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Twelve years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer. Last April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. Now we know exactly when the new movie is going to be released… but it’s not going to be this year. Scary Movie 6 is scheduled to reach theatres on June 12, 2026. As of right now, we know this is going to put it in direct competition with the next movie from the Daniels, the directing duo behind Best Picture Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The Scary Movie series is being revived with the help...

Christmas is almost here, and that means it’s time to break out those classic and nostalgic Black-led holiday flicks.

When it comes to Black Christmas cinema, the Black community takes it very seriously, as there’s literally a debate online almost every year about which Black Christmas movies are the best, which ones aren’t Christmas movies at all, and the movies you have to have seen in order to not have your “Black card” revoked.

The Preacher’s Wife and Friday After Next are definitely Christmas movies.

— Dev Long (@thehiphopfoodie) December 14, 2024

Whether you’re into a heartwarming flick that make you shed some tears or a family-centered comedy that will make the sides of your stomach ace from laughter, TheWrap has it all here for you. Here are many Black-led and/or created Christmas movies to deck your halls to this Christmas season.

“The Preacher’s Wife” “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996)

In the Black home,...

Star power was strong at the Critics Choice Association’s 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television, where some 14 awards were presented to actors, producers, directors and composers, including Tyler Perry, Cynthia Erivo, Regina King and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

The ceremony, held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Monday, was hosted by comedian Jay Pharoah, who brought levity to the room as the night’s honorees spoke about the impact of their awards and the work for which they were garnered.

Perry addressed the death of Steve Mensch, the president of Tyler Perry Studios who died in a plane crash Friday night, while acknowledging the 15th anniversary of his mother’s death just the day before while accepting the Icon Award presented to him by Kelly Rowland.

“This life is but a moment, it’s so precious, and we need to lean into spreading love one to another; I’m 55 years old,...

Malcolm D. Lee, the cousin of Spike, is an American filmmaker who specializes in comedies with a lot of heart. Since his breakthrough debut with The Best Man in 1999, he has directed several crowd-pleasers, cult classics, and franchise hits, each infused with his unique perspective. His films don't just aim to entertain; they often highlight African-American culture and challenge stereotypes, blending humor with stories that resonate on a deeper level. Not all of Lee's movies are good, of course (some of them are outright stinkers) but the best of them are engaging and fun.

Eleven years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer. Back in April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. We recently learned that the series is being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers – and now Regina Hall, who played the character Brenda Meeks in the first four movies, has said she thinks it would be fun to come back and work on the new sequel with the Wayans.

Directed by In Living Color creator Keenen Ivory Wayans from a screenplay written by a bunch of people,...

A sterling lineup of stars and filmmakers have been set to be honored at the Critics Choice Association’s seventh annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, which is set for December 9 at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Among those being recognized are stars of 2024’s most acclaimed and anticipated films including Regina King, John David Washington, Cynthia Erivo, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jharrel Jerome and The Fire Inside breakout Ryan Destiny. On the TV side, honorees include Natasha Rockwell, Wendell Pierce and Michael Rainey Jr. Filmmakers Steve McQueen and Malcolm D. Lee among other luminaries will also be receiving awards.

As previously announced, actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry will be honored with the Icon Award for his body of work and achievements throughout the years. The writer, director and producer of Netflix’s upcoming The Six Triple Eight, Perry has helmed 24 feature films, 20 stage plays, 17 TV shows and penned...

Tyler Perry, Regina King, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and “The Best Man’s” Malcolm D. Lee will be honored at the Critics Choice Association’s seventh annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television.

Actor and comedian Jay Pharoah, best known for “Saturday Night Live” and his recent comedy special “Jared,” will host the gala on Dec. 9 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air on Starz in January 2025. It will then be televised on Ktla and shown nationwide on select Nexstar stations through the month of February in honor of Black History Month.

Perry will be presented with the Icon Award, celebrating his body of work. In addition to his upcoming Netflix film “The Six Triple Eight”, Perry has helmed 24 feature films, 20 stage plays, 17 television shows and penned two New York Times bestselling books, in addition to establishing the 330-acre Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

Lee will be...

Regina King, Steve McQueen and Cynthia Erivo are among the honorees for the 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, which will be hosted by Jay Pharoah and take place at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Dec. 9, 2024. The Critics Choice Association released the full slate of recipients on Thursday.

As previously announced, Tyler Perry will receive the Icon Award for this career achievements. Joining him are King, who recently starred in Netflix’s Shirley Chisholm biopic “Shirley”; McQueen, director of the Apple TV + WWII drama “Blitz”; Erivo, soon to appear in Universal’s “Wicked”; and many others known for their excellent work.

