News

HBO is developing Unruly, a six-part limited series about boxing legend Jack Johnson to be played by two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. The project hails from Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone and will be written by Dominique Morisseau based the PBS documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, produced and directed by Ken Burns, and its companion book by Geoffrey C. Ward.

Ali has stated multiple times over the past couple of years that playing Johnson on screen is his “dream role.” He previously portrayed the athletein one of his first professional acting jobs in a stage production of “The Great White Hope” in 2000 (photo above).

Unruly is described as an unapologetically Black, no-holds-barred telling of Jack Johnson (Ali), the world’s first Black Heavyweight Boxing Champion. This bold exploration depicts the champion’s rise to athletic greatness and the costs he paid for his skin and defiance,...

Sylvester Stallone is teaming up with MGM to develop a biopic on legendary boxing champion Jack Johnson. Stallone recently made headlines for his trip to Washington D.C., where he and a group of professional boxers met with President Trump to ask him to issue a posthumous pardon for Johnson. Trump ultimately granted the pardon for the boxer last week, for his 1913 felony conviction that was racially motivated, which certain groups had been seeking for several years now.

There is no word on whether or not Stallone will have any sort of role in front of the camera, but this project will launch his new company known as Balboa Productions, named after his character Rocky Balboa from the iconic Rocky franchise. This untitled Jack Johnson biopic will be the first project to be developed under the Balboa Productions banner, which will develop both film and television properties. MGM Motion Picture...

Sylvester Stallone is producing a new film project with MGM that will tell the story of boxer Jack Johnson, who was recently posthumously pardoned by President Trump. This will be the first film project to be developed under Stallone's new production company, Balboa Productions.

Johnson was the first African-American heavyweight champion (1908–1915) and apparently, Stallone was instrumental in obtaining a presidential pardon for Johnson, who was convicted of violating the Mann Act in 1910 for transporting a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes."

Here's a brief rundown of Johnson's life thanks to Wiki:

John Arthur Johnson, nicknamed the Galveston Giant, was an American boxer who, at the height of the Jim Crow era, became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915). Among the period's most dominant champions, Johnson remains a boxing legend, with his 1910 fight against James J. Jeffries dubbed the "fight of the century." According to filmmaker Ken Burns,...

President Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone standing by his side, today gave a full pardon, posthumously, to Jack Johnson, the country’s first black heavyweight boxing champion, In 1913, at the height of the Jim Crow era, an all-white jury convicted Johnson under the Mann Act of transporting a white woman with whom he was involved in a relationship across state lines.

Stallone, as well as Sen. John McCain, and Ken Burns were among those who had advocated for a pardon for Johnson, who died in 1946 and whose conviction became a prominent story of racism in the judicial system. He served 10 months in prison.

Johnson was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1908-15. Burns documented the fighter’s life in Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. The docu aired on PBS in 2005.

Johnson’s 1910 “Fight of the Century” against James J. Jeffries inspired the play-turned-movie The Great White Hope.

Exclusive: HBO has set Ides Of March screenwriter and playwright Beau Willimon to write Jack Johnson, a miniseries about the life of the first African-American world heavyweight champion. The mini teams Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman and historian and documentary director Ken Burns. To be told in four to six parts, the mini is based on the Geoffrey C. Ward book Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson, which Burns previously adapted into the Emmy-winning PBS documentary of the same name. Burns is aboard to direct. Hanks and Goetzman are exec producers, and Burns is too. Willimon is co-exec producer. In the early 20th Century, Johnson was the class of the heavyweight division, a proud man of color who paid a high price for it. The main problem: he twice married white women and did not hide it or the fact that he liked to live well.

Exclusive: HBO has set Ides Of March screenwriter and playwright Beau Willimon to write Jack Johnson, a miniseries about the life of the first African-American world heavyweight champion. The mini teams Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman and historian and documentary director Ken Burns. To be told in four to six parts, the mini is based on the Geoffrey C. Ward book Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson, which Burns previously adapted into the Emmy-winning PBS documentary of the same name. Burns is aboard to direct. Hanks and Goetzman are exec producers, and Burns is too. Willimon is co-exec producer. In the early 20th Century, Johnson was the class of the heavyweight division, a proud man of color who paid a high price for it. The main problem: he twice married white women and did not hide it or the fact that he liked to live well.

When Jim Jefferies answers the phone at the agreed-upon time (between a network publicist and myself), just about the first thing he says is that he forgot he was doing an interview today. Not an unusual occurrence in my line of work. Busy people, packed schedules, these things happen. But I often don’t hear people tell me they just got out of the shower, meaning there was a pretty good chance that he was naked, and asking could I please call back in seven minutes. “Actually, how about eight minutes?” he quickly amended. So, eight minutes later I called him [...]...

