Historic Mansfield prison in spotlight again for Oscar-winning film

Daniel Kaluuya wins the award for best actor in a supporting role for “Judas and the Black Messiah.” CHRIS PIZZELLO POOL/AFP Via Getty Images


SOURCE: Mansfield News Journal | Lou Whitmire
April 26, 2021

MANSFIELD – A film made partly at the Ohio State Reformatory won two Oscars Sunday night, one for Daniel Kaluuya for best supporting actor and one for best song.

The bulk of the film, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” was made in Cleveland and filmed a few days in November 2019 at the Mansfield prison that was the backdrop for the hit movie “The Shawshank Redemption.”

 

 

With two Oscars, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ becomes most decorated movie shot in Cleveland since ‘The Deer Hunter’

Daniel Kaluuya, winner of the award for best actor in a supporting role for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland.com | Joey Morona
April 26, 2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Many popular movies have been shot in Cleveland over the years, from “A Christmas Story” to “Marvel’s The Avengers.” But outside of “The Deer Hunter,” the city’s film industry hasn’t produced many Academy Awards.

But that changed Sunday when “Judas and the Black Messiah” took two home Oscars. Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor and H.E.R. won Best Original Song for “Fight for You.”

 

 

Inside the Authentic Sets of Judas and the Black Messiah

Judas and the Black Messiah received five Academy Award nominations. Photo: Glen Wilson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Architectural Digest | Mekita Rivas
March 18, 2021

When production designer Sam Lisenco found out that Judas and the Black Messiah had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, he happened to be on the phone with director Shaka King.

“The two of us just started screaming,” Lisenco tells AD. “And I was like, ‘All right, you have phone calls to make,’ and hung up on him. Crazy morning. I’m really happy—it’s a story that needed to be told.”

 

 

“Cherry,” The Russo Brothers’ Cleveland-Based Film, Comes Out This Week

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland Magazine | Arbela Capas
February 24, 2021

Anthony and Joe Russo talk about what it was like adapting Nico Walker’s book for the big screen.

A man holds up a dollar bill to a bank teller. It reads: I have a gun.

It just happens to be Tom Holland, the actor who portrays the titular character in Anthony and Joe Russo’s upcoming film Cherry.

The scene shows how Holland, known for more lighthearted roles such as Peter Parker, portrays a veteran as he deals with PTSD and goes through a different kind of hero cycle.

 

 

Cleveland native screenwriter says filming ‘The Marksman’ in Ohio was like ‘living in a dream’


SOURCE: WKYC Channel 3 | Stephanie Haney
February 23, 2021

CLEVELAND — When Cleveland native Danny Kravitz set out to write ‘The Marksman,’ he never dreamt his first major motion picture would star Liam Neeson, and that it would top the box office for its first two weeks in theaters.

In a wide-ranging interview, Kravitz gets candid about what it was like to see his dream become a reality near his hometown of Pepper Pike, Ohio, and the nuances of the message behind what could be easily dismissed by the naked eye as “just another action film.”

 

 

 

The Awardist podcast: Tom Holland finds a new career breakthrough with Cherry


SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly | Clarissa Cruz
February 22, 2021

As a drug-addicted war veteran struggling with PTSD in the new movie Cherry, Tom Holland’s searing portrayal is worlds away from Peter Parker. But the common thread between the two performances is Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed the star in both the Apple+ drama and The Avengers films. “Making a $500 million box office movie and making a small independent movie is so different, but the way they approach making them is exactly the same,” says Holland, 24, who joined EW’s The Awardist to discuss his dark new project. “The respect they had and the way they were able to galvanize everyone and have a really fun and positive experience while the subject matter was so dark and difficult to swallow was amazing.”

 

 

Joe and Anthony Russo share never-before-seen pictures and videos from Cleveland-filmed projects ahead of “Cherry” premiere

Instagram | @therussobrothers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: WKYC Channel 3 | Hope Sloop
February 21, 2021

Once a Clevelander, always a Clevelander.

Ahead of the premiere for their latest movie, Cherry- which was filmed in Cleveland- Joe and Anthony Russo decided to take a walk down memory lane on Instagram this week, sharing behind-the-scenes content from the projects that they have been able to work on in Northeast Ohio.

“From our first film to our latest film, we have had the pleasure of shooting some of our projects in our hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The city and it’s people mean so much to us and our career,” the directors wrote on Instagram. “This week we’re going to go on a little journey of the films we were able to bring back home. In the meantime, enjoy this photoshoot of us as young and hungry Ohio directors in the neighborhood of Little Italy, Cleveland.”

 

 

 

Russo brothers come home, team up with sister to make ‘Cherry,’ their most personal film yet

Tom Holland in “Cherry,” premiering globally March 12, 2021 on Apple TV+.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Cleveland.com | Joey Morona
February 21, 2021

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland-born directors Anthony and Joe Russo could’ve done anything they wanted after their last film, “Avengers: Endgame,” wound up becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time.

They chose to come home.

The brothers spent several months in late 2019 shooting “Cherry” in Cleveland. The movie, starring Tom Holland (”Spider-Man: Far From Home”) and in theaters on February 26 and on Apple TV+ on March 12, is set in their hometown and based on a book by a fellow Clevelander, Nico Walker. The directing duo’s younger sister, Angela Russo-Otstot, co-wrote the screenplay.

 

 

Local residents, OSR play key roles in new ‘Judas and The Black Messiah’ movie

Mansfield resident Damien Beauford (third from right) eats next to star Daniel Kaluuya during the filming from a scene of “Judas and The Black Messiah” at the Ohio State Reformatory in 2019. The film, which earned Kaluuya a Golden Globe nomination earlier this month, opened nationwide Feb. 12. (Photo courtesy of Damien Beauford)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Richland Source | Carl Hunnell
February 19, 2021

MANSFIELD — Damien Beauford sat next to him and shared a prison meal. Chris Hahn beat him with a baton outside a cell.

Both Mansfield actors shared scenes with star Daniel Kaluuya in the recently released Warner Brothers film “Judas and The Black Messiah,” a major motion picture that opened nationwide on Feb. 12.

The film, nominated for two Golden Globes by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, includes scenes shot during three days at the former Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield.

 

 

Ava DuVernay On Thursday’s Launch Of Array Crew: On-Set Inclusion, Getting Studios & Streamers Onboard & How “This Isn’t The Yelp Of Job Searches”

AP

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOURCE: Deadline.com | Dominic Patten
February 18, 2021

DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE: “I have to create and be a part of the change that I want to see, and so, after I go through the period of being on every panel and being in every article about diversity, I stopped doing that a couple years ago, and I said, no more panels,” Ava DuVernay says of the impetus to create Array Crew, which launches online Thursday. “We’re going to just build something that people can no longer say I don’t know how,” the When They See Us creator adds.

“This is how. Now will you do it? And that’s the question.”

Evolving over the past two years out of the Oscar nominee’s decade-old film collective and backed early on by Warner Bros TV’s Peter Roth, Array Crew offers productions access to qualified but underrepresented below-the-line crew members for hiring searches.