Shawn Edwards, executive producer and writer for the Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, said in a statement, “We are proud to recognize this year’s outstanding group of honorees. 2024 was an exceptional year. There were so many great stories about the Black experience, and this event...

Scary Movie 6 is officially confirmed to happen, and, luckily, it has the Wayans brothers back as creators, so now the project only needs one more thing to be a proper reboot. During the peak of the revival of slasher movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Wayans brothers Keenen Ivory, Shawn, and Marlon decided to give these a comedic twist in the movie simply titled Scary Movie. Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie parodied films and TV shows from the 1990s (mostly horror ones) in a story that follows a group of teenagers who accidentally run a man over.

Cindy (Anna Faris), her boyfriend Bobby (Jon Abrahams), Brenda (Regina Hall), Ray (Shawn Wayans), Greg (Lochlyn Munro), and Buffy (Shannon Elizabeth) dump the body in a lake, promising to never tell anyone. However, a year later, they begin to be haunted by a killer wearing the Ghostface costume.

Franchise creators Marlon, Shawn and Keenan Wayans are reuniting for the first time in 18 years to write and produce Scary Movie 6.

Scary Movie arrived at exactly the right time to capture the cultural zeitgeist in 2000. Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer were ripe for ribbing, and in Anna Faris and Regina Hall they found the perfect blend of silliness and deadpan reactions that the central characters of Cindy and Brenda needed to make the film work.

According to Deadline, Shawn, Marlon and Keenan Wayans are reuniting for the first time in 18 years to write Scary Movie 6 for Miramax and Paramount. They will also produce with Rick Alvarez. With the popularity of the Terrifier films and recent legacy sequels and prequels in the Scream and Saw franchises, there’s no shortage of material for them to draw on.

The Wayans said, “We couldn’t be more...

Eleven years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer, and it’s being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers! Back in April, it was announced that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, had given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. That announcement didn’t include any mention of writers or a director – but now Deadline has revealed that Scary Movie 6 marks the return of the Wayans Brothers to the franchise. They haven’t been involved with the Scary Movie series since the second movie.

Scary Movie was developed by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans,...

Winsome Sinclair, a veteran casting professional who worked on scores of films and TV shows — many as casting director — including Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man, Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, the Gabrielle Union series Being Mary Jane and a dozen Spike Lee movies, died August 12 of colon cancer on Long Island. She was 58.

Her rep Clorissa Wright-Thomas confirmed the news to Deadline, saying Sinclair had been in hospice care and that her family was at her bedside. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Winsome Sinclair, a woman of extraordinary faith and a trailblazer in the film industry,” her family said in a statement (read it in full below). “Winsome’s life was a testament to radical faith, and she lived each day with a heart full of love and gratitude.”

Born on October 27, 1965 in Jamaica, she grew up in New York after...

Winsome Sinclair, the casting director who helped bring in actors for Waiting to Exhale, Amistad, Precious, The Best Man and a dozen films directed by Spike Lee, has died. She was 58.

Sinclair died Monday in hospice care on Long Island after a long battle with colon cancer, publicist Clorissa Wright-Thomas told The Hollywood Reporter. Her family was at her bedside.

The New York native launched the global casting agency Winsome Sinclair and Associates in New York in 1996, then relocated the business to Atlanta in 2014 amid that city’s production boom.

Sinclair also cast extras for the John Singleton-directed features Higher Learning (1995), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Abduction (2011), for the Malcolm D. Lee-helmed The Best Man (1999) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) and for the Dee Rees-directed Pariah (2011) and Bessie (2015).

She handled similar duties on the Hughes brothers’ Dead Presidents (1995), Forest Whitaker’s Waiting to Exhale (1995), Steven Spielberg’s...

A reboot of “The Munsters” and a series adaptation of the 1976 Universal Pictures comedy “Car Wash” are among the projects Universal Studio Group (Usg) currently has in development, Variety has learned. In addition, Universal International Studios (Uis) and Carnival Films are developing a drama series about a newlywed woman accused of murdering her husband on their honeymoon.

The “Munsters” reboot is currently titled “1313,” a reference to the fictional family of monsters’ address at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. It is not currently set up at any network or streaming service.

The new show is described as a horror series that “lives and breathes within the Universal Monsterverse,” per the official logline. The project was developed by James Wan, Lindsey Anderson Beer, and Ingrid Bisu. Anderson Beer will serve as showrunner and executive producer via Lab Brew, with Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett executive producing via Atomic Monster. Bisu will be a co-executive producer.

