News

Cameras are now rolling on HBO's Dcu Lanterns series, and we have world on a late addition to the cast via Variety.

Model/actress Nicole Ari Parker has joined the show in the recurring role of Bernadette, mother of John Stewart (Aaron Pierre).

Parker can currently be seen in HBO's And Just Like That, and has also appeared in a number of movies including Blue Streak (1999), Remember the Titans (2000), Brown Sugar (2002), Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (2008), Black Dynamite (2009), and Almost Christmas (2016).

The official character description for Bernadette reads, “Formidable and tenacious, Bernadette refuses to give up, no matter how insurmountable the odds. At her core, she’s a fiercely protective mother who has worked her entire life to ensure that she and her family will not be passed over.”

We recently got a first official look at Lanterns via a promo still featuring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart,...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of November titles. The Tubi November 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals, some series, and numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library of over 250,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of exclusive Originals, and nearly 250 live channels.

You can watch the Tubi November 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals...

Christmas comes early on Max, as the streamer adds a bevy of holiday movies to its library for the month of November, alongside new TV debuts, a noteworthy documentary and more. “Elf,” “Christmas Vacation,” “Arthur Christmas,” “The Shop Around the Corner” and “Four Christmases” are some of the holiday films arriving on the streaming platform on Nov. 1.

This month also sees the Season 2 premieres of “Rap Sh!t” (on Nov. 9) and “Julia” (on Nov. 16) and the series premiere of “Two and a Half Men” creator Chuck Lorre’s new sitcom “Bookie” starring Sebastian Maniscalco (on Nov. 30).

On Nov. 11, check out the documentary “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” in which the comedian, actor and filmmaker’s best friend Rob Reiner peppers him with questions about his life and career.

And Chip and Joanna Gaines renovate a 100-year-old building in “Fixer Upper: The Hotel,” which premieres on Nov. 8.

Check out the full list...

It’s a lean month for new original content on HBO/Max. November will see the return of two scripted series in Julia and Rap Sh!t, both of which are debuting their respective second seasons, but this month’s fresh highlight is likely to be Bookie, a new comedy series from the partnership of The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre, and Nick Bakay. The show tracks an LA bookie called Danny (Sebastian Maniscalco), whose business is in peril as California movies to legalize sports gambling.

Elsewhere in November, there quite a few interesting documentaries to keep an eye on, and two that jump out as “must watch”. The first is Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, which chronicles the aging comedian’s life and career. The second is the previously-released Little Richard: I Am Everything, which tries to peel back the whitewashed canon of Richard Penniman in a true...

Sarah Lancashire and David Hyde Pierce in ‘Julia’ season 2 (Photograph by Sebastein Gonon/Max)

Max’s November 2023 schedule includes season two of Julia starring Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child and the return of Rap Sh!t with Aida Osman and Mia KaMillion. Bookie, a new comedy about sports gambling created by Chuck Lorre, makes its debut on November 30th with Sebastian Maniscalco starring as an LA bookie.

HBO documentaries Albert Brooks: Defending My Life and South to Black Power will stream on Max this November, along with CNN Films’ Little Richard: I Am Everything.

Series & Films Arriving On Max In November 2023:

November 1

Act of Valor (2012)

After the Thin Man (1936)

Aliens (1986)

The Ant Bully (2006)

Arthur Christmas (2011)

The Avengers (1998)

The Bachelor (1999)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Bells Are Ringing (1960)

Black Beauty (1994)

Boys’ Night Out (1962)

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)

Brigadoon (1954)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

A Christmas Carol (1938)

Christmas Cookie Challenge, Seasons...

Tubi opens June with an intense WWII drama “Inglourious Basterds.” Allied officer Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembles a team of five tough Jewish soldiers to spread fear throughout the Third Reich. They have one assignment: assassinate Nazi leaders. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the unconventional war drama. Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, and Christopher Walz co-star.

