “A virile story of the golden west, featuring Bill Pickett, the Black hero of the Mexican bull ring, in death defying feats of courage and skill, such as wild horse racing, roping and tying wild steers.  The picture also includes fancy and trick riding by Black cowboys and cowgirls and bull dogging and throwing with their teeth, the wildest steers on the Mexican border. This is the first feature picture of its kind, and proves conclusively that the Black cowboy is capable of doing anything the white cowboy does.” – excerpt from the Exhibitor’s Herald.

This film is considered lost, only fragments survive.

Notes:  The film was produced by Norman Film Manufacturing Company, a Jacksonville, FL based company headed by Richard E. Norman, a white filmmaker who catered to black audiences.  Shooting took place in and around Wellington, Okmulgee, Oklahoma City and Boley, Oklahoma, as noted in the February 27, 1922 Vicksburg Evening Post, which advertised screenings that day and the next at the Princess Theatre in Vicksburg, MS.  An item in the same issue noted that Boley, OK, was an “all-colored city.”

An article in the February 1997 Texas Monthly stated that Bill Pickett was fifty years old at the time of production. Publicity for The Bull-Dogger quoted U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on the film’s star: “Bill Pickett’s name will go down in Western history as being one of the best trained ropers and riders the West has produced.”  Sources:  daarac.org; tcm.com; American Film Institute catalog; Photo Sources:  daarac.org; Wikipedia.

Movie Clip:

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Behind The Smile

Status:  Announced
Genre:   Biography
Director:  TBA
Cast:  Raven Goodwin (Hattie McDaniel)

Details:  Raven Goodwin (Being Mary Jane, The Clark Sisters), has been cast as Hattie McDaniel in a forthcoming indie biopic, Behind the Smile, Deadline reported January 7, 2021.  Gregory Blair penned the screenplay for the inspiring story, which is being produced by Jami McCoy-Lankford of Hillionaire Productions and Global Genesis Group.  No release date has been set.

Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Academy Award which she received for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind. Her pioneering story was filled with peaks and valleys as McDaniel found herself fighting against being typecast as a servant while fending off criticism from Black fans for taking on stereotypical roles.  The night that she received her Oscar, McDaniel was forced to sit apart from the white cast at a segregated table in the back of the venue.  Over the course of her film career, Hattie McDaniel appeared in over 300 movies, but reportedly received screen credits for only 83.  In addition to acting, she was also a blues singer and radio performer and was the first Black woman to star in a network radio program, The Beulah Show.  The series moved to television but McDaniel only filmed six episodes before she fell ill.  In 1952, McDaniel died of breast cancer at age the 59.  When she died, her body could not be buried at the famed Hollywood Cemetery because the graveyard was for whites only.  Hattie McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2006, she was honored with a U.S. postage stamp.  Source(s):  Vibe.com; MSN.com; Deadline.  Photo Source:  MSN.com.

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Paper Gods

Status:  Optioned

Genre:  Drama

Director:  TBA

Cast:  Nia Long (Victoria Dobbs)

Story:  Paper Gods spotlights the struggles and battles professionally and personally for Atlanta Mayor Victoria Dobb, who will be portrayed by Nia Long in the series. The third novel by ex-political strategist and now Daily Beast editor-at-large Goldie Taylor, Paper Gods peels back the layers on the assassination of Dobb’s mentor, a much-venerated congressman, to reveal a greater deception.

Details:  According to an August 10, 2020 report in Deadline, John Legend’s Get Lifted Film Co. is teaming with Sony Pictures TV to bring  the 2018 novel to ABC. Long and Taylor are set to produce the small-screen adaptation.  Source:  Deadline; BET.com.  Photo Source:  IMDB.

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Josephine/The Last Dance

On February 12, 2020, it was reported that the remarkable story of Josephine Baker, one of the most influential female entertainers of the 20th century, will be the subject of Josephine, a limited drama series in development at ABC Signature, with Ruth Negga attached to star as the legendary Jazz Age performer and civil rights activist.  The series will take a raw and unflinching look at the force of nature that was Josephine Baker. From international superstar and decorated WWII spy, to civil rights activist and flawed mother, Josephine delves into  the raw talent, sexual fluidity, struggles and bold life of an icon.  In addition to playing the leading role, Negga will also serve as an executive producer.  Written by Dee Harris-Lawrence (All Rise) the series will also be executive produced by Harris-Lawrence, and LeBron James’ The Springhill Company.  Millicent Shelton is directing.

Another biopic about the life of Josephine Baker was previously announced.  On December 16 2019, Deadline reported that Paula Patton had optioned film and television rights to Josephine Baker’s Last Dance, a novel by Sherry Jones, with the intention of starring in and producing an adaptation.  There have been no updates regarding the status of this project.

Born in Missouri in 1906 and started performing at the age of 15 appearing in vaudeville shows and chorus lines.  At 19, she moved to France and immediately found success as one of Europe’s most popular and highest-paid performers. Early on, she was renowned as a dancer, and was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris. She earned nicknames like “Black Venus” and “Black Pearl.”

Baker worked for the French Resistance during World War II, and during the 1950s and ’60s devoted herself to fighting segregation and racism in the United States.  She refused to perform in front of segregated audiences and had an active role in the civil rights movement. Just two years after making a comeback to the stage, Baker died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1975, and was buried with military honors.

 In 1991 Lynn Whitfield portrayed Baker in the HBO biopic, The Josephine Baker Story for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special, becoming the first Black actress to win the category.  Source(s):  MSN; mxdwn.com.  Photo Sources:  MSN; blackculturenews.com; IMDB; Wikipedia.

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The Best Man: Final Chapters

Status:  Announced
Genre:   Dramedy
Director:  Malcom D. Lee

Cast:  Taye Diggs (Harper), Nia Long (Jordan), Morris Chestnut (Lance), Harold Perrineau (Julian), Terrence Howard (Quentin), Sanaa Lathan (Robin), Melissa De Sousa (Shelby), Regina Hall (Candy).

Details:  The cast of The Best Man film franchise is reuniting for a limited series that has been ordered at Peacock.  Peacock has ordered 10 episodes, with Malcolm D. Lee and Dayna Lynne North onboard to write and executive produce. Lee previously directed and wrote the two films in the franchise — The Best Man and The Best Man Holiday. 

 The Best Man: Final Chapters will feature returning cast members Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, and Harold Perrineau.  The Best Man premiered in theaters in 1999 and made $35 million at the box office. The sequel, The Best Man Holiday, came 14 years later in 2013 and earned more than double the original film at the box office.

Story:  The series will catch up with Harper, Robyn, Jordan, Lance, Quentin, Shelby, Candace, and Murch as relationships evolve and past grievances resurface in the unpredictable stages of midlife crisis meets midlife renaissance.  Source(s):  Variety; MSN.  Photo Source(s): Variety, MSN.

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