The cult classic 1976 Universal Pictures film Car Wash is getting the small-screen treatment from producer Malcolm D. Lee (“The Best Man” franchise) and writer Opey Olagbaju. A comedy series of the same name is in development at NBC from Universal Television.

Set at a modern-day DC car wash, the TV series focuses on an immigrant family’s generational and cultural clashes between father and son and their eclectic group of employees.

The logline reveals many similarities to the original film while using the TV format to make the story much bigger. The Michael Schultz-directed film follows the lives of a group of friends from Los Angeles who work at the Dee-Luxe Car Wash and the interesting characters they interact with one Friday in July.

Many notable names were part of the large ensemble cast including Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Franklyn Ajaye, Bill Duke, Pepe Serna,...

The Girls Trip soundtrack contains more than two dozen songs. The soundtrack is filled with songs by female artists, emphasizing themes of female empowerment and adding to the movie's lively atmosphere. Key songs like "Treat 'Em Right", "Good Times Roll", and "Lovely Day" set the party mood in the film and enhance crucial scenes.

The Girls Trip soundtrack contains a huge roster of recognizable songs. The 2017 movie, which was directed by Malcolm D. Lee from a screenplay by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver, starred Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Queen Latifah. Although Haddish had played many characters in film and television before then, the movie provided her with her breakthrough role, allowing her further opportunities down the line including announcing that year's Oscar nominees, hosting Saturday Night Live (a gig that won her her first Emmy), writing a memoir, and starring in future projects including Night School and The Afterparty.

Exclusive: Sony Pictures Television has optioned the novel Transcendent Kingdom written by Yaa Gyasi to be developed by producer Yvonne Orji under her first-look deal.

The second novel by the Ghanaian-American author is told from the perspective of Gifty, a neuroscientist in training studying the behavior patterns in mice as it relates to depression and addiction. Bouncing back and forth between her present-day life in the Bay Area and her childhood as a first-generation Ghanaian growing up in rural Alabama, Gifty is on both a methodical and a spiritual journey to make sense of the suffering she’s seen all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she still finds herself hungering for facets of her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Over ten years since the forgettable Scary Movie 5, we’re now getting Scary Movie 6, which is arriving in 2025. More here.

Infamously taking the original title intended for the first Scream film, the spoof Scary Movie arrived in cinemas all the way back in the summer of 2000, and promptly outgrossed the film that it was basically taking the piss out of. Along with its first sequel, that arrived a year later, it was directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and the modestly-costed films returned sizeable profits.

Not that they were much cop after the first film. David Zucker took over for Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, in 2003 and 2006 respectively, and both in truth veer on the ‘best forgotten’ side. It took seven more years before we got Scary Movie 5, with Malcolm D Lee this time directing, and the quality of that film seemed to have driven the franchise into the ground for good.

Eleven years have gone by since the release of a new entry in the Scary Movie horror parody series – but the franchise isn’t going to remain dormant for much longer. Deadline reports that the Miramax label at Paramount, which is now operating under new boss Jonathan Glickman, has given the greenlight to a new Scary Movie sequel, with the plan being to get the film into theatres sometime in 2025. If any writers or a director are attached to the project, they weren’t named in this announcement.

Directed by In Living Color creator Keenen Ivory Wayans from a screenplay written by a bunch of people, the first Scary Movie was released by Dimension Films back in 2000. Scary Movie 2 was released in 2001, and the Wayans remained at the head of the creative team for that one. Keenen Ivory Wayans directed it from a screenplay credited to Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans,...

After initially flopping in 2021, Space Jam: A New Legacy has made a surprising comeback on Netflix's Top 10 movies chart. The Space Jam sequel hit the United States chart at #6 after becoming available on the streamer less than a week ago. Despite mixed critical reception, audience reviews have been positive, praising the movie for being funny and family-friendly.

Years after flopping at the box office, Space Jam: A New Legacy climbs onto Netflix's Top 10 movies chart. The 2021 movie was the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 original Space Jam. It follows LeBron James and his young son Dom (Cedric Joe), who are sucked into a digital realm and forced to team up with the Looney Tunes for a basketball game against an evil AI's avatars. Upon its release, the movie was considered a critical and commercial disappointment. However, it has been making a comeback on Netflix.

Recently, Space Jam: A New Legacy...