Watch the trailer of “Inglourious Basterds”:

The network is also streaming the original documentary “Mystery Unsolved: The Adnan Syed Story” on June 7. The murder of teenager Hae Min Lee was the focal point of a “Serial” podcast, which questioned if boyfriend Syed was her killer. After serving 22 years in prison, Syed was released, still proclaiming his innocence. Now, he may return.

Another streamer original, “Magic Carpet Rides,” arrives June 14. It centers on a social influencer torn between sharing her budding romance or honoring her boyfriend’s request to keep their life private.

Check...

Coming June 8 to Peacock is “Based on a True Story,” a true-crime comedy thriller about a couple (Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina) who decide that getting involved in a murder will somehow save their marriage. All eight episodes will be released at once. This comical look at true crime is sure to entertain audiences, whether they are fans of the genre or not.

Check out the trailer for “Based on a True Story”:

On June 2, Peacock will premiere the new film “Shooting Stars.” The sports movie tells the story of LeBron James and how his high-school team at Akron’s St. Vincent/St. Mary High School became the No. 1 basketball team in the country. Also, how the friendships forged on the court have remained in place throughout the decades that followed.

Watch the “Shooting Stars” trailer:

Four of the five “Bourne” films are set to arrive on the service...

The “John Wick” prequel series at Starz, “The Continental,” is rounding out its main cast with five new additions.

Mishel Prada (“Vida”) will play Kd; Hubert Point Du-Jour will play Miles; Jessica Allain has been cast as Lou; Nhung Kate has been cast as Yen; and Ben Robson has been cast as Frankie.

The five join previously announced series lead Colin Woodell as well as cast member Mel Gibson.

“The Continental” will explore the origin behind the titular hotel-for-assassins through the eyes and actions of Winston Scott (Woodell), who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the New York’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the iconic hotel, which serves as the meeting point for the world’s most dangerous criminals. In the films, Scott is played by Ian McShane.

Martin Lawrence has landed in the arms of CAA, signing with the agency for representation in all areas.

The comedian exited UTA earlier in June, ending what had been a 15-year relationship.

He is best known for his work in the massively successful "Big Momma's House" and "Bad Boys" movies as well as "Wild Hogs". More recently he starred in "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" and "College Road Trip", movies that underperformed at the boxoffice.

He also headlined the hit concert films "Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat" and "You So Crazy" and is also the principal in Runteldat Entertainment, which produces the Starz comedy showcase "Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand-Up," now entering its third season.

Lawrence continues to be repped by the Collective and attorney Lawrence Rose of Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown.

Cedric the Entertainer is set to make his directorial debut with the indie comedy Chicago Pulaski Jones.

The film, written by Kel Mitchell and Janis Woody, stars Mitchell, Cedric, Tommy Davidson and Gary Sturgis.

It centers around a young championship dancer, Jones, who heads to the big city for his shot at superstardom. On the day he arrives, his uncle is murdered, leaving Jones to avenge his uncle's death vigilante style and alone.

Cedric's manager and producing partner Eric C. Rhone is producing with Mitchell, Woody and Mathew Gray through Rhone and Cedric's A Bird and A Bear Entertainment. Cedric is exec producing.

The film began production Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Cedric, whose recent acting credits include Madagascar, Talk to Me and Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, will appear in the upcoming Street Kings and Cadillac Records. He is repped by CAA, Rhone and attorneys Nina Shaw and Gordon Bobb.

Mitchell, who will next be seen in John Sayles' Honeydripper, is repped by the Agency Group.

It's not that you can't go home again -- it's that you do so at the risk of grievous bodily harm. That's one of the heart-warming lessons of Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, a comedy so broad and frenetic that its characters are one brawl away from being CGI creations. As a runt-turned-celebrity returning to Georgia for a family reunion, Martin Lawrence mugs it up, withstands the abuse and learns that the family that flays together stays together.

