Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!

Release Date:  4/14/21 – Series Premiere; Netflix
Genre:  Comedy
Rating:   TV-PG
Directors:  Ken Whittingham, Bentley Kyle Evans, Robin Strickland
Studio(s):  CBS Television Studios, Netflix
Cast:  Jamie Foxx, Kyla-Drew, David Alan Grier, Porscha Coleman, Jonathan Kite, Heather Hemmens, Valente Rodriguez.

Story:  Jamie Foxx plays Brian Dixon, a single dad and cosmetics brand owner who figures out fatherhood on the fly when his strong-minded teen daughter, Sasha (Kyla-Drew) moves in with him.  The comedy is inspired by Jamie’s relationship with his own daughter, Corinne Foxx. Both are executive producers on the show.  Source(s):  IMDB; yahoo.com.

Trailer:

The Mahalia Jackson Story/Mahalia!

Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was referred to as “The Queen of Gospel.”  Possessing a contralto voice she became one of the most influential gospel vocalists in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist.

On August 12, 2020, Deadline reported that Grammy-winning singer and actress Jill Scott will play the Queen of Gospel, in Mahalia!, a new big-screen take that’s being executive produced by Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, her partner Shakim Compere and Clark Sisters EP Holly Carter.  Mahalia! is based on the novel Mahalia Jackson by Darlene Donloe.  There is another Mahalia Jackson project in the works at Lifetime, but Mahalia! has secured the rights to Jackson’s entire musical catalog of hits including “How I Got Over,” “His Eyes Are on the Sparrow,” “Move on Up a Little Higher,” “Amazing Grace” and “Go Tell It On the Mountain.”

The Lifetime project, in partnership with journalist Robin Roberts, is titled, The Mahalia Jackson Story and will star Tony Award nominee, SAG and Grammy Award-winning actress Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black) as the iconic gospel legend.  Tony winner Kenny Leon  will direct and Robin Roberts will executive produce alongside Linda Berman.

During a time when gospel music was not as mainstream as it is today, Jackson became one of the wealthiest and most powerful entertainers in the world, melding her music with the civil rights movement. Known as the mentor and inspiration behind Aretha Franklin, Jackson rose from brutal poverty in New Orleans to become a platinum-selling artist. She was the first gospel singer to perform in front of a racially integrated audience at the prestigious  Carnegie Hall and would continue to captivate audiences around the world, including presidents, kings, and queens, until her death in 1972.

Known as the inspiration behind the “I Have a Dream” speech, she was one of the most instrumental voices and ardent supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. and was a driving force behind John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and performed at his inaugural ball.  An active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, Jackson sang at numerous rallies, in hopes that her music would encourage and inspire racial equality. Jackson’s story will continue to strengthen the need for more stories about Black legends that are often overlooked.  Source(s):  Essence; BET; Deadline.  Photo Source(s):  Shadow & Act; New York Daily News.com; Indiewire; fineartamerica.com.

Untitled Mike Tyson Biopic

a/k/a Finding Mike

Status:  Announced
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  TBA
Director:  TBA
Studio(s):  Unknown
Cast:  Jamie Foxx

Details:  On June 24, 2020, Screen Rant reported, that a Mike Tyson biopic has been rumored for years, but it now appears to be in the works. Jamie Foxx will portray the former U.S. Heavyweight boxing champ, a Brooklyn native who rose to fame during the 1980s and intimidated opponents with his presence alone. Now 53 years old, Tyson has been planning a comeback in 2020, which means that the screenplay for Foxx’s biopic may not be technically complete.

Foxx was originally attached to the Tyson biopic in 2014. He later revealed that Terence Winter would write the screenplay and that Martin Scorsese would direct. In 2015, Foxx made the interview rounds and recalled befriending Tyson during the late ’80s after they met at a stand-up comedy show in Los Angeles. By 2017, Foxx told Screen Rant that the boxing project was still moving forward, and that Scorsese was indeed going to direct. Three and half years later, the buzz appears to be picking up again thanks to Tyson and Foxx’s recent Instagram posts. The boxer has been promoting a return to the ring, while the actor has continued to tease his role as Tyson.

