Amazon Studios
Eddie Murphy in Talks to Play George Clinton in Amazon Biopic
Eddie Murphy is giving up the funk. According to a new report by Deadline, the actor is in early talks to topline a biopic about the Parliament–Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton. The film, which is still in its earliest stages, would track the musician from his roots in 1940s-era North Carolina to becoming the bonafide Godfather of Funk, pioneering the genre alongside James Brown and Sly Stone as he formed both Parliament and Funkadelic. In the process, he influenced the rise of modern hip-hop by inspiring the sound of everyone from 2Pac and Wu-Tang Clan to Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, OutKast, Public Enemy, and beyond. The Oscar nominee will also serve as a producer on the project. While a deal isn’t quite set in stone, the film would be part of Murphy’s three-picture deal with Amazon followin...
Amazon Studios Is Developing a Live-Action She-Ra Series
She-Ra is going live-action. Amazon Studios is currently in the works on a new series on the superheroine based off Mattel’s Masters of the Universe franchise, Deadline reports. While this new She-Ra project is still in the very, very early stages — no screenwriter has been named yet — we do know it’ll be executive produced by DreamWorks Animation, the same team behind Netflix’s recent animated series reboot, She-Ra: Princess of Power. The original iteration of that series first began in 1985, with Filmation and toy giant Mattel collaborating on a spin-off of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In a slimy move, Filmation ordered the creator’s names removed, but we know now that She-Ra was co-created by Larry DiTillio — who also led the charge on Maste...
Regina King’s One Night in Miami Is a Quiet and Powerful Meditation on Race: Review
This review was originally part of our coverage of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The Pitch: On the night of Cassius Clay’s (Eli Goree) historic win over Sonny Liston in 1964, the man who would become Muhammad Ali gathers his friends — Muslim Brotherhood activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), football player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) — to celebrate, debate, and plan for a new world. Play It Again, Sam: Based on real events, Kemp Powers’ 2013 play is a speculative consideration of what happened when the four African American icons gathered together for one night in 1964. Historically, this is the year that Cooke would be murdered; Malcolm X would be assassinated the following year in 1965. Expanding upon his original source material, Powe...
Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America Emigrates to Amazon Prime for Christmas Release
Perhaps movie theaters in the Kingdom of Zamunda are open, but here in the States things are looking bleak. The lack of cinematic release options is the main reason why Eddie Murphy‘s new film Coming 2 America is emigrating from Paramount Pictures to Amazon Studios. The sequel to 1988’s Coming to America was originally slated to drop on August 7th, 2020, before going on standby until Christmas. Then the coronavirus happened, and blockbusters such as James Bond’s No Time to Die and Dune were pushed back to 2021. But Crown Prince Akeem Joffer won’t have to wait that long; as Variety reports, Amazon ponied up $125 million for the streaming rights. Now, Coming 2 America is expected to premiere on December 18th. Some details are still bein...
Fallout Video Game Getting TV Series Adaptation from Westworld Creators
Amazon Prime Video is opening the Vault on a new TV series based on the hit Fallout video game franchise. The project is being spearheaded by Westworld co-creators/executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy as part of their overall deal with Amazon Studios. Originating from a turn-based role-playing game in 1997, the Fallout series has stretched eight games over the course of two decades, as well as the mobile game Fallout Shelter. The games’ story thrusts American ideals and visions of the future from the 1940s into a post-nuclear apocalypse in the 2100s and 2200s. After international war over natural resources turned the world into a nuclear wasteland in 2077, the games’ protagonists are forced to wrestle with previous generations’ failed hopes of nuclear energy while surv...
