Biopic
Bowie Biopic Stardust Commits Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide: Review
The Pitch: It’s 1971 and David Bowie (Johnny Flynn) is about to make it big. Well, actually, he already kind of had. He’d just released “Space Oddity”, which would have become legendary even if he’d never released another album. We’d still be hearing it in commercials like we do Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” regardless, so the “what if?” at the center of the movie isn’t quite as pulse-pounding as writer-director Gabriel Range and his co-scribe Christopher Bell seem to imagine it to be. Anyway, Bowie’s about to be famous, but he’s concerned that the US doesn’t like or get him and that the record label doesn’t know what to do with him. So, they send him to the US to introduce himself, which is about all he can do because his visa doesn’t allow him to play shows. So, he just ...
Leslie Odom Jr. on Playing Sam Cooke for One Night in Miami
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Leslie Odom Jr. jumps on the line with Kyle Meredith to talk about The Christmas Album, his second venture into holiday music. Odom tells us about the challenge of writing original Christmas songs, adding his own mark to classics, covering Sara Bareilles, and re-recording… Please click the link below to read the full article. Leslie Odom Jr. on Playing Sam Cooke for One Night in Miami CoS Staff You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of...
Danai Gurira Will Play Presidential Candidate Shirley Chisholm In Upcoming Film
Source: Universal History Archive / Getty Shirley Chisholm achieved a number of amazing firsts during her lifetime, and now an upcoming film will examine more of the late politician’s exploits. Danai Gurira will play Chisholm in The Fighting Shirley Chisholm, which is not framed as a biopic according to a new report. Variety writes that Gurira, best known as the sword-wielding Michonne of The Walking Dead, will occupy the titular role and the film will take a deeper look at Chisholm’s historic run as the first Black candidate of a major political party to be nominated to run for president and her time on the campaign trail. From Variety: Though Gurira will play Chisholm, the movie is not a biopic, instead focused more centrally on the campaign and how “the Chisholm Trail was po...
Selena Gomez to Portray Gay Mountaineering Icon Silvia Vásquez-Lavado in New Biopic
Last we heard from Selena Gomez, the pop star had just collaborated with K-pop sensations BLACKPINK, as well as purchased Tom Petty’s former California mansion. Gomez has now found her next big project: the 28-year-old has just been cast to star in a new biopic about Silvia Vásquez-Lavado, the first openly gay woman to ascend the highest mountain on each continent, a.k.a. the Seven Summits. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the forthcoming film is titled In the Shadow of the Mountain and based on a forthcoming memoir of the same name by Vásquez-Lavado, who is also credited with being the first Peruvian woman to scale Mt. Everest. Elgin James (Little Birds, FX’s Mayan’s M.C.) has been tapped to write and direct the movie, while Oscar winner Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in ...
Disney Is Making a Movie About Giannis Antetokounmpo and is Searching for Lookalike Actors
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s life is like a fairytale story, so it’s no shock that Disney is making a movie about the NBA icon and his brother, Thanasis Antetokounmpo. What does come as a surprise, though, is the fact that they’re looking for everyday people to star as him — no experience necessary. “Disney is making a movie based on my family’s story and they are searching for actors to play me and my brother, Thanasis, in our younger days,” tweeted Antetokounmpo. “No experience necessary! It helps if you resemble the handsome boys pictured below and have some basketball experience. SPREAD THE WORD!” Born in Athens, Greece as the son of Nigerian immigrants, Antetokounmpo fell in love with basketball as a kid, joined a semi-pro local league, and made himself eligible for the NBA draft abroad. C...
Richard Pryor Biopic in the Works from black-ish Creator Kenya Barris
A new biopic about Richard Pryor is in the works at MGM. black-ish creator Kenya Barris is writing and directing the film in collaboration with the legendary comedian’s widow, Jennifer Lee Pryor. The project was won by MGM after a heated bidding war between various studios. The film will be produced by Barris’ Khalabo Ink Society, Lee Pryor’s Tarnished Angel, and Tory Metzger for Levantine Films. Adam Rosenberg will serve as executive producer. An ensemble crew like that is necessary to do the iconic Pryor justice. The late comic is one of the most beloved stand-up comedians of all time, and he has five Grammy’s, two American Academy of Humor awards, and the first ever Mark Twain Humor Prize award to prove it. Before he died in 2005, he also starred in over 50 movies (includ...
