Check out Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard as Winnie and Nelson Mandela in this new poster for their biopic Winnie.
Based on the book Winnie Mandela: A Life by Bezdrob, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 16 and has already opened in Mandela’s native South Africa. Darrell Roodt, the lensman behind Sarafina! and Cry, the Beloved Country, stepped behind the camera to direct the story, which follows the “Mother of the Nation” through her marriage to Nelson Mandela, played by Howard.
The film does not yet have a North American release date.
This Just In: Cee Lo Green will join Jordin Sparks, Mike Epps, and Whitney Houston in the movie Sparkle — a remake of the 1976 film about a Supremes-like group of singing sisters.
In related news, R. Kelly has been tapped to pen the film’s score.
We’re getting our first look at Grammy Award-winning singer Mary J. Blige in the hotly-anticipated movie musical Rock of Ages. MJB will be taking the role of Justice Charlier, the owner of a gentlemen’s club, in the film inspired by the hits of the 1980s and adapted from the award-winning Broadway production of the same name.
Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages — also starring Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, and Alec Baldwin — will open in theaters in Dec. 2012.
The story of pioneering slugger Jackie Robinson is bound for the big screen. Warner Bros. Films and Legendary Pictures is teaming up with Robinson’s widow to produce a biopic about the first black man to play Major League Baseball. The late sportsman was instrumental in breaking the color line of racial segregation in professional baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
It’s been more than 15 years since the film version of best-selling author Terry McMillan’s smash novel Waiting to Exhale hit theaters, so it’s finally time for the sequel.
Will and Jada’s boy is the most bankable kid in Hollywood. He’s not old enough to drive and he’s so pint-sized, we doubt he can even reach the pedals, but at the ripe old age of 12, Jaden Smith has become the nation’s highest-paid child star, raking in an estimated $3 million from his role in 2010′s The Karate Kid remake.
It looks like Aubrey’s getting back to his roots. Former Degrassi: The Next Generation star Drake and Beyonce, whose acting credits include Obsessed, Cadillac Records, and the 2006 hit DreamGirls, have been added to the cast of the next Ice Age movie. The music superstars will join an ensemble cast, which includes Jeremy Renner, Wanda Sykes, Keke Palmer, and Jennifer Lopez, for voiceovers in the upcoming animated hit Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, producers with Blue Sky Studios said Wednesday. The newcomers will star alongside franchise regulars Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo.
Due in theaters on July 13, 2012, Renner will portray Gutt, a self-styled master of the high seas. Lopez will play Shira, a saber-toothed tiger who melts the heart of Diego, played by Leary. Romano returns as Manny while Queen Latifah reprises her role as the voice of Ellie, both mammoths.
The first three Ice Age films have grossed nearly $2 billion at the international box office. A holiday TV special and online game are presently in the works.
Word on the Curb has it that actor/comedian Kevin Hart — the pint-sized star of flicks like Little Fockers,Soul Plane, and Death at a Funeral — has been tipped to play Steve Harvey in Act Like a Man, the upcoming film adaptation of the entertainer’s 2008 New York Times bestselling relationship manual Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.
And in this corner….Two of the most successful Black filmmakers in Hollywood history are at one another’s throats again. It seems Tyler Perry never quite got over a 2009 interview in which legendary lensman Spike Lee quipped that Perry’s films “harken back to Amos n’ Andy.”
“Each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors, but I still think there is a lot of stuff out today that is coonery and buffoonery,” Lee told 60 Minutes at the time. “I know it’s making a lot of money and breaking records, but we can do better. … I am a huge basketball fan, and when I watch the games on TNT, I see these two ads for these two shows (Tyler Perry’s ‘Meet the Browns’ and ‘House of Payne’), and I am scratching my head. We got a black president, and we going back to Mantan Moreland and Sleep ‘n’ Eat?”
After nearly two years of keeping his silence, Tyler unleashed the beast on Spike during a press conference for his latest comedy, Madea’s Big Happy Family, opening in theaters this weekend.
