Cast:Anthony Mackie (Martin Luther King, Jr.), Bryan Cranston (Lyndon B. Johnson), Bradley Whitford (Hubert Humphrey), Stephen Root (J. Edgar Hoover), Frank Langella (Senator Richard Russell), Melissa Leo (Lady Bird Johnson), Joe Morton (Roy Wilkins) Ethan Phillips (Joe Alsop), Toby Huss (Governor Johnson), Aisha Hinds (Fannie Lou Hamer), Mo McRae (Stokely Carmichael).
Story: All The Way offers a riveting behind-the scenes look at President Lyndon B. Johnson’s tumultuous first year in office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Staking his presidency on what would be an historic unprecedented Civil Rights Act, Johnson finds himself caught between the moral imperative of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the expectations of the southern Democratic Party leaders who brought Johnson to power. As King battles to press Johnson while controlling more radical elements of the Civil Rights Movement, Johnson navigates the bill through Congress, winning a landslide victory against Barry Goldwater, but causing the South to defect from the Democratic Party. Source: HBO.
Story: Basketball great Kevin Durant of The Oklahoma City Thunder captured the hearts of the nation when he accepted the 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player Award with his emotional speech crediting all of his success to his mother, Wanda, naming her “the real MVP.”
Executive produced by Queen Latifah and her Flavor Unit team, the inspiring true story of The Real MVP begins with Wanda, a single mom of two by the time she was 21, working tirelessly to make ends meet and put a roof over the heads of her young sons. With the support of her mother and her best friend, Wanda focused all her energy on keeping her boys out of trouble and on the basketball court, selflessly putting aside her own dreams and desires to make sure their goals could be achieved. Her hard work paid off as her son Tony earned basketball scholarships and graduated from college while Kevin pursued his dream of playing in the NBA. Source: Lifetime.com.
Release Date:6/1/16 (TV One) Genre: Biography Rating: NR Running Time: Unknown Director:Christine Swanson Cast: Teyonah Parris (Miki Howard), Gary Dourdan (Augie Johnson), Darius McCrary (Gerald Levert), Amari Cheatom (Eddie Phelps), LisaRaye McCoy (Sylvia Rhone), Vanessa Bell Calloway (Josephine Howard).
Story: Teyonah Parris stars in the TV One Original Movie The Miki Howard Story. Parris plays the R&B/Jazz singer and actress who enjoyed mainstream success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a string of top 10 hits including “Come Share My Love,” “Baby, Be Mine,” “Love Under New Management,” and others.
The film will cover 30+ years of Howard’s life, including both professional and personal trials and triumphs. Also starring Darius McCrary as Gerald Levert, Gary Dourdan as Augie Johnson, LisaRaye is Sylvia Rhone, Amari Cheatom as Eddie Phelps and Vanessa Bell Calloway as Josephine Howard. Christine Swanson is directing from a script written by Rhonda Baraka, which is based on a yet to be released biography by Miki Howard. Source: Shadow and Act.
Release Date: 2016 Genre: Biography/Romance Rating: NR Running Time: 81 mins. Studio(s): IM Global, State Street Pictures Director: Richard Tanne Cast: Parker Sawyers (Barack Obama), Tika Sumpter (Michelle Robinson).
Details:Set in 1989, Southside With You stars Tika Sumpter (playing Michelle Robinson, as she was known before her marriage) and Parker Sawyers as Obama. The narrative takes place over the course of a single day, when the pair had an hours-long date that included a picnic and a screening of “Do the Right Thing.” They initially met at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin, where Michelle worked and was assigned as a mentor to Barack, who was a Harvard law student at the time. Source(s): The Chicago Tribune. Photo Source: The Wrap.
Status: Script (as of March 7, 2017) Release Date: TBA Genre: Biography/Historical Rating: Unknown Studio(s): Get Lifted Film Co., Parliament of Owls, Sony. Running Time: Unknown Director: Cary Fukunaga Cast:TBA
Details: In April 2014 Deadline announced that John Legend and his Get Lifted Film Co. partner Mike Jackson, will team with Cary Fukunaga to adapt and helm a big-screen version of The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count of Monte Cristo for Sony. Get Lifted have optioned the Pulitzer-winning 2012 biography written by Tom Reiss that chronicles the life and adventures of French Revolution-era General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. Jackson and Ty Stiklorius will produce the pic with Fukunaga’s Parliament of Owls. Legend, his manager Troy Carter and Sony’s Josh Bratman will serve as executive producers.
Born to a French nobleman and a slave woman of African descent, Dumas became the highest-ranking person of color to ever serve in any European army. A favorite of Napoleon for a time, Dumas was also the first non-white to become a brigadier general in the French military. Dumas’ exploits were used as the basis for the novels of his son Alexandre Dumas. Better known today than his father, the younger Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count Of Monte Cristo. Source: Deadline. Photo Source: NPR.
Release Date: 10/7/16 (In Theaters) Genre: Biography/Historical/Drama Rating: R Studio(s): Bron Studios, Mandalay Pictures, Phantom Four, Tiny Giant Entertainment Running Time: 110 mins. Director: Nate Parker
Cast: Nate Parker (Nat Turner), Aunjanue Ellis (Nancy Turner), Armie Hammer (Samuel Turner), Colman Domingo (Hark), Aja Naomi King, Gabrielle Union, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Junior, Penelope Ann Miller (Elizabeth Turner), Roger Guenveur Smith (Isaiah), Dwight Henry (Isaac Turner), Chiké Okonkwo.
Story: According to Shadow and Act, the official synopsis reads: Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom. Photo Source: Shadow and Act.
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Update: According to Deadline, on 1/26/16, in a record-breaking deal for the Sundance Film Festival, Fox Searchlight is wrapping up a deal to pay around $17.5 million to acquire world rights for The Birth Of A Nation. Sony Pictures and The Weinstein Company bid in the mid-eight figures for Birth Of A Nation, and Netflix went all out and bid $20 million, sources said. Aside from the high bid among traditional theatrical distributors, Fox Searchlight is the company that guided 12 Years A Slave to an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2014. Many who saw the film feel that is a realistic goal for The Birth Of A Nation. Buyers were buzzing immediately after the premiere screening Monday (1/25/16) afternoon where Parker and his cast received a thunderous, sustained standing ovation for a movie that left attendees shaken, and some sobbing.
The Birth of a Nation won both the US dramatic audience award and the grand jury prize at the 32nd Sundance film festival awards. Source(s): Deadline, The Guardian.
Details: On 5/27/15, Variety reported that Jackie Earle Haley and Mark Boone Junior (Sons of Anarchy) will star in Nate Parker’s historical drama The Birth of a Nation, based on the story of the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner. The film was first announced in November with Armie Hammer and Parker starring, with Parker also producing and directing from his own script.
Prompted by religious visions, Turner and a band of about 70 rebel slaves killed between 55 and 65 people in Virginia — the most ever killed in a slave uprising. The rebellion was stopped after two days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months.
Haley will portray a slave patrol captain who takes pride in controlling the movements of the county’s slaves. Boone Jr. will play a crafty preacher. Aja Naomi King, Aunjanue Ellis, Colman Domingo, Dwight Henry, Roger Guenveur Smith and Gabrielle Union are also starring.
Variety also previously reported that the producers have opted to use the same title as the 1915 American silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith, which covered the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. The film was controversial due to its portrayal of black men as unintelligent and the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. Source: Variety.
Release Date: 5/21/16; HBO
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