The trades were busy this week with tons of news — especially Deadline.
- For one, we found out that Maya Rudolph and Yvette Nicole Brown have joined the cast of Disenchanted, the sequel to Disney’s Enchanted which is set for Disney+
- Lovecraft Country queen Jurnee Smollett is making moves as she is set to star and executive produce the Netflix movie Lou, which follows a mother who teams with a mysterious older woman to track down a kidnapper who abducted her child.
- The plane! The plane! Devious Maids alum Roselyn Sanchez will lead the upcoming contemporary reboot of Fantasy Island which will debut on August 10 on Fox.
- Ahead of the debut of Barry Jenkins‘ The Underground Railroad, the star of the Amazon series Thuso Mbedu will join Viola Davis in TriStar Pictures’ The Woman King directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Lots of queens involved in this project!
- Charles D. King’s MACRO is teaming with Warner Bros. to develop a modern re-imagining of the 1973 blaxploitation pic Cleopatra Jones with Lovecraft Country and Snowfall writer Ihuoma Ofordire writing the script.
- After a great freshman season, Amazon’s animated series Invincible which features the voice talent of Steven Yeun and Sandra Oh has been renewed for not one, but two seasons!
- Selena Gomez has been tapped to star in the psychological thrillerSpiral with Drake set has producer. Started at the bottom now we’re here, indeed.
- After slaying her role in Judas and the Black Messiah, Dominique Fishback is set to join In The Heights star Anthony Ramos in the forthcoming Transformers movie at Paramount directed by Steven Caple Jr. which is set to premiere June 24, 2022. Finally, a Transformers movie worth getting excited for!
- Do you smell what NBC is cooking? They are cooking season renewals for Young Rock and Kenan.
- Speaking of Young Rock, Uli Latukefu is joining the real-life Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) in the upcoming DC pic Black Adam.
- Insecure‘s Natasha Rothwell is getting hers s she has signed a multi-year overall deal with ABC Signature. C’mon Kelli!
- The one and only Taika Waititi is going from the Asagardian realness of Thor to pirates. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is set to play Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death. The story is loosely based on the true adventures of Stede Bonnet, “a pampered aristocrat who abandoned his life of privilege to become a pirate.”
- Aloha to Vanessa Lachey! She is set to lead NCIS: Hawai’i. Yasmine Al-Bustami and Jason Antoon have also joined the cast. Nice to see actual people who look like they are from Hawai’i to be cast in a show about Hawai’i.
