Category: Rumoured or Announced Projects

The Best Man Wedding a/k/a The Best Man 3

The Best Man picStatus:  Announced
Release Date:  2016 (TBA)
Genre:  Comedy/Romance
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Sean Daniel Company/Universal Pictures
Director:  Malcolm D. Lee
Cast:  Regina Hall (Candance), Sanaa Lathan (Robin, rumored), Nia Long (Jordan), Terrence Howard (Quentin, rumored), Morris Chestnut (Lance, rumored), Taye Diggs (Harper, rumored),  Harold Perrineau (Murch, rumored), Melissa De Sousa (Shelby, rumored), Katt Williams (Dorian Burroughs, rumored), Jay Pharoah (Teddy Harper, rumored).

Update:  In a September 14, 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, when asked how production was going on the third installment of The Best Man series, Morris Chestnut stated “Unfortunately, we’re not exactly sure when it’s going to happen,” Chestnut says of Best Man Wedding, citing scheduling conflicts given his upcoming Fox procedural Rosewood. Co-stars Terrence Howard and Taye Diggs are equally busy, he explains, adding, “We’ve all read the script, and it’s a really good script, but with Terrence now on Empire, Taye on Murder in the First and me on Rosewood, it’s going to be difficult to make happen.”  Source:  Entertainment Weekly.

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Update:  Variety reported on 7/22/14 that Universal Pictures has dated The Best Man Wedding, the next installment in the The Best Man franchise for April 15, 2016.  The original cast is expected to return with Malcolm D. Lee directing.

Plot details are vague other than the film will revolve around the wedding of Quentin (Terrence Howard’s character).  Source:  Variety.

Story:  After coming together after 15 years for The Best Man Holiday Lance (Morris Chestnut), Harper (Taye Diggs) and company may reunite again for a third part of the Best Man franchise.

Details:  Following an impressive opening weekend of $30 million for The Best Man Holiday in November 2013, Deadline reports that Malcolm D. Lee is negotiating a deal with Universal to write, direct and produce another installment of the hit ensemble romantic comedy. Sean Daniel is also in talks to come back and produce another film through his The Sean Daniel Company shingle. No word yet on locking in the ensemble cast. It took 14 years for Lee to come back with a sequel, but this one is going to happen much more quickly and is a priority project for Universal.

The $17 million sequel had the fifth-largest opening for an R-rated romantic comedy, the second-highest opening for an urban romantic comedy and the sixth-biggest opening for an urban-themed film overall. The film has grossed $71 million worldwide.  Source(s): IMDB; Deadline, Moviepilot.

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Good Times

Good timesStatus:  In Development
Release Date:  TBA
Genre:  Comedy
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Scott Rudin Productions
Director:  TBA
Cast:  TBA

Update:  On 4/27/15 Entertainment Weekly stated that Sony has tapped Black-ish creator Kenya Barris to write the script for the movie version of Good Times, EW has confirmed.  Scott Rudin and Eli Bush are producing the film.

Wreck-It Ralph and Cedar Rapids screenwriter Phil Johnston was first attached to write when the movie was announced in March 2013.  Eric Monte, Tammie Evans and Carlena Harris will executive produce, while William Bannister, Michael Daniels and Neville Mouguel will serve as associate producers.

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Details:  Film based on the 1974-1979 CBS TV series created by Mike Evans & Eric Monte. Set in the 1960s, working-class couple James and Florida Evans raise three kids while struggling with hard financial times, unemployment and keeping their kids away from temptations that come with living in a Chicago housing project.  Source: Movie Insider.

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Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess

Status: Development Unknown
Release Date: TBA
Genre:  Musical
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Phoenix Pictures
Director:  Spike Lee
Cast:  TBA

Story:  1930s opera gets a modern makeover for the big screen. Producers Mike Medavoy and Bobby Geisler are developing a contemporary film version of famed 1930’s opera Porgy and Bess. Porgy and Bess follows the story of Porgy, a disabled beggar and his attempts to rescue Bess from her violent and jealous lover, Crown and drug dealer, Sportin’ Life who tries to lead her astray.

Details: In August 2012, Broadway.com reported, two-time Oscar-nominated director Spike Lee is in negotiations to turn the Gershwin musical Porgy and Bess into a film. The musical has been a passion project for Lee for over a decade and after seeing the current Broadway revival, Lee has begun negations with the Gershwin estate to bring the opera back to the big screen. Porgy and Bess was adapted into a major motion picture in 1957, starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge and Sammy Davis, Jr. No timeline or casting for Lee’s remake has been confirmed. Source(s): Moviepilot; Movie Insider, Broadway.com.

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Thelonious Monk Biopic

Thelonious MonkStatus:  Development Status Unknown
Release Date:  TBA
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Not Available
Director:  Not Available
Cast:  Denzel Washington (Thelonius Monk, rumored)

Story:  A rumored biopic based on the life of jazz great Thelonious Monk.

Details:  On February 13, 2012, The Playlist reported, in an interview with The Observer, [Denzel] Washington reveals he has ambitions to play jazz legend Thelonious Monk, has a script in place, and says that “I’m talking about it more, so maybe I’m talking myself into it.” Monk, was the pianist and composer behind standards like “Round Midnight” and “Straight No Chaser,” whose inventive, idiosyncratic style helped to make him the second most recorded jazz artist in history. This isn’t the first time that Washington’s been linked to the role; back in 2007, El Cantante director Leon Ichaso told MTV that he wanted Washington or Wesley Snipes to play the musician in a biopic, but it’s unclear whether Ichaso is still involved, or if the actor is considering making this his third directorial effort, following Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters.

Playlist goes on to say, given Washington’s age, the film might focus on the later stages of Monk’s life when he was plagued with mental health issues. Source: The Playlist.

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The Crusaders

Status:  Development Status Unknown as of July 1, 2014
Release Date: TBA
Genre: Drama/Biography
Rating: Unknown
Studio: Landscape Entertainment
Director: TBA
Cast: Terrence Howard, Topher Grace
Story:  A dedicated young lawyer becomes the only white member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and fights side by side with Thurgood Marshall in the courts to destroy segregation. The landmark 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education helped to end segregation in schools.

Details:  Based on the Jack Greenberg’s “Crusaders in the Courts.” (Source: Movie Insider.com).

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Robeson

Paul RobesonStatus:  Development Status Unknown as of April 24, 2017
Release Date: TBA
Genre:  Drama/Biography
Rating:  Not Available
Studio:  Four Stars International/Equinox Films
Director:  Vondie Curtis-Hall
Cast:  David Harewood (Paul Robeson), Louis Gossett, Jr. (W.E.B. Dubois), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Eslanda Goode Robeson).

Details:  Variety reports that Vondie Curtis-Hall will direct the upcoming Paul Robeson biopic with shooting set for early 2014.

“Robeson” has been in development since early 2013 with South African director Darrell Roodt attached to helm and David Harewood on board to play the lead. Roodt is no longer attached and producers have opted to read other actors for the role.

Robeson, born in 1898, was a singer, actor and orator from the 1920s through the 1950s best known for his  acting in “Othello” and his singing of “Ol’ Man River.” Robeson’s political activism brought him to the attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy, leading to the revocation of his passport for eight years despite his contributions as an entertainer to the Allied forces during WWII. (Source: Variety).

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