Scheduled to make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next month is George Tillman Jr.'s The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister And Pete, which stars Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jennifer Hudson, Anthony Mackie, Jordin Sparks, and Jeffrey Wright, in a drama that sees Jennifer Hudson as a drug addict mother whose arrest forces her son and his best friend to fend for themselves. The script was penned by Michael Starrbury, whose credits include the 2011 TV film Black Jack starring Ving Rhames, as well as a few shorts. The film is co-produced by Alicia Keys (she's been doing more of that lately) who...

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At least that's what Milton "Lil' Rel" Howery says. Maybe this is old news, and we just missed it, but I came across this video interview with Milton "Lil' Rel" Howery, who was one of the planned series reboot's new cast members, uploaded to YouTube just yesterday, so I assume it's a recent interview. In it, he shares more on why the series reboot has been shelved (at least temporarily), even saying who was seemingly responsible for the reboot not moving forward, and also, something I definitely didn't know, that the entire original cast was coming back for the series, in addition to the all new cast, which I don't...

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How many of you saw this when it was in theaters? During the late summer, I recall asking for reactions from you folks, but not many responded, so I'm guessing that a lot of you didn't and likely still haven't seen it. I'm also basing this on the fact that it grossed just over $338,000 in box office receipts. Obviously it didn't play wide either (its widest release was 41 theaters), which also factors into its gross. If you didn't see it, and were interested, you should know that Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer will be out on DVD and Blu-ray via Image Entertainment's One Village label, this Friday, December 21, 2012. Recapping, it's...

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Magnolia Pictures' genre arm Magnet Releasing acquired USA distribution rights to Noel Clarke's horror sci-fi film Storage 24, which was released in the UK earlier this year, and which got lots of coverage on S&A. A quick recap; its synopsis reads: London is in chaos. A military cargo plane has crashed leaving its highly classified contents strewn across the city. Completely unaware London is in lockdown, Charlie and Shelley accompanied by best friends Mark and Nikki are at Storage 24 dividing up their possessions after a recent break up. Suddenly, the power goes off. Trapped in a dark maze of endless corridors, a mystery predator is hunting them one by one. In a place...

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During a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, promoting his latest film, Chinese Zodiac (which he wrote, directed and stars in), Jackie Chan revealed that he might soon be reuniting with his Rush Hour co-star Chris Tucker, in an buddy-action-comedy tentatively titled Skip Tracer. You thought I was going to say Rush Hour 4, didn't you? Not quite, although, per the THR piece, Chan says that it'll be along the same lines. He didn't give plot details, but did add that Chris Tucker has the script and is reading it, so it's not a done deal yet, because Chris still has to OK it, and attach himself to it as well. But it's kind of inevitable that any similar...

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Lovers of author Walter Mosley and who live in Chicago, are going to have a real treat when the Congo Square Theater presents the Chicago premiere of his 2010 stage play, The Fall of Heaven. But there's a lot more... Well get to the rest in a minute, but first, the play, which has already been performed in Pittsburgh and Cincinatti, deals with a "ne'er-do-well" named Tempest, who is shot and killed by the police. Originally sentenced to hell by St Peter for previous crimes, he gets a second chance to set things straight, and is sent back to earth in another body, guided by the angel Joshua. As Mosley said about the work (his first written for the...

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At first glance, I thought this was another documentary on the history through present-day hip-hop, but thankfully it's not. According to Deadline, it's apparently going to be a scripted drama series, which will chart "the birth of hip-hop from the violence of gang life in 1970s Bronx." It'll be penned by Patrick Macmanus (co-writing the CW's Sleepy Hollow) for the Starz network. To be titled Turf, no other info is available on this project yet, like how broad the narrative will stretch, or whether it'll take more of a micro view, focusing on very specific people, and following their stories. Also, I can't really comment on...

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The Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 motion pictures that have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Glad to see The Spook Who Sat By The Door on this list of 25 film, selected because they are deemend "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. Also worth noting is the 1914 film adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. "Established by Congress in 1989, the National Film Registry spotlights the importance of preserving America's unparalleled film heritage," said the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington....

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It was widely reported a few months ago that Fox International Channels had acquired first run pay-TV rights to the new Jean Reno-led French police series, Jo. What wasn't widely reported is that British actress Wunmi Mosaku and French actor Eriq Ebouaney co-star in the series. And while it doesn't surprise me, it still annoys me when talented actors of color seem to be purposely excluded from the marketing of a film or television project. Don't the show helmers realize that they are neglecting a viewing demographic that could drastically improve their ratings? I mean, we watch television, too, you know. "FIC has picked up the series in...

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All the previous announcements were that the latest installment of the Riddick film series starring Vin Diesel, and once again written and directed by David Twohy, to be called simply Riddick, would come out sometime during the first quarter of 2013. However, Universal has announced that the R rated film will be released on Sept. 6, which is not exactly a good time to release it. Usually the late August/early September period right after the big summer releases is the worst time to release a film. It's where studios like to dump their worst films which have little chance of any box office success. Perhaps Universal is trying to buck the trend, or maybe they know...

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