Space Jam: A New Legacy features a star-studded cast, mixing NBA icons like LeBron James with talented actors like Don Cheadle. The movie centers on LeBron James' journey to bond with his son Dom, portrayed by newcomer Cedric Joe, amidst Looney Tunes chaos. Notable appearances from veteran actors like Don Cheadle and beloved voice actors like Eric Bauza bring depth to this animated adventure.

Space Jam: A New Legacy features a big cast of actors in live-action and voice-only roles, from NBA stars like LeBron James to veteran actors like Don Cheadle. Warner Bros. and LeBron relaunched the Space Jam franchise in 2021, 25 years after Michael Jordan made the original live-action/animated hybrid hit. While Jordan never made a Space Jam sequel, LeBron James was long expected to be the face of the next installment. Once LeBron James officially joined Space Jam 2, the movie took shape with producer Ryan Coogler and director Malcolm D. Lee.

Exclusive: Malcolm D. Lee’s Blackmaled Productions, is helming a new drama series in development with Peacock titled, Drunk on Love. This latest venture is part of Lee’s first-look deal with Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and marks a step in amplifying the voices of creatives of color within the industry.

Drunk on Love is based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Jasmine Guillory, of the same name and follows Margot Noble, whose life is turned upside-down when she inherits a struggling vineyard in Napa Valley along with her estranged brother, Elliot. Yanked back to the small town she thought she’d escaped from, Margot meets Luke Williams, whose life has also recently been upended by his mysterious departure from the tech company he founded. When the two of them lock eyes at a late-night tasting room, sparks fly. It’s an encounter that...

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, also known as Ebertfest, is celebrating its 25th anniversary by hosting screenings of Bob Fosse’s most polarizing film and one of Malcolm D. Lee’s most beloved movies.

The annual celebration of movies, which is named for the famous critic, will run April 17 to April 20 at the historic Virginia Theatre in Champaign, Ill. It will kick off with an opening night screening of Fosse’s “Star 80,” a look at the life and brutal murder of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten that divided reviewers when it opened in 1983, with some seeing it as as exploitative and others believing it was a masterpiece. Ebert was certainly in the latter camp, praising the film with a glowing four-star review, calling it “an important movie…Devastating, violent, hopeless, and important, because it holds a mirror up to a part of the world we live in, and helps us see it more clearly.

BET+ is turning to Chris “Ludacris” Bridges for its next scripted foray.

The streaming service is developing a half-hour dramedy inspired by the life of the rapper-actor, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The streamer says the untitled DJ project is inspired by Ludacris’ “experience coming up in the competitive music scene in Atlanta as DJ Chris Lova Lova, the series follows the misadventures of a sharply drawn ensemble who are willing to do anything and everything to bolster ratings at their hip hop radio station.”

Noah Gardenswartz (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) will write the script and exec produce the potential series, which is currently in the development stage. Ludacris is on board as an exec producer and will serve as music supervisor. The series hails from Universal Television and Disturbing Tha Peace, the label Ludacris launched in the 1990s alongside his manager Chaka Zulu (who will also exec produce). Larry Wilmore,...

Regina Hall came down with pneumonia while shooting Girls Trip, the irreverent 2017 comedy from Will Packer, a savant who repeatedly has shown an obdurate Hollywood that Black movies can mint money at the box office. Hall recalls Packer’s superpower: persuading anyone, be they filmmakers, studio execs or, in this case, his star, to do what needs to be done. “I came to work, they tested me, and I had a fever. Will said he would rearrange the entire schedule so we could shoot my part first: ‘If you can just get through this scene for me, you won’t have to do anything else,’ ” she says. “I did get through it, and he made sure I had everything I needed to heal.”

Girls Trip — the first movie produced, written, directed by and starring African Americans to cross $100 million at the domestic box office on its way to earning $140.9 million...

Comedy drama Harlem has been renewed for a third series at Amazon Prime, and here are the details.

Writer Tracy Oliver made her name writing a series of comedy features with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, including 2016 sequel Barbershop: The Next Cut, the wonderful Girls Trip, a film starring Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish, which flew under the radar in 2017 and is well worth seeking out, and 2019’s Little. Oliver most recently penned a television adaptation of First Wives Club, which ran for three series, and last year’s comedy horror The Blackening.

She then went on to create single camera comedy Harlem, which, reports Variety, has just been renewed for a third series at Amazon Prime. While the setup is nothing new – the series follows four friends who met at University in New York, and subsequently have to support each other through the trials and...

The Scary Movie franchise started strong with clever horror movie parodies but declined in quality over time. The final entry, Scary Movie 5, lacked Anna Faris' comedic talent and relied too heavily on recognizable pop culture references. Despite the decline, the original Scary Movie remains the highest-grossing entry and there are rumors of a potential sixth movie with the return of Faris and Regina Hall.

