By Jenee Desmond Harris

Posted January 19th 2012

Talking to Jon Stewart and USA Today,  George Lucas talked candidly about his new film, Red Tails, which stars Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard. It’s based on the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of pioneering black pilots who fought in the United States’ segregated armed forces during World War II.

The historically relevant, compelling subject matter was a no-brainer for a hit movie, right? Of course not. According to Lucas, he had trouble getting funding because of the movie’s all-black cast, and he admits that it puts a lot at stake for the black film community.

On the difficulty getting funding: This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I’ve been trying to get released ever since … because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all … I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.

On the movie’s impact on black filmmakers: I realize that by accident I’ve now put the black film community at risk [with Red Tails, whose $58 million budget far exceeds typical all-black productions]. I’m saying, if this doesn’t work, there’s a good chance you’ll stay where you are for quite a while. It’ll be harder for you guys to break out of that [lower-budget] mold. But if I can break through with this movie, then hopefully there will be someone else out there saying let’s make a prequel and sequel, and soon you have more Tyler Perrys out there.

By Tim Kenneally

Posted December 23rd 2011

Harrison Ford has officially signed on for the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic, Legendary Pictures announced Friday.

As reported by TheWrap on Thursday, Ford will play Branch Rickey, the Major League Baseball executive who helped break baseball’s color barrier by signing Robinson to a minor league in 1945, and helped Robinson sign to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, making him the first African-American player in the MLB.

Legendary has signed newcomer Chadwick Boseman in the role of Robinson. Boseman, who has appeared on “Justified,” “Fringe” and “Castle,” has just finished filming the lead role in the independent action movie “The Kill Hole,” in which he’ll play Lt. Samuel Drake.

Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential,” “Mystic River”) will write and direct the project, for which Legendary consulted with Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson.

By Claude Brodesser-Akner

Posted November 22nd 2011

By The Real Jethro

Posted November 20th 2011

“I thought, what better person! She literally has millions of young people following her,” he states.

Tyler Perry has heard the immense criticism over his casting of Kim Kardashian in his movie, The Marriage Counselor, loud and clear. And he has taken to his personal blog to defend the decision.

“I could not have imagined I’d be getting all these emails about Kim Kardashian. I HAVE SEEN THEM!! YOU HAVE BEEN HEARD!! …LOL,” Perry writes. “Now, may I say something? Can a brother get a word in?”

“Y’all gave me a new movie title, Tyler Perry’s ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman Cause You Hired Kim Kardashian, Don’t Make Me Take Off My Earrings and Boycott Yo A**.’…LOL.  Some of my ladies are upset. Ok, all jokes aside, can I have my say? Will you at least here [sic] me out?”

He explains that the movie is about a young Virginia girl, Judith (Jurnee Smolett), who meets a man (played by Robbie Jones) who “challenges everything in her life from her marriage to her husband to her faith.” Perry believed that the message of the movie needed to reach young people. So, he cast many of the roles, including Smolett, Jones, singer and actress Brandy Norwood, and Kardashian with an eye towards stars who can attract a younger audience to the film.

“About two months ago, long before I even heard about Kim’s marriage or divorce, I was trying to finish up the casting,” Perry explains. “I said to one of my producers, ‘Who else is out there that young people are looking up to?’ ”

The producer suggested Kardashian and showed Perry photos taken by his daughter of the hordes of young people waiting in line at one of the Kardashian sisters’ retail stores, Dash.

“I thought, what better person! She literally has millions of young people following her,” he writes. “I thought and still do think, that it would be very responsible of her to be a part of this film. To have the young people that look up to her, see her in a film that is about, what happens in life when you make the wrong choices.”

While he stressed that Kardashian’s role is not a lead, many of his critics are angered by the casting and I’m sure they’ll have issue with Perry considering her a role model for young people.

A movement to boycott Kardashian and her family’s shows has been building momentum as shown by an online petition to implore E! to stop airing the family’s shows. It has gone from 8,000 signatures to nearly 120,000 signatures in less than three days.

Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro

By Joshua Weinstein

Posted October 24th 2011

From newlywed to “Marriage Counselor.”

Kim Kardashian has signed on to star in Tyler Perry‘s new movie, “The Marriage Counselor,” TheWrap has confirmed.