Premium TV network/on-demand service Epix, which has been running comedy specials since its 2009 launch, is now setting up a new monthly comedy showcase. Titled Epix Comedy Unbound, the franchise will kick off with Jim Norton: Please Be Offended on June 30 and will air the last weekend of every month. It will feature comedians who has done specials for Epix before, like Lewis Black and Kevin Smith, as well as Jim Jefferies, Sherri Shepherd, and Eddie Griffin, among others. The showcase also will carry the annual All-Star Comedy Roundtable presented by Ben Stiller featuring Chris Rock and Jim Carrey and moderated by Bill Hader, taped live at the 2012 Nantucket Film Festival. “We are deepening our commitment to comedy by featuring the best of today’s stand-up comedians in our showcase and giving them free reign to push the envelope and bring our viewers uncensored comedy the way it was meant to be seen,...

LookToTheStars.org was at the 11th Annual “Comedy For a Cure” event that took place at Hollywood’s iconic Roosevelt Hotel on Sunday night, a show that brought in thousands of dollars for the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance (Tsc).

Tsc is an organization founded in 1974 by parents of children with Tsc who saw the need to educate the public and medical community about the disorder.

Hosted by “MadTV” alum and current “Parks & Recreation” star Mo Collins, headlining the event was an array of comedy’s finest, including Australian funnyman Jim Jeffries, radio personality and “Celebrity Apprentice” star Adam Carolla, and “America’s favorite dying lounge act” The Lampshades, featuring Kate Flannery (“The Office”) and Scot Robinson.

Read more...

Joel Gretsch (V) has joined Lifetime’s original movie Of Two Minds. The film chronicles the relationship between a woman (Kristin Davis) and her younger sister (Tammy Blanchard), who has schizophrenia. Gretsch, repped by Apa and Mosaic, will play Davis’ husband. Jim O’Hanlon is directing from a script by Richard Friedenber. Gillian Vigman and Dan Bakkedahl have joined Jim Jefferies and Peter O’Fallon’s FX comedy pilot presentation Legit. Directed by Peter O’Fallon, Legit centers Jim (Jefferies), a misanthrope trying to go legit. Former Daily Show correspondent Bakkedahl, repped by Paradigm and Principal, will play Jim’s world-weary, floundering, divorced roommate. Vigman, repped by Apa and Brillstein, will play a funny and smart Harvard-trained psychiatrist forced to diffuse Jim’s endless advances. The actress, best known for her role in The Hangover franchise, has been recurring on ABC’s Suburgatory and Fox’s New Girl. Todd Stashwick,...

With Louis Ck, one of the finest comedians working today, finding success with his fantastic series Louie on FX, another great comedian is looking to follow in his footsteps. Deadline has word that the cable network has just given the greenlight to a pilot called Legit, a potential new series starring Australian comedian Jim Jeffries. The show will follow a misanthrope (Jeffries) trying to go legit. Apparently the comedian had a show in development at Comedy Central last year about his life in the United States but that never got off the ground. Peter O'Fallon, a TV director and producer behind such series as The Riches and House M.D. will executive produce the new series. Jeffries' brash, vulgar and even bleak comedic stylings are along the same lines of honesty and grittiness of Louis Ck, so I think this new series will fit in perfectly on FX. The network has...

Exclusive: FX has greenlighted comedy pilot presentation Legit. Directed by Peter O’Fallon, Legit stars Australian comedian Jim Jefferies, who is being described as “shockingly charming and brutally honest.” Legit centers on a misanthrope (Jeffries) trying to go legit. CAA-repped Jefferies and O’Dallon will executive produce, with Jefferies’ manager Lisa Blum also producing. Last year, Jefferies had a comedy series in development at Comedy Central about his new life in the U.S. O’Fallon recently directed the pilot for Lifetime’s The Protector, the ninth of 11 pilots he has directed to go to series.

Exclusive: Talent manager/producer Lisa Blum has joined New Wave Entertainment. Blum, who comes from The Collective, is bringing all of her clients including Marlon Wayans, Cheri Oteri, Orlando Jones, Jennifer Hollander (Universal’s Merman), Jim Jefferies (HBO’s I Swear To God), Gary Owen (TBS’ House of Payne), Virginia Williams (USA’s Fairly Legal), Pete Johansson and Sammi Hanratty (American Girl). Blum previously ran her own management company for six years. Before that, she was with Mosaic Media's predecessor Gold/Miller, where she began her 15-year relationship with the Wayans brothers among other clients. While at Gold/Miller, in addition to managing talent, Blum also developed and produced TV and film projects, including movies Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2 and the WB series The Wayans Bros. She most recently developed Pretty Ugly at Paramount, which will star Marlon Wayans; The Year of Living Biblically, also at Paramount, an...

My earliest recollection with the off-shoot network F/X came as an adolescent, desperately clinging to my sadomasochist need to be scared shitless from reruns of "Fox Mulder Fights My Nightmares". That little Fox-owned shack with seemingly one dour projectionist (and an extensive VHS collection) flipped through a few logos and catchphrases without anything substantial offered until 2002. That year, before Don Draper and Flight 815, the network took a chance developing shows with content usually reserved for the premium channels.