Taking a look back at all entries in Scary Movie ranked from best to worst is a reminder of the highs and lows of the parody franchise. Following the revitalized slasher genre thanks to Scream, Scary Movie took that examination of the genre one step further and made a full-blown parody. While the 90s slashers were the main target of the first movie, the franchise took aim at any and all horror movies including The Exorcist, The Ring, Saw, and Paranormal Activity. Later Scary Movie...

Tiffany Haddish revealed in a video interview with the Associated Press that she did not earn a penny from her first movie, even after it started airing on network television and various streaming platforms following the success of “Girls Trip.” The 2017 comedy, co-starring Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith, served as Haddish’s industry breakout. She earned rave reviews and won the supporting actress prize from the New York Film Critics circle, all of which created heightened interest in the work she shot prior.

Haddish was talking to the AP about Hollywood’s changing financial systems amid the SAG-AFTRA strike. She revealed that before “Girls Trip,” she starred in a non-union film and was promised she’d be paid $1,200 dollars. She never made a cent.

“My very first movie I ever did that I was the star in, I was homeless while I was shooting that movie,...

The tone of Crazy Rich Asians co-screenwriter Adele Lim’s directorial debut, Joy Ride, is more accurately conveyed by its working title, The Joy Fuck Club. The film falls squarely in the recent tradition of “women behaving badly” comedies like Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids and Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls Trip, with a handful of gut-busting, outrageous comic set pieces that push the boundaries of good taste. But alongside all the coke-fueled, outlandish sexual escapades and vagina tattoo jokes that allow Joy Ride’s four leads to smash the stereotype of the quiet, submissive Asian woman, we also get a heartfelt, if sometimes clunky, tale of cultural heritage and belonging that heads in surprising, and surprisingly complicated, directions.

The film initially follows Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola), childhood best friends who were also the only two Asian kids in White Falls, Washington. An early flashback neatly establishes their...

As with extreme stunts, a la the Marvel franchise, it’s easiest for awards season voters to recognize that which is blatant, leaving other projects struggling to gain a foothold.

With “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” comes the culmination of a story more than two decades in the making. The journey through multiple movies to Peacock’s current limited series allow a feature film’s worth of main characters to find closure.

As with all productions, the series had a slew of challenges. A scene aboard a beautiful yacht in the Dominican Republic put the team to the test when the floating location’s mechanical problems put it out of commission the day before a 5:30 a.m. crew call.

While there may be yachts in a harbor, it doesn’t mean wealthy owners want to rent them to a production. So securing another one at the last minute...

Even with the institution of gender neutral categories in the acting and supporting acting fields, everything old is new again as the Seventh Annual Black Reel Television Awards (BoltsTV) announced the list of this year’s nominees for recognition. Two names were still returning favorites to the nominations field which also included one record-breaking repeat performance and one surprising new entrant to challenge them all.

The Best Man: The Final Chapters secured its place in Black Reel Award history, with eighteen nominations, the most by any program ever in a single year. The Final Chapters, the ground-breaking mini-series that brought back all of the actors from the previous two movies, also ushered showrunner Malcolm D. Lee to three award nominations of his own for writing and directing in the series.

Perennial favorite, Donald Glover continued his recent dominance by leading the pack in personal nominations, receiving five this year. Glover...

It’s Emmy season, so what better time to celebrate the Peacock limited series “The Best Man: The Final Chapters”? On Saturday, May 20, 2023, an intimate panel with leading cast members Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau and Melissa De Sousa was held at the NBCU FYC House in Los Angeles. Gold Derby associate editor Latasha Ford was on the red carpet to go behind the scenes with the cast and executive producers Nichelle Protho and Dominique Telson. Watch the fun, enlightening chats above.

“The Best Man: The Final Chapters” is a bittersweet limited series following longtime college friends who are conquering the midlife challenges of marriage, parenting, health, romance, work, and identity as they revisit and redefine their friendships. Developed by Malcolm D. Lee and Dayna Lynne North, the series stars the original cast from original box office hit franchise: Chestnut, De Sousa, Perrineau, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan and Nia Long.

Exclusive: Kennedy Ryan’s bestselling novel Before I Let Go is in development at Peacock from UCP and Universal Television.

Malcolm D. Lee, who recently extended his first-look deal with Universal TV, will direct and executive produce via his Blackmaled Productions banner alongside Dominique Telson as EP.

