- Kenya Barris has set his feature directorial debut with an untitled Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?-type comedy which he co-wrote with Jonah Hill — who will also star in the feature at Netflix.
- Just when you thought she was gone, Madea is coming back.
- Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key and Lydia West (who is FANTASTIC in It’s A Sin) are set to star in Mike Myers’ Netflix limited series The Pentaverate alongside Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe and Jennifer Saunders. The logline for the series is as follows: “What if a secret society of five men has been working to influence world events for the greater good since the Black Plague of 1347? As this new series begins, one unlikely Canadian journalist finds himself embroiled in a mission to uncover the truth and just possibly save the world himself. Remember, the Pentaverate must never be exposed!” Sounds fun!
- Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska has launched the Inevitable Foundation, whose mission is to fund and mentor the next generation of disabled screenwriters. The founders are looking to close the disability representation gap in film and television.
- Jaboukie Young-White is teaming with Issa Rae to adapt the book The Gang’s All Queer into a comedy series at HBO. The series follows a closeted twenty-something in Chicago, grieving a gang-related death, ditches college to find reckless closure.
- Jennifer Lopez has signed a first look deal with Netflix because, well, she’s Jennifer Lopez.
- Michelle Zauner’s memoir, Crying In H Mart is about to get the big screen treatment. Zauner is set to adapt her book that tracks her years growing up as one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Oregon and the months spent at her grandmother’s apartment in Seoul, as well as her career in the East Coast indie music scene and meeting her husband. At the center of her story is Zauner’s relationship with her mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, at which point Zauner reckons with her identity both as a daughter and a Korean American.
- John Legend’s Get Lifted production shingle is developing a biopic about the late, great, iconic comedian and actor Bernie Mac.
- With In the Heights in theaters and Hamilton still making an impact on culture, Lin-Manuel Miranda continues to kill it… this time with the first teaser for tick, tick…BOOM!. Miranda directed the film adaptation of Broadway legend Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical pre-Rent musical which stars Alexandra Shipp and Andrew Garfield.
- The Old Guard and Love and Basketball filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood is set to direct the feature adaptation of Minnie Schedeen’s short story Exoplanet, which was recently acquired by MGM.
- Sanaa Lathan is about to sit in the director’s chair for the first time for Paramount Players’ adaptation of Angie Thomas’ New York Times bestseller On the Come Up.
- Dwayne Johnson unveiled the entire voiceover cast for the animated feature DC League of Super-Pets which includes his buddy Kevin Hart as well as Keanu Reeves, Diego Luna, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, and John Krasinski.
- Family Reunion creator Meg DeLoatch has stepped into the role of showrunner of the fourth season of the CBS comedy The Neighborhood.
- LaKeith Stanfield has joined the adaptation of Iain Reid sci-fi thriller Foe alongside Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mesca.
- GOOD NEWS! Shadow and Bone has been renewed for a second season!
- Titans alum Anna Diop has been tapped to star in the thriller Nanny from Stay Gold Features And Topic Studios. The feature follows an undocumented nanny who takes a job caring for the privileged child of a wealthy Manhattan family on the Upper East Side in the hopes that she may earn enough money to bring her six-year-old son from West Africa to live with her in New York. As Aisha prepares for the arrival of her young son, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the “American Dream” she so painstakingly pieced together.
- The Sinner has added their first Asian series regulars with Cindy Cheung and Ronin Wong. And to add to that, David Huynh is set to recur on the crime anthology series.
- AppleTV+’s bilingual thriller series Now and Then has added more to its cast including Jorge Lopez, Alicia Jaziz, Dario Yazbek Bernal, Alicia Sanz, Jack Duarte, and Miranda de la Serna.
- Demi Lovato‘s NBC comedy pilot for Hungry has added Anna Akana and Ashley D. Kelley as well as icon Valerie Bertinelli.
- The pilot for the Night Court reboot at NBC has added Younger‘s Ana Villafañe.
- The cast for Gloria Calderón Kellett‘s With Love continues to grow with Constance Marie, Benito Martinez and Vincent Rodriguez III.
- Ryan Michelle Bathé and Morena Baccarin are set to lead NBC’s untitled bank heist drama pilot from Nick Wootton & Jake Coburn and Julie Plec. Justin Lin has signed on to direct and executive produce.
- Michael Peña has been cast in Paramount’s Secret Headquarters opposite join Owen Wilson. Walker Scobell, Momona Tamada, Keith L. Williams, Abby James Witherspoon and Kezii Curtis round out the cast.
And now for a rapid fire round of news of the week:
P-Valley queen Katori Hall has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for her comedy The Hot Wing King while Darnella Frazier, the woman who filmed George Floyd‘s murder received a special citation…Fast & Furious franchise star Ludcaris is joining Queen Latifah in Netflix’s End of the Road…Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan will star in She Said and will play New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kanto, who brought down Harvey Weinstein with THAT expose that changed the game…Will Packer’s production company is teaming with Red Arrow Studios’ Kinetic Content to secur the film and television rights to Tia Williams’s bestselling novel Seven Days in June…The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has promoted Shawn Finnie to EVP Member Relations and Awards…Netflix’s upcoming Resident Evil live action series has added Lance Reddick, Ella Balinska, Tamara Smart, Siena Agudong, Adeline Rudolph, and Paola Nuñez…Lil Jon, Tituss Burgess, and Lance Bass are set to serve as guest celebrity hosts in Bachelor in Paradise this summer which should be really fun…..Utkarsh Ambudkar is set to recur in the Elizabeth Holmes/Theranos limited series The Dropout… and last but not least: sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has been canceled after two seasons on NBC.