It's certainly easier to preach our benedictions on the altar of the shows we love, like "Sons of Anarchy" or "Nip/Tuck", but don't forget they've put some duds out there. Anyone remember "Lucky"? Or "Over There"? Care to sum-up your favorite skit from "The Orlando Jones Show"? F/X's "best" shows have even shown a tendency to waver in their plaudits. "SoA" received a lukewarm reception in its first season before picking steam,...

A century ago today, the Fight of the Century was fought.

Today is the centennial of the fight between the first black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson, and the former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries, who retired undefeated. The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people, at a ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno, Nevada.

Jeffries came out of retirement to fight Johnson, saying, "I feel obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim the heavyweight championship for the white race... I should step into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them all." Jeffries had not fought in six years and had to lose weight to get back to his championship fighting weight. Johnson proved stronger and more nimble than Jeffries. In the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice...

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

HollywoodNews.com: Expect to see plenty of sparks fly on ‘The Green Room With Paul Provenza’ when the Showtime show hits the tube June 10. Among the verbal dustups filmed for the series are a heated political argument between Tommy Smothers and Penn Jillette, and a no-holds-barred conversational melee involving race with Rain Pryor, Bobby Slayton (Richard Pryor’s one-time writing partner), Paul Mooney and Australian comic Jim Jeffries.

‘Nobody is selling a DVD. It really, truly is like comedy jazz’with these greats riffing off each other,’ Provenza wants us to know. The idea for the show grew out of onstage gatherings of comics held by Provenza at the Edinburgh and Montreal comedy festivals. Putting such groups together for the cameras seemed like a natural — but not easy — idea.

‘I was very fortunate. I called a lot of people I knew personally and they came in.

Comedy Central has unveiled its entire development slate and, as to be expected, there are plenty of funny concepts in the bunch. The standouts include Highdeas, which explores such stoner-friendly hypotheticals as “white chocolate milk” and “hamster-sized rhinos”, Jc, the animated New York City adventures of one Jesus Christ, and The Fuzz, a police procedural in a corrupt city where humans and puppets co-exist.

Also in development are potential series from the likes of Jon Benjamin (Archer), Broken Lizard (Super Troopers), and Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show), plus a Wating… adaptation from Rob McKittrick, the writer/director of the feature film that starred Ryan Reynolds. Note that this in addition to already announced projects from Will Ferrell, Nick Swardson, and The Onion. For a complete rundown, hit the jump.

Series In Production

“Futurama” – premieres Thursday, June 24

The Emmy® Award-winning “Futurama” is back! Everybody’s favorite zany group from the future has returned with 12 brand-new episodes,...

Having seen Andy Parsons (off of Mock the Week) live a couple of months ago as part of his Britain’s Got Idiots tour, the release of the DVD before Christmas seemed inevitable. For an in-depth review check this out. I re-watched the performance in its edited DVD form, and the process of cutting it down for the small screen has fine-tuned and tightened some of the material. This makes it a slightly sharper experience, but at nearly an hour and a half long it still feels bloated in some places. If you are looking for extensive DVD extras you’ve come to the wrong place. You get his Live at the Apollo performance as well as Parsons commentating over the top of the main show. The final extra is quite funny, but I won’t spoil it for you if you’re planning on buying the DVD. Britain’s...

DVD Playhouse—October 2009

By

Allen Gardner

The Wizard Of Oz 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’S Edition (Warner Bros.) A true highlight in digital restoration technology, Warner Bros. restoration of the 1939 classic is cause for celebration. The Technicolor of the late ‘30s looks as though it was shot yesterday, and is especially stunning on Blu-ray, which was produced by scanning each of the film’s original Technicolor camera negatives using 8K resolution. From this scan, a final “capture” master was created in 4K, yielding twice the resolution seen in the master utilized for the film’s previous DVD release. Judy Garland’s Dorothy is charming as ever, and the entire cast: Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch, are all stellar. Four disc set bonuses include: Sing-along track; Documentaries and featurettes; Two 1914 silent films produced by Oz author L. Frank Baum, based on his stories...

Trevor von Eeden returns to comics tomorrow with a series that is especially meaningful to our American culture. It’s the story of boxer Jack Johnson, whom von Eeden describes as “the first psychologically free black man in American History.” This is the first major biography of Johnson created by an African-American artist.

The Original Johnson is the story about the man behind the face, a boxer who defeated white men in the ring and took their women after the show, who openly triumphed in white society. He was self-educated, well-read and fluent in three languages. And yet, as von Eeden says, “unlike today’s uncouth gangsta-rapper-thug black ‘stars,’ Jack Johnson had taste, style and class. He conquered racist America because he saw everything from the point of view of his own private joke. I want to explain that joke to our audience.”

Mike Gold, editor-in-chief of ComicMix, said, “I...