Angelique Jackson: Last News

BreAnna Bell Tracee Ellis Ross is busier than ever despite closing the chapter on “Black-ish.” The actor, producer, entrepreneur and CEO’s focus has turned toward a list of projects including the Hulu/ OWN/ Onyx Collective docuseries “Hair Tales” (which she’s producing through her production company Joy Mill Entertainment), voicing the lead character in MTV’s animated Daria-spinoff movie “Jodie” and launching the podcast “I Am America.” In addition, she’s celebrating the three-year anniversary of her hair care company Pattern Beauty. During her keynote conversation at Variety’s Entertainment and Technology Summit presented by City National Bank, Ross explained how she keeps all these different pursuits in “harmony.”

Angelique Jackson Mindy Kaling is known for her creating groundbreaking content — including the hit Netflix comedy “Never Have I Ever,” HBO’s “Sex Life of College Girls” and “The Mindy Project,” plus serving as a producer on the Broadway musical “A Strange Loop” — and now her efforts are being recognized the USC’s School of Dramatic Arts (SDA). The Tony Award-winning producer, Emmy-nominated writer, actor and NYT bestselling author will receive the Multi-Hyphenate Award on Sat., Sept. 17 at the kickoff event for the school’s series of Multi-Hyphenate Masterclasses, 10 co-curricular weekend intensives designed to support the next generation of storytellers on their path to become “media-agile, multi-hyphenate dramatic artists.”

Angelique Jackson Thanks to a successful launch at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sanaa Lathan-directed movie “On the Come Up” has nabbed a day-and-date theatrical release from Paramount. Initially set to launch exclusively on Paramount+ on Friday, Sept. 23, the studio announced Monday that the film will now also be released in limited theaters across the top 50 market. The movie marks the feature directorial debut from Lathan, who pulls double duty on the project, co-starring in the film as Jayda “Jay” Jackson, mother to the story’s central character Bri (newcomer Jamila C. Gray, who Lathan hand-picked out of more than 200 audition tapes).

Wilson Chapman editor Next year, Nicolas Cage will be portraying the world’s most famous vampire Dracula in “Renfield,” a horror comedy about the count’s lovestruck familiar. And while the role has been portrayed in film by hundreds of actors over the years — from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman — the idiosyncratic actor is set to leave his own unique mark on the horror legend. During an interview to promote his western drama “Butcher’s Crossing,” Cage spoke in the Variety TIFF Studio, presented by King’s Hawaiian, about developing his own take on the iconic Transylvanian accent of the vampiric count. Specifically, he revealed he took inspiration from Christopher Lee’s famous portrayals of the character while adding other elements to the part — including his own father, academic August Coppola.

Angelique Jackson “The world belongs to the weird,” so says the tagline for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” but the wee hours of Friday morning belonged to Daniel Radcliffe as the comedy made its world premiere as the clock struck midnight at the Toronto International Film Festival. Radclifffe stars as the beloved parody musician in the upcoming Roku original film, which made its world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, kicking off TIFF’s Midnight Madness programming lineup. It was a full house at the theater and the crowd ate up every second of the parody biopic, cheering loudly for every surprise cameo (of which there were many) at the first “backstory” behind Yankovic’s biggest hits from “My Bologna” to “Eat It.” Some of the most raucous applause was saved for the Radcliffe-fronted rendition of “Amish Paradise.”

Thania Garcia Surprise! BTS’ “Permission to Dance on Stage” Los Angeles concert is now available to stream on Disney+ worldwide. The streaming service is kicking off their annual Disney+ Day by unveiling the BTS concert film, which showcases the boy band’s string of shows at SoFi Stadium in late 2021, where the group took over for a four-night run. The concert film, produced by HYBE and directed by Sam Wrench and Junsoo Park, is said to be “stage-focused” and includes performances of the group’s biggest hits like “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “Permission to Dance.” Tickets for BTS’ mini-residency at SoFi Stadium sold out immediately for all four nights and notched a historic boxscore total that, according to the Billboard Boxscore, was the largest gross for a run of shows at a single venue since 2012.

Angelique Jackson When “Queen Sugar” star Dawn-Lyen Gardner’s Charley Bordelon was missing from the trailer and key art for Season 7 of the OWN drama series, fans questioned where the middle Bordelon sibling had gone. When the footage debuted, Variety reported that Gardner would not be a series regular for the final season’s 13 episodes, noting that at the end of Season 6, the character made her reconciliation with estranged husband Davis (Timon Kyle Durrett) more official, accepting his remarriage proposal and planning to move back to Los Angeles. With the primary action of Season 7 taking place in the fictional Louisiana parish of St. Josephine, Charley’s storyline would instead be tracked in a number of episodes across the season.