John Legend, Mike Jackson, and Ty Stiklorius’ Get Lifted Film Co. — which is under an overall deal with UCP — is also executive producing alongside Debra Martin Chase via her Martin Chase Productions. Ryan will also serve as an executive producer. There is not yet a writer attached to the project.

Before I Let Go tells the story of a divorced couple who are trying to move past the pain they’ve caused each other to continue co-parenting their two children.

Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone...

James Patterson has inked an exclusive first-look deal with Skydance Television, which is in production on an adaptation of his Alex Cross series starring Aldis Hodge.

As part of the deal, Patterson will develop a slate of series based on his top-selling book series Women’s Murder Club and Michael Bennett, along with the internationally acclaimed book series Private and the soon-to-be published books Jane Smith and Holmes, Miss Marple and Poe.

Related Story Diarra Kilpatrick Strikes Overall Deal With BET, Lands Straight-To-Series Order For Dark Comedy At BET+ Related Story 'Ghosted' Director Dexter Fletcher & Skydance Reunite On 'Fountain Of Youth'; James Vanderbilt Penning Script Related Story Malcolm D. Lee Extends First-Look Deal With Universal Television

“In speaking with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and the team, it quickly became clear Skydance is only interested in making quality entertainment with top talent,” said Patterson. “This kind of partnership...

On the heels of his successful series “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” on Peacock, Malcolm D. Lee has extended his first-look deal with Universal Television.

As part of the deal, he will continue to write, develop and produce new projects via his Blackmaled Productions banner for a variety of platforms.

“Malcolm is an incredibly gifted writer, director and producer with an impressive ability to tell entertaining, nuanced stories that shatter records along the way,” said Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television. “We’re overjoyed at the success of ‘The Best Man: The Final Chapters,’ and we look forward to partnering with Malcolm on many more exciting and memorable projects.”

One of the original minds behind the 1999 film, Lee served as creator, executive producer and co-showrunner of the miniseries, which was released last year. Featuring the return of the film’s iconic class, the eight-part show concludes Lee’s “Best Man” franchise.

Malcolm D. Lee is staying put at Universal Television.

The Girls Trip and Best Man franchise director has extended a first-look deal at the studio, part of Universal Studio Group. Lee’s re-upping follows the success of The Best Man: The Final Chapters at Peacock, where it became the streamer’s biggest series premiere to date and the first Peacock original to make Nielsen’s streaming top 10 chart.

Under the deal with Universal TV, Lee and his Blackmaled Productions will continue to develop and produce scripted projects for all platforms.

“The team at Utv has been incredibly supportive as I’ve been navigating my way through the television landscape,” Lee said in a statement. “Continuing our flourishing partnership made sense on so many levels. I’m gratified to know Blackmaled will keep building our robust slate at a place I can call home.”

Said Universal TV president Erin Underhill, “Malcolm is an incredibly gifted writer,...

Malcolm D. Lee has extended his first-look deal with Universal Television, where he will continue to write, develop and produce new projects via his Blackmaled Productions banner for a variety of platforms.

Lee made his directorial debut in 1999 with The Best Man. He recently concluded the franchise with a Utv-produced streaming series on Peacock, titled The Best Man: The Final Chapters. He served as creator, executive producer and co-showrunner alongside former Insecure executive producer Dayna Lynne North.

The Best Man: The Final Chapters is Peacock’s biggest ever series debut and the first series on the platform to crack Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming chart, ranking No. 5 in its debut week.

Lee followed up The Best Man franchise with two more very successful feature comedies for Universal, Girls Trip and Night School, which he produced and directed. In 2018, he expanded his relationship with the studio to television, signing a first-look deal with Universal TV.

Saturday night’s 54th annual NAACP Image Awards once again brought together a star-studded group of nominees across TV and film (despite the rainstorm flooding and causing power outages in several areas across Los Angeles).

But some of the best moments of the show, hosted by Queen Latifah and held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, didn’t make it to air. With The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet and inside the room, here are the top things the TV cameras didn’t show.

When the Red Carpet Becomes a Runway

Zendaya and her stylist, image architect Law Roach, appeared on the carpet just before it closed, but that didn’t stop every camera from rising to attention in order to capture what was sure to be an inspiring, archival look. The two are known for their creative chemistry (Zendaya’s awareness of how to strut, pose, and find her angles...

Malcolm D. Lee’s Blackmaled Productions has bolstered its executive ranks by naming Emmy-nominated producer Dominique Telson as executive VP of film and television and announcing three new key hires and promotions within the company.