Bing: What did the Obamas say about the Kardashians?

The Lionsgate movie is about an accountant and his Ivy League educated wife — a marriage counselor who is great at dispensing advice, but makes some seriously bad mistakes in her own marriage.

Kardashian will play the counselor’s friend and co-worker, Ava, who — in excellent Kardashian style — helps the counselor cope with life and get a makeover. Jurnee Smollett plays Judith, the counselor.

Perry wrote the screenplay and the stage play the film is based on. He’s also writing and directing. “The Marriage Counselor” starts shooting in Atlanta next week.

Perry, perhaps best known for his “Madea” movies, recently finished shooting Summit’s “I, Alex Cross,” a thriller based on James Patterson’s novels. He has the title role in that movie.

Kardashian, who is 31, married NBA star Kris Humphries on Aug. 20. Her wedding — like much of the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star’s life — was televised.

Deadline first reported the news.

Posted October 15th 2011

Singer Cee Lo Green will make his big-screen acting debut alongside Jordin Sparks in a planned remake of the movie musical “Sparkle.”

The original 1976 film, about three Harlem-based sisters who form a group in the late 1950s, is set for a revamp with Sparks as the title character. Whitney Houston is reportedly on board to join the cast. It would be her first acting job in more than 15 years.

Green has previously worked on TV and in animated movies, like the upcoming “Hotel Transylvania.”

Director Salim Akil will take charge of the film, while R&B icon R. Kelly will provide the score, reports industry paper Daily Variety.

Posted October 12th 2011

Woody Allen has confessed he’d love to cast America’s First Lady Michelle Obama in his next movie – if he can write the perfect role for her. The Annie Hall director’s new film, Midnight in Paris, features a performance by Carla Bruni, the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Allen decided on a whim to cast the politician’s wife as he shared a meal with the couple – and he’s adamant he’d make U.S. President Barack Obama‘s wife a similar offer. He tells British TV show Daybreak, “If I was in a room with Michelle Obama and I thought she was right for a part, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask her.”

By Harout Harmon

Posted September 15th 2011

John Boyega will join Milauna Jemai, Julito McCullum, and Kamahl Palmer in the upcoming HBO drama pilot from Spike Lee, Da Brick.

John Boyega will play the lead, Donnie, who after his release from juvenile detention on his 18th birthday begins an exploration of what it means to be a man for himself and those around him. Milauna Jemai will play Lynette, Donnie’s mother, with him he reconnects with following a 14-month separation. Julito McCullum will play Kevin, Donnie’s best friend and the one person he can’t leave behind, no matter how much he may want to, and Kamahl Palmer is set as Malik, the moral center of Donnie’s tight group of friends who is looking for direction between his middle-class upbringing and the harder realities of his environment.

Da Brick is described as a contemporary exploration of what it means to be a young, black man in a supposedly post-racial America.

The series will be set in Newark, N.J. No production date has been set.

Posted September 11th 2011

Antonio Banderas’ career, of late, has largely seen him slip into the fur of the adventurous, flamboyant kitty, Puss in Boots, for both the “Shrek” series and his own upcoming spinoff feature. For his next live action film, though, he’s back to dealing with human skin — and in a much creepier way.

The Spanish actor stars in the upcoming Pedro Almodovar film, “The Skin I Live In,” about a manipulative surgeon who spends years developing an artificial epidermis that could have prevented his wife’s tragic death. Gael Garcia Bernal co-stars, and from the trailer alone, it looks like a wild and haunting trip.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN MOVIE TRAILER

IN THEATERS IN LA/NYC OCTOBER 14TH

Posted August 31st

All good strippers need a great soundtrack. Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Alex Pettyfer, Matt Bomer, Matthew McConaughey will now be relying on Gabriel Iglesias to provide those grooves.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the standup comedian has signed on to what will be by far the most star-studded and epic male stripper film in history, Stephen Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. Based on Tatum’s young stripping days, the film will trace the relationship of a group of male pole workers, focusing in on the mentor-like bond between Tatum and Pettyfer’s characters.

Iglesias takes on the role of the club’s DJ, presumably meaning that he won’t be stripping down. The film recently added Cody Horn as Tatum’s sister and Pettyfer’s love interest.

For more, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.