Angelique Jackson When “The Woman King” star Lashana Lynch began training to play Izogie, a warrior in the Agojie, an all-female fighting force that defended the African kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century, she was in the middle of filming “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical,” where she stars as Matilda’s kindhearted teacher, Miss Honey. “It was such a juxtaposition,” Lynch says about embodying both characters simultaneously. “There were little conversations about Miss Honey becoming really muscly.” The preparation for “The Woman King” was some of the most intense work she’d ever done — she’s had roles in both the latest James Bond movie, “No Time to Die” (in which she played the first female 007), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“Captain Marvel”) — but her growing biceps ended up being the least of the “Matilda” production’s concerns.

Angelique Jackson When “Trees of Peace,” a drama set during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, surged into the top 10 English-language films on Netflix in June, some may have been amazed that a low-budget, albeit critically acclaimed indie was among the most-watched movies of the week. But executive producer Nicole Avant (“The Black Godfather”) wasn’t among them. “It was incredible. I was surprised how quickly it got so much attention, but I wasn’t surprised,” Avant tells Variety about learning that the film racked up more than 9.3 million hours viewed in those first few days. To Avant, the numbers indicated that audiences was ready for and interested in stories like this, despite its heavy subject matter.

Angelique Jackson Antonio Fargas (“Starsky and Hutch”) and Stephanie Sigman (“Miss Bala”) have joined star Mike Colter in Tubi’s ‘Murder City,’ the second movie filmed under Village Roadshow Pictures’ Black Noir Cinema franchise, co-founded by NBA great Kevin Garnett. Last December, Variety exclusively announced “Murder City” as one of the first films slated for Black Noir Cinema, a lineup of genre movies developed and produced by Village Roadshow and Tubi, which will exclusively debut on the Fox-owned free streaming platform. Described as a “thrilling contemporary crime story,” the film follows Neil (Colter), a disgraced former cop, who after losing his job on the police force is forced to work with the city’s most notorious — and ruthless — kingpin, Ash (Sigman), to settle the debts of his estranged, deadbeat father, Graham (Fargas), and protect his wife and son.

Angelique Jackson Beauty entrepreneur Nyakio Grieco has signed with CAA for representation. Grieco is the founder of the clean skincare brand Relevant: Your Skin Seen and co-founder of the beauty e-commerce destination Thirteen Lune. Grieco has spent more than 20 years in the beauty business, launching the award-winning eponymous brand nyakio™, based on her family’s Kenyan beauty secrets, in 2002. Thirteen Lune, a first-of-its-kind e-commerce destination designed to inspire the discovery of beauty brands, debuted in 2020, co-founded by Grieco and Patrick Herning. Among Grieco’s other professional partners are activist and film producer Nicole Avant and Oscar-winning actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow.

Angelique Jackson When Brian Tyree Henry punched his ticket for Sony’s “Bullet Train,” he instantly realized that this movie would be a ride unlike any other.The film follows Brad Pitt’s unlucky assassin, codenamed “Ladybug” as he aims to complete a snatch-and-grab job that goes completely off the rails as he fights off an ever-growing number of fellow assassins with their own agendas.“I really had not seen a story like this in quite some time, with such crazy characters in such crazy circumstances, all trying to kill each other on a train,” Henry told Variety over Zoom in late July, shortly before the movie’s debut. “I had always dreamt of being a part of something like that.”The ensemble cast is populated with mysterious and nefarious characters, including his “Atlanta” co-star Zazie Beetz as “The Hornet” and Bad Bunny as “The Wolf.” Henry plays Lemon, a blonde-haired, British assassin who spends just as much time proselytizing about “Thomas the Tank Engine” as he does bashing people’s brains in.

Angelique Jackson The documentary “Kaepernick & America,” which examines the remarkable conflict stirred by former NFL star Colin Kaepernick’s sideline protest, will begin streaming on demand on Fri. Sept.

Angelique Jackson “Bullet Train” producer and 87North co-founder Kelly McCormick’s guiding principle in filmmaking has been “finding the truth in fiction,” a response to earlier documentary work, where “it was not uncommon to twist stories to make them more entertaining.” So she pivoted to producing content that packs a different sort of emotional — and physical — punch.McCormick’s latest film, “Bullet Train,” directed by her husband and 87North partner David Leitch, stars Brad Pitt as a hitman who finds himself on a snatch-and-grab job that grows more complicated by the minute. Pitt leads an ensemble cast, including Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry and Bad Bunny, in a wild ride that showcases the company’s signature blend of hyper-violence and heart.