Blackmaled’s new hires include Michael Scott Allen as the VP of television and Giselle Johnson as director of film. Chigo Menakaya, who has worked for the company since 2020, has been promoted to creative executive and leads Blackmaled’s unscripted content department. All three team members report to Telson and are based out of the company’s West Coast office on the Universal lot in Los Angeles.

The executive moves come hot off the success of “The Best Man: The Final Chapters,” which launched on Peacock in December and rates as the streamer’s biggest debut ever. Telson served as an executive producer on the project, which concluded the franchise following 1999’s “The Best Man...

Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish are all reuniting to star in the sequel ‘Girls Trip 2.’

Writer-director-producer Tracy Oliver confirmed the project is a go and will see the rambunctious ladies head to Ghana to attend the Afrochella festival, which has attracted prominent musical acts from the region, including Beyonce collaborate Shatte Wale. A production timeline is unknown as Oliver still needs to submit her script.

Also in news – Rami Malek to play silent movie star Buster Keaton in limited series

At the Sundance festival to promote the second season of her Amazon Prime Video series ‘Harlem,’ Oliver said she had a “definitive ‘Girls Trip 2’ update. That it’s officially happening. I can say that.”

The first ‘Girls Trip’ was a box office hit, grossing 140 million worldwide on a modest 16 million budget. Malcolm D. Lee directed the project, produced by Will Packer and co-written...

The ‘Girls Trip’ sequel starring Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish will be taking a trip to West Africa.

Writer-director-producer Tracy Oliver, who co-wrote the original 2017 romp, joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance and provided an update on the anticipated reunion of Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish.

Oliver, at the festival to promote the second season of her Amazon Prime Video series ‘Harlem’, said she had a “definitive ‘Girls Trip 2’ update. That it’s officially happening. I can say that.” She also provided a plot update, and while the film’s producer Will Packer “might kill me, we’re looking to set it in Ghana.”

One of Oliver’s ‘Harlem’ stars, actor Shoniqua Shandai, screamed “Afrochella!” after Oliver dropped the news.

She refers to the annual Afrochella festival, Ghana’s premiere cultural and music event whose name...

Pack your zip lines and grapefruits, the “Girls Trip” sequel is taking us to West Africa.

Writer-director-producer Tracy Oliver, who co-wrote the original 2017 romp, joined the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance and provided an update on the anticipated reunion of Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Tiffany Haddish.

Oliver, at the festival to promote the second season of her Amazon Prime Video series “Harlem,” said she had a “definitive ‘Girls Trip 2’ update. That it’s officially happening. I can say that.” She also provided a plot update, and while the film’s producer Will Packer “might kill me, we’re looking to set it in Ghana.”

One of Oliver’s “Harlem” stars, actor Shoniqua Shandai, screamed “Afrochella!” after Oliver dropped the news. She refers to the annual Afrochella festival, Ghana’s premiere cultural and music event whose name borrows from the American flower crown convention Coachella.

Exclusive: Maurice ‘Mo’ Marable will direct the sci-fi-action feature The Fall for Amblin Partners. Dalton Leeb & Nicholas Jacobson-Larson are penning the script, which is based on the Pete Bridges spec script. Malcolm D. Lee is producing.

The story is set in the midst of an alien invasion, where a newly divorced couple must survive a dangerous journey on foot from downtown Atlanta to the suburbs, where their young children are home alone.

Marable directed and executive produced the Craig Robinson-led comedy Killing It, which will be returning for a second season on Peacock, and both seasons of the comedy series Woke on Hulu which starred Lamorne Morris. He is also set to direct his first feature film with the remake of Three Men and a Baby, starring Zac Efron, for Disney+. He directed and executive produced the pilot of Grand Crew for NBC, which will also be returning for a second season,...

After premiering on Dec. 22, “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” became Peacock’s first original project to make it onto Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings.

According to data provided to NBCU by Nielsen and exclusively obtained by Variety, “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” is ranked in the No. 5 position in an early version of Nielsen’s Top 10 Streaming Originals chart for the Dec. 19-25 viewing period, during which it was available for four days. (Exact information about minutes watched during this period is not yet available.)

As such, this also marks the young NBCU-owned streamer’s biggest ever series debut. That title was previously held by “Bel-Air,” Peacock’s dramatic reimagining of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Peacock has previously appeared on the Nielsen’s overall streaming rankings, but only with acquired episodes of the Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” and the Universal Pictures movie “Halloween Ends.” Additionally, the Universal...

