Naomi Ackie
Whitney Houston Comes to Life (At Least On Stage) In I Wanna Dance With Somebody: Review
The Pitch: In 2012, America lost its Voice — Whitney Houston, the once-in-a-generation pop music icon, tragically died at the too-young age of 48. She was on the verge of a comeback after a stint in rehab, haunted by the twin specters of drugs and expectation; that we never got to see that beautiful second act makes her passing all the more tragic. In the meantime, we’ve got the songs and story Whitney left behind, and Kasi Lemmons’ I Wanna Dance with Somebody (or, as Sony’s SEO-focused title change goes, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody) tries to stuff that into a two-and-a-half-hour speedrun of her life and career, featuring Naomi Ackie as the tragic figure. We see her early days as a gospel singer, groomed for greatness by her ambitious mother Cissy (a perfectly-balance...
Master of None Releases Season 3 Trailer Focused on Lena Waithe’s Denise: Watch
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-26T20:03:47+00:00“>April 26, 2021 | 4:03pm ET Aziz who? Master of None, the Emmy Award-winning show created by Aziz Ansari, has shared a new teaser trailer for the upcoming Season 3. Surprisingly, Ansari himself is nowhere to be seen, as the series turns its attention to Lena Waithe‘s character Denise. Season 2 appeared on Netflix four years ago, and at the time Ansari sounded pessimistic about a follow-up. “I’ve got to become a different guy before I write a third season,” he told Vulture. “I don’t have anything else to say about being a young guy being single in New York eating food around town all the time.” But rather than becoming a totally new person, he has inste...
Education Ends the Small Axe Anthology With Full Marks: Review
The Pitch: Courtrooms, prisons, the police — Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe anthology has taken probing, deeply personal looks at the effects of racial discrimination, bias, and anti-Black violence on London’s Afro-Caribbean communities in the ’60s through the ’80s. With Education, McQueen turns his eye to London’s school systems in the 1970s, a place rife with bifurcated ideas about the intelligence of Black and white people. Enter Kingsley (a warm, intelligent turn from young Kenyah Sandy), the 12-year-old son of West Indies immigrants (Sharlene Whyte’s Agnes and Daniel Francis), who finds himself transferred to a “School for the Educationally Subnormal,” essentially a babysitting gig for special needs kids. Kingsley’s smart, intellectually curious; the school, filled with disi...
Naomi Ackie to Play Whitney Houston in Upcoming Biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard and Naomi Ackie in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Sony’s upcoming Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, has finally found its leading star. English actress Naomi Ackie is in “final negotiations” to play the late legendary singer, according to Variety. The 28-year-old Ackie recently earned a BAFTA for her acclaimed performance in the Netflix comedy-drama The End of the F***ing World. She’s also scored major screen time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the British anthology series Small Axe from Steve McQueen, whom we recently named our Filmmaker of the Year. Together with director Stella Meghie (The Photograph) and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody), Ackie will tell the complex yet inspiring story of Whitney H...
