ROGER MASTROIANNI

SOURCE: Crain’s Cleveland Business | Scott Suttell
December 23, 2020

Warner Bros

SOURCE: Deadline.com | Anthony D’Alessandro
December 22, 2020

Warner Bros. drama Judas and the Black Messiah about Fred Hampton, the Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman who was betrayed by FBI informant William O’Neal, will open on Feb. 12, 2021 in both theaters and on HBO Max.

The studio is planning to push the Shaka King directed feature for the current 2020-21 awards season. The pic stars  Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield as William O’Neal. A career thief, O’Neal revels in the danger of manipulating both his comrades and his handler, Special Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons). Hampton’s political prowess grows just as he’s falling in love with fellow revolutionary Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback). Meanwhile, a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul. Will he align with the forces of good? Or subdue Hampton and The Panthers by any means, as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) commands?

(Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

SOURCE: Deadline.com | Ted Johnson
December 21, 2020

The Senate passed a $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief package and government spending bill, with a host of provisions sought by different sectors of the entertainment industry including aid to movie theaters and live venues including Broadway.

The Senate passed the massive package, 91-7.

The bill next will go to President Donald Trump for his signature.

John Fithian, the president of the National Association of Theaters Owners, said that the legislation “means that the vast majority of small and mid-size U.S. movie theaters and their employees will have the resources to make it through to the end of that tunnel. We urge its immediate implementation.”

COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES

SOURCE: Variety | Clayton Davis

Studios didn’t exactly jump at the chance to make a movie about the late Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton.

“It knocked me on my ass,” admits Shaka King, the co-writer and director of “Judas and the Black Messiah,” the blistering new look at Hampton’s short life and enduring impact. “I was under the impression that if you make a movie about a Black Panther, produced by the director of ‘Black Panther,’ which made a billion dollars, starring two of the best actors of our generation, and you have a producer and co-financer in Charles King, who is willing to put up half the budget, it’s going to be a bidding war. That was not the case.”

Michael Buckner/Variety

SOURCE: Variety | Charles D. King
December 16, 2020

Former WME partner Charles D. King launched Macro in 2015 as a production banner to focus on amplifying stories and creative talent from underrepresented backgrounds. Macro brings deep resources to the development and production process thanks to private equity supporters including Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective. In its short life, Macro has produced or co-financed such films as “Mudbound,” “Fences,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” “Sorry to Bother You” and the upcoming “Judas and the Black Messiah.” The company also has expanded into management with its M88 banner, which now has more than half a dozen managers representing actors, writers and directors.

As Macro approaches its sixth anniversary next month, King speaks with Variety about leading a young business at a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the kind of content King has vowed to champion.

SOURCE: Collider.com | Steve Weintraub
December 15, 2020

Last week, at CCXP Worlds, I moderated an exclusive conversation with Anthony and Joe Russo during which they talked about all the exciting projects at their production company AGBO. During the forty-five-minute panel, the brothers discussed Cherry with Tom Holland, their big-budget Netflix spy movie The Gray Man with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling, the Extraction sequel with Chris Hemsworth, Matthew Michael Carnahan’s Mosul, the Hercules remake, Saigon Bodyguards with Chris Pratt, Exit West, Citadel, Relic, their untitled Cambridge Analytica movie, and so much more. In addition, they also shared their memories of working with Chadwick Boseman on 21 Bridges and on their Marvel movies like Captain America: Civil Warand Avengers: Endgame.

Steven Caple, Jr., directing in Cleveland

SOURCE: Cleveland Scene | Sam Allard
December 15, 2020

Hollywood film director and Cleveland native Steven Caple Jr. will field questions about his distinguished young career and offer advice to filmmakers in a conversation with the Greater Cleveland Film Commission’s Mike Wendt Thursday evening.

The digital “Between the Screens” event, hosted by GCFC, will touch on many of Caple’s biggest projects, including The Land, Creed II and HBO’s forthcoming Emmett Till miniseries. It will also include an audience Q&A.

Amy Hargreaves and Joey Slotnick play parents to a blended family of teenagers in They/Them/Us

SOURCE: Midwest Movie Maker | Tom Tennant
December 11, 2020

For filmmakers large and small, summer 2020 was a season fraught with worry. How would creators and crew get back behind – and in front – of the camera? And when would they be able to? 

The answer came in mid-June, as the film industry adopted strict COVID guidelines built to protect both above- and below-the-line creatives. Closed sets with no visitors, limited shoot hours, specific production office setup, tiered zones or bubbles for cast and crew, regular testing, and more. They even included a new position – health supervisor – whose decisions could not be overruled.

 They/Them/Us was one of the first feature films to embrace the guidelines and go into production. The film, directed by Jon Sherman, associate professor of film, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, and co-written with Melissa Vogley Woods, was shot in and around Columbus in August 2020.

SOURCE: Deadline.com | Peter White
December 7, 2020

The number of podcasts being adapted for television is set to explode over the course of the next few years, with audio IP rivaling books as Hollywood’s go-to source for inspiration.

The podcasting business has been a growing source of intellectual property for the small screen for the last couple of years with the likes of Amazon’s Homecoming, USA Network’s Dirty John and ABC’s Alex, Inc. But Deadline understands that the number of podcasts in various stages of development to be adapted is now well into three figures. These includes the likes of Wondery’s crime drama Over My Dead Body and cult drama Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment, paranormal series Welcome to Night Vale, Neil Strauss’ investigative series To Live and Die In LA, basketball cheat scandal Whistleblower, Australian crime series The Teacher’s Pet, ESPN’s 30 for 30 on Clippers owner Donald Sterling The Sterling Affairs, and sci-fi drama Girl In Space.