Nostalgia reigns supreme this holiday season with the Peacock limited series continuation of director/writer Malcolm D. Lee’s successful “The Best Man” film franchise. In a rarity for most networks — streaming, broadcast, or otherwise — that Lee, whose more recent hits include Tiffany Haddish’s breakout “Girls Trip,” got all his original stars from both the 1999 film “The Best Man” and its 2013 sequel “The Best Man Holiday” to revive their characters once again for eight episodes.

Considering that those stars aren’t exactly waiting by the phone, that is quite a feat, especially when other less ambitious efforts (“Friends: The Reunion” anyone?) haven’t quite gone as smoothly. With a cast that includes Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs (“All American”), Regina Hall Terence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long (“NCIS: Los Angeles”), and Harold Perrineau, it’s more than impressive. The fact that they are all here — including Lee himself and Melissa De Sousa,...

For fans of a specific period of Black cinema, Peacock’s “The Best Man: The Final Chapters” is an epic, end-of-an-era conclusion on par with “Avengers: Endgame.” The specific period spans from roughly 1990 to 2000, when the Black romantic comedy grew into its power. The confluence of two successful movements — Black romantic fiction and Black indie cinema — birthed such classics as “Love Jones,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Love and Basketball,” among others.

Malcolm D. Lee’s “The Best Man” series has grown an outsize influence among Black rom-com aficionados because it has acted as a living history of the subgenre. Its core ensemble — Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Nia Long, Harold Perrineau, Monica Calhoun and Melissa DeSousa — is a true murderers’ row of the era. They’ve spent their careers acting together in a raft of films, and Black rom-com fans that don’t count the original “Best Man...

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Harper Stewart, the ambitious, obstinate protagonist of Malcolm D. Lee’s The Best Man franchise, has always had questionable decision-making skills and terrible timing.

In the eponymous 1999 film, the young writer, played by Taye Diggs, avoids telling his best friend Lance (Morris Chestnut) that he slept with his fiancée (Monica Calhoun) in college until days before the couple’s wedding (in which Harper is the best man). The news threatens both the nuptials and the stability of the friend group, forcing Harper to work some eleventh-hour magic. In The Best Man Holiday (2013), more after-school special than its predecessor, Harper surreptitiously tries to convince a still angry Lance to hire him as a biographer while struggling to support his pregnant wife, Robyn (Sanaa Lathan).

The lessons Harper learns after each narrow win never seem to stick, and nowhere is that more evident than in...

It's the end of an era. Nearly 25 years after introducing us to the famous "Black Pack," the "Best Man" cast are saying goodbye to their iconic franchise with Peacock's "The Final Chapters." It's truly been a journey for Harper (Taye Diggs), Lance (Morris Chestnut), Jordan (Nia Long), Robyn (Sanaa Lathan), Shelby (Melissa De Sousa), Quentin (Terrence Howard), Candace (Regina Hall), and Murch (Harold Perrineau), but their growth from Malcolm D. Lee's 1999 film to 2013's "The Best Man Holiday" to their new limited series has been a joy to watch.

"My only intention was to make a movie that stood the test of time and would be considered a classic."

"The Final Chapters," which premieres on Dec. 22, catches up with the "Best Man" crew and their unfinished business one last time, following the group of now-40-somethings as they navigate midlife crises, grief, changing relationships, and the woes of the world in their older years.

Malcolm D. Lee wrote the 1999 film The Best Man with the desire to showcase Black men like him who were underrepresented on screen at the time — the “educated, upwardly mobile African Americans who were just ‘normal.’”

Now, 23 years later, Lee is set to launch all eight episodes of the Peacock limited series The Best Man: The Final Chapters this Thursday, Dec. 22. Picking up where we left off with the 2013 sequel The Best Man Holiday, the show will catch audiences up with the friend group as they grapple with midlife crises and rebirths while entering a different stage of their lives.

It's so hard to say goodbye, but that's precisely what writer/director/producer Malcolm D. Lee has forced us to do with his upcoming limited drama series "The Best Man: The Final Chapters." A finale to the franchise that produced two hit movies, the eight-episode show premiering on Peacock this month will close the book on the beloved characters embodied by Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Sanaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, and Melissa De Sousa.

Lee's feature film debut, 1999's "The Best Man, follows Harper (Diggs), a writer tapped to be the best man in the nuptials between Lance (Chestnut), Harper's NFL superstar best friend, and Mia (Monica Calhoun). Harper introduced the two love birds in college, but he inadvertently exposes in his upcoming debut novel that he once slept with Mia behind Lance's back. When this secret becomes obvious to friends, Harper struggles to keep...