The Wire’s Wendell Pierce to Play B.B. King in New Biopic
Wendell Pierce (photo by Daniel Hambury) and B.B. King (photo courtesy of artist’s website) It must be three o’clock, because Wendell Pierce has the blues. The actor has announced he’ll be playing the late, great B.B. King in a new biopic about the legendary musician. Pierce is known for his roles as Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire and, more recently, James Greer in Amazon’s Jack Ryan. He announced his casting as King himself, tweeting, “We are official. Preparation has begun on a film where I will be honored to play the great, BB King. Humbled.” In a separate tweet, he added, “I promised BB King before he died, I will honor him and his creative genius. An American Icon.” The project is entitled The Thrill Is On, playing off the name of King’s beloved cover of Roy Hawkins’ “The T...
Zendaya to Star as Ronnie Spector in New Biopic
Zendaya has signed on to star in a new biopic about Ronnie Spector. Deadline reports that A24 has secured the rights to Spector’s memoir, Be My Baby, and is circling Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury to write the film’s script. Originally published in 1990, Be My Baby recounts Spector’s roller-coaster career as lead singer of the Ronettes, her emotionally abusive marriage to the Phil Spector, and her resurgence as a solo singer. Zendaya was apparently handpicked by Spector herself, and A24 leveraged its existing relationship with the actress through Euphoria to close the deal. Both Zendaya and Spector will also serve as producers on the project. Earlier this month, Zendaya made history by becoming the youngest woman to ever win the Emmy for Best Actress – Drama. ...
Madonna Will Direct Her Own Biopic for Universal Pictures
If anyone is going to tell Madonna’s story, it’s going to be the pop music icon herself. Last week, Madonna confirmed that she was writing the screenplay of her own biopic in collaboration with Diablo Cody (Juno). Now, Madge has announced that she will also be directing the film. In a statement to Variety, Madonna said she wanted to be able chronicle her life and career on her own terms. “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” she commented. The 62-year-old pop music icon also assured fans that her music would be the driving force of the as-yet-untitled movie. “The focus of this film will always be music,” continued Madonna. “Music has kept me going and art has kept me aliv...
Madonna Details New Biopic Written with Diablo Cody
Madonna is getting into the screenwriting groove with Diablo Cody. Last month, the two announced they were collaborating on a screenplay, but stopped short of divulging any specifics. Now, The Material Girl has confirmed that their collaborative project is in fact a biopic about her career and “the struggle as an artist trying to survive in a man’s world.” The screenwriting partners revealed the news in an hour-long Instagram Live video, as well as shared some of the major plot points that will be highlighted in the upcoming film. One of those involves Madonna’s early years spent in New York City. The pop star famously moved to the Big Apple in 1978 with $35 in her pocket, and quickly established herself as a dancer and burgeoning pop star. She also tapped into the city’s ballroom culture,...
Chris Cornell’s Estate Denounces Unauthorized Biopic
Chris Cornell lived one hell of a life as the frontperson of Soundgarden, and someday his story will be told with all the detail, depth, and accuracy it deserves. Unfortunately, it won’t be the upcoming biopic Black Days that does so. Allegedly the movie is “about the last days in the life of grunge music icon Chris Cornell,” but the rocker’s estate has formally denounced the film, issuing a statement to Pitchfork that says the biopic is “not sanctioned or approved by the estate.” A casting call for Black Days on Backstage reveals that production on the film is already underway, with shooting kicking off in Los Angeles next month. Road Rage Films LLC and Amerifilms LLC, which apparently are run by actor and musician Johnny Holiday, are listed as the companies helming the project. As Pitchf...
Tesla Wildly Reinvents the Biopic with an Inventive Ethan Hawke Performance: Review
This review originally ran as part of our Sundance 2020 coverage. The Pitch: By now, we all know the story of Nikola Tesla, spurned early 20th-century inventor and rival of Thomas Edison who invented alternating current, only to die penniless, his name largely lost to history until Christopher Nolan, Elon Musk, and the Fuck Yeah Science! corners of the Internet rehabilitated his unconventional genius. (Best not to mention the fact he was also a eugenicist, but that’s neither here nor there.) Now, one of America’s most under-appreciated minds has a full-throated biopic, with Ethan Hawke in the title role, charting his rags-to-riches-to-rags story. Of course, this being a Michael Almereyda joint, things get deeply weird. Welcome to Your Life: Make no mistake: Tesla ain’t your ...