In June 2020, Foxx confirmed that he’d been physically training for his role as Tyson. The actor shared exclusive photos of his upper body transformation, the result of an every-other-day regiment involving 60 pull-ups, 60 dips, and 100 push-ups. Foxx joked about his lack of calf muscle, and implied that prosthetics would be needed to complement his real-life training. However, the actor didn’t reveal anything about the script, the director, or the production schedule.  As of now, the biopic presumably won’t release until 2022 at the earliest. Foxx revealed that he’ll first need to adapt his body to align with Tyson’s early years, and will then need to gain weight for late-career sequences.

The first half of Finding Mike will likely explore Tyson’s personal and professional life prior to his 1991 arrest and subsequent imprisonment for rape. The second half of the Tyson biopic will theoretically explore his 1995 comeback and pop culture persona. Foxx has also stated that he wants to show the real Mike Tyson, and how the boxer found inner peace after the 2009 death of his four-year-old daughter, Exodus.

As for Tyson’s, ex Robin Givens, her career is on a new roll, but she’s “relieved” to be left out of the upcoming biopic.  Givens was married to Tyson in 1988 for eight months and alleged abuse, but says she has been “re-victimized” by the relationship for decades since Tyson has routinely trashed her publicly — from alleging that she took his millions to catching her in bed with Brad Pitt.  Givens, 55, was worried enough about her potential portrayal in a Tyson biopic that she sent a cease-and-desist from top lawyer Arthur Aidala, alleging that while she has “attempted to move on, she still finds herself fighting the abusive, demeaning and false accounts of their relationship by Mr. Tyson nearly 35 years later.”

But reps for Tyson, who has denied any abuse claims, told Page Six he has no plans to depict their relationship in his film.  Source(s):  Screen Rant; Page Six; Biography.com.

Project Power

Release Date:  8/14/20; Netflix
Genre:  Sci-Fi/Thriller
Rating:  R
Directors:  Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Studio(s):  Netflix, Screen Arcade, Supermarché
Running Time:  Unknown
Cast:  Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Art), Dominique Fishback (Robin), Rodrigo Santoro, Amy Landecker, Allen Maldonado, Kyanna Simone Simpson, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Courtney B. Vance, Machine Gun Kelly, Casey Neistat, Jim Klock, Luke Hawx, Janet Nguyen.

Story:  On the streets of New Orleans, word begins to spread about a mysterious new pill that unlocks superpowers unique to each user. The catch: You don’t know what will happen until you take it. While some develop bulletproof skin, invisibility, and super strength, others exhibit a deadlier reaction. But when the pill escalates crime within the city to dangerous levels, a local cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) teams with a teenage dealer (Dominique Fishback) and a former soldier fueled by a secret vendetta (Jamie Foxx) to fight power with power and risk taking the pill in order to track down and stop the group responsible for creating it.  Source(s):  IMDB; Slashfilm.com.

Trailer:

Just Mercy

Release Date:  1/17/2020; In Theaters
Genre:  Drama/Biography
Rating:  PG-13
Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton
Studio(s):   Netter Productions, Warner Bros.
Running Time:  Unknown
Cast:  Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson; Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian; Brie Larson as Eva Ansley; O’Shea Jackson, Jr. as Anthony Ray Hinton; Tim Blake Nelson as Ralph Myers; Rob Morgan as Herbert Richardson.

Story:   A powerful and thought-provoking true story, Just Mercy follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds and the system stacked against them.  Source:  Rotten Tomatoes.  Photo Source:  indiewire.

Trailer:

Sleepless

a/k/a Sleepless Night

sleepless

Release Date:   2/24/17; In Theaters
Genre:  Action/Thriller
Rating:  Unknown
Running Time:  Unknown
Director:   Baran bo Odar
Studio:   FilmNation Entertainment, Open Road Films (II), Riverstone Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment.

Cast:  Jamie Foxx (Vincent Downs), Gabrielle Union, T.I., Michelle Monaghan, David Harbour, Dermot Mulroney.

Story:   In this Sin City thriller, Las Vegas cop Vincent Downs finds himself trapped between corrupt cops and the mob underground.  When a heist goes bad, Downs’ son is snatched from his car by a group of armed men who demand the money they would have made from the robbery in exchange for returning Downs’ son alive. Meanwhile, he’s also dealing with an internal affairs investigation while trying to retrieve his son and get even with the kidnappers — all in one long night.  Downs’ mission takes him through the city’s maze of parking garages and nightclubs and has him driving sports cars through the city and engaging in hand-to-hand combat in the bowels of a casino.  Sleepless is a remake of the 2011 French film Sleepless Night.  Source:  The Wrap.

Trailer: