lee daniels
ABC Introduces The Wonder Years Reboot with First Look Trailer: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-18T16:54:38+00:00“>May 18, 2021 | 12:54pm ET ABC is set to reboot The Wonder Years this fall with the focus on a Black family, narrated by Don Cheadle. The first look at the series premiered today and can be seen below. Set to the familiar tune of the original show’s theme song — Joe Cocker’s cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” — the trailer introduces Cheadle as a grown-up Dean Williams looking back at his 12-year-old self, who is played by Elisha Williams. “It’s the little things that you remember all your life,” says Cheadle, as he reminisces about fond childhood memories. “Your first hit, your first kiss, the first time your dad lets you know that he se...
Andra Day Brings the High Notes to The United States vs. Billie Holiday: Review
The Pitch: Recorded in 1939, Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” brought attention to the atrocious practice of lynching, specifically in America’s southernmost states. Its lyrics were created as a response to an infamous, horrific photo of a lynching taken by photographer Lawrence Beitler almost 10 years prior. It’s a magnificent song concentrated on an ugly truth. In some ways, Holiday’s life was similar — all her outer beauty paling in comparison to the pain and suffering that existed beneath the surface of her life. Directed by Lee Daniels and written by Suzan-Lori Parks, The United States vs. Billie Holiday focuses on the final decade of the jazz singer’s life — specifically, 1947 to 1959. Based on a chapter of Johan Hari’s 2015 book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the Wa...
Lee Daniels Pilot For ‘The Spook Who Sat By The Door’ Coming To FX
Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty The Spook Who Sat By The Door was a spy thriller novel released in 1969 centered on the fictional tale of the CIA’s first Black agent. By way of a new report, Lee Daniels has been cleared by the FX network to produce a pilot for a potential series based on the novel and 1973 film of the same name. Deadline reports that Daniels has been named as an executive producer for FX’s adaptation of late author Sam Greenlee’s novel that focuses on the trials and rise of agent Dan Freeman. Joining Daniels in the effort is The Twilight Zone and The First Purge director Gerard McMurray, and Leigh Dana Jackson, who worked on Foundation and Raising Dion will serve as the pilot’s lead writer. A film was released in 1973 directed by the late Ivan Dixon and adapted from a screenp...
Andra Day Refuses to Be Silenced in First Trailer for The United States vs. Billie Holiday: Watch
Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday trailer Billie Holiday’s fame in the ’30s and ’40s threatened the very fabric of racist white America. But it was her popular recording of “Strange Fruit”, a song protesting the lynching of Black people, that officially made Holiday an enemy of the country. In an effort to discredit and silence her, the Federal Department of Narcotics targeted Holiday relentlessly, knowing she’d had a history of drug abuse. That’s the haunting premise of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, a new Hulu biopic from director Lee Daniels (Precious) written by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The legendary jazz singer is played by real-life Grammy nominee Andra Day, who embodies Holiday’s brazen outspokenness and magnetism in equal measure, as seen in to...
Nigerian doctor named one of TIME’s Most Influential People in the world
TIME named Nigerian physician Tunji Funsho to the 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes are available now at time.com/time100, and Mr Funsho’s TIME100 profile is available here. The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. Mr Funsho, a cardiologist based in Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Rotary member to receive this honour for the organisation’s work to eradicate polio, having played an essential role in ensuring Africa’s certification as wild polio-free in August of 2020. “I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabl...
‘The Wonder Years’ Is Getting An All Black Reboot
Source: Fred Lee / Getty Iconic family sitcom, The Wonder Years, is coming back to TV, only this time it’s going to be all Black. According to published reports, the 1988 coming-of-age dramedy set in the late 1960s and early 70s that told the story of teen Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage) and his suburban family, is now getting a reboot that will tell the story of American life during the pivotal Civil Right Era from a Black perspective. Produced by Lee Daniels, the reboot will be set during the same time period, except it will focus on a Black family in Montgomery, Alabama. “How a black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960’s, the same era as the original series, made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too,” the show description read. ...