Angelique Jackson Byron Allen’s Black news and entertainment media platform theGrio will present a 90-minute session at the 2022 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention and career fair, with a focus on the recently-launched theGrio Black Podcast Network (TGBPN) and the Allen Media Group’s acquisition of Black News Channel.The annual NABJ convention, held in collaboration with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), begins Aug. 3 in Las Vegas, NV, with theGrio making its presentation on Fri.

Michaela Zee editorFormer “Doctor Who” star Matt Smith couldn’t help but praise “Sex Education’s” Ncuti Gatwa for becoming the 14th Time Lord on the hit sci-fi series.During the “House of the Dragon” world premiere Wednesday night at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, Smith admitted that he and Gatwa haven’t met in person yet, but the two have “talked via WhatsApp.”“I think it’s the most sensational bit of casting. What an actor — he’s brilliant in ‘Sex Education,'” Smith, who played The Doctor between 2010 and 2013, told Variety Senior Entertainment Writer Angelique Jackson.

Angelique Jackson Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced its programming plans for this year’s journalism conferences for the Asian Americans Journalism Association (AAJA), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA).The company has set a series of panels, screenings and workshops via WBD brands including CNN, HBO, OWN, Turner Sports and Bleacher Report with the mission of “helping amplify unique voices, supporting creatives of color and advancing representation in media and news.”The first in-person programming is planned for the AAJA conference, which began July 24 in Los Angeles and runs through July 28, as CNN Worldwide returns for the 10th anniversary of its trademark reporter and producer journalism workshops.

Angelique Jackson When Keke Palmer got a call from Jordan Peele asking her to star in his latest film, “Nope,” she was quick to jump at the chance to join the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s mysterious project. After all, she’d already DM’d him on Instagram about a year earlier hoping to work together.Upon reading the script — which centers on Emerald Haywood (Palmer) and her brother OJ (Daniel Kaluuya), children of a Hollywood horse trainer who begin to witness mysterious events at their inland California farm — Palmer was struck by the trajectory of her character.“She’s of so many archetypes, from the jester to the orphan — she’s so skillfully created,” Palmer told Variety on the carpet at the world premiere of “Nope” on Monday night.

Angelique Jackson “Euphoria” actor Storm Reid is set to star in and produce the Paramount Pictures’ feature “Becoming Noble,” which follows a high school senior who learns she’s a princess of an African nation and travels to her home country on the continent to discover her roots, and to determine if “royal” is something she really wants to be.Reid will produce the film alongside her mother Robyn Simpson under their A Seed & Wings Productions banner. Cas Sigers Beedles (“Unthinkably Good Things”) is also set to produce the film with Nneka Gerstle (“Just Beyond”) writing the script.“This has truly been a passion project and we are so excited to bring this story to life,” stated Reid, Simpson and Sigers Beedles, announcing the project.

Angelique Jackson Hillman Grad, the multi-platform entertainment company founded by actor, producer and Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe, has bolstered its executive ranks with a new round of promotions: Naomi Funabashi has been named president of film and television at Hillman Grad Productions, with Justin Riley as vice president of operations and business development; Lacy Lew Nguyen Wright is now executive director of the Hillman Grad Foundation; and Marquis Phifér is head of cultural marketing.The executive appointments comes after Rishi Rajani, who joined the company in 2018 as president of film and television, was elevated to CEO earlier this year.Since its inception in 2015, and under the leadership of Waithe and Rajani, Hillman Grad has grown to include six divisions and 20 employees, rising to become one of the most prominent companies in entertainment, with a focus on amplifying and celebrating the stories of diverse, historically marginalized communities and developing a new generation of underrepresented creatives. “I’m thrilled that Naomi, Justin, Lacy, and Marquis are stepping into leadership roles here at Hillman Grad,” Rajani said in a statement announcing the promotions.

Angelique Jackson Nia DaCosta is set to write and direct “Hedda Gabler,” a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s famous play, for MGM’s Orion Pictures and Plan B.Hot off the box office success of “Candyman” and ahead of her upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe debut with “The Marvels,” DaCosta will present her fresh take on the fabled story. “Hedda Gabler” has seen numerous adaptations on stage and screen, and in several languages, since its 1891 debut, including 1975’s “Hedda,” which earned Glenda Jackson a best actress nomination at the Academy Awards.Produced by Gabrielle Nadig, who also produced DaCosta’s debut feature “Little Woods,” and Plan B, “Hedda Gabler” follows its titular character as she navigates a house she does not want, a marriage she feels trapped in and an ex-lover who has reappeared in her life. The film also marks DaCosta’s latest collaboration with MGM and Plan B.