Writer-director Malcolm D. Lee's formulaic framework is really an excuse for a group of gifted stand-ups and comic actors to riff on caricatures, and he lets most of them dial it up to 11. As an alternative to the season's tepid romantic comedies, Roscoe should find a warm welcome on its opening weekend. The cast's evident delight might be enough for some moviegoers, but with so much talent and so little modulation on offer, audiences subjected to the onslaught could reasonably expect a higher laughs-to-torture ratio.

Lawrence's Roscoe has reinvented himself as RJ Stevens, author of a self-help book, The Team of Me, and host of a daytime talk show. His Survivor-champ fiancee, Bianca (Joy Bryant), views their marriage as a smart merger and his parents' 50th anniversary banquet as a publicity opportunity. Pressured by his stern father James Earl Jones) and his young son (Damani Roberts), RJ reluctantly makes the trip to Dry Springs for the first time in nine years, Bianca's luggage and lapdog in tow.

Beyond the stony disapproval of his passive-aggressive father and mother (Margaret Avery), Roscoe must contend with his mouthy, take-no-prisoners sister (Mo'Nique), disciplinarian sheriff brother Michael Clarke Duncan) and two cousins: scheming goofball Reggie (Mike Epps) and smooth manipulator Clyde (Cedric the Entertainer), who was orphaned as a kid and raised by Roscoe's parents.

In the latest unjust one-upmanship in a lifelong rivalry, Clyde's Cadillac dealerships mean more to the family than anything Roscoe has accomplished. Conveniently accompanying Clyde to the reunion even though they're just friends is the lovely Lucinda Nicole Ari Parker), the object of Roscoe's unrequited boyhood affections and as clearly right for him as Bianca is wrong.

It's telling that the funniest part of the film is the end-credits sequence, when the performers calmly improvise monologues for their characters. Amid the slugfests and shouting matches that take up too much of the action, the laughs are relatively few and too often on the order of X-rated canine action. The troupe's considerable insult chemistry could have used more room to breathe rather than shoehorning the raucousness into a predictable love-and-forgiveness message.

It would be one thing if the family's cruelty to Roscoe were a response to his adopting a phony Los Angeles persona, but the movie makes clear that he's been at the receiving end of a lifetime of harsh treatment. He's unappreciated, slapped around and generally dissed -- and then dutifully learns the Importance of Family.

Lee (The Best Man, Undercover Brother) has an eye for pop-culture shorthand, and the clash between down-home sweet tea and barbecued pork and West Coast yoga and tofu, however tired, rings true. William Elliott's astute production design and Danielle Hollowell's costumes don't overdo the cultural divide. Two Louisiana towns, Shreveport and Minden, sub nicely for small-town Georgia.

WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS

Universal

Universal Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment present a Stuber-Parent production

Credits:

Writer-director: Malcolm D. Lee

Producers: Scott Stuber, Mary Parent, Charles Castaldi

Executive producers: Malcolm D. Lee, Timothy M. Bourne, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum

Director of photography: Greg Gardiner

Music: David Newman

Production designer: William Elliott

Costume designer: Danielle Hollowell

Editors: George Bowers, Paul Millspaugh

Cast:

RJ: Martin Lawrence

Papa Jenkins: James Earl Jones

Mamma Jenkins: Margaret Avery

Bianca Kittles: Joy Bryant

Clyde: Cedric the Entertainer

Marty: Louis C.K.

Otis: Michael Clarke Duncan

Reggie: Mike Epps

Betty: Mo'Nique

Lucinda: Nicole Ari Parker

Jamaal: Damani Roberts

Running time -- 114 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

Universal Pictures has pre-emptively purchased an untitled adventure pitch from scribe Chris Morgan for $700,000 against $1.35 million. Stuber/Parent Prods. is producing.

The sale marks the fifth straight Universal project for Morgan, the most recent being a rewrite on Wanted for director Timur Bekmambetov and producer Marc Platt, which is in preproduction in Prague, and an adaptation of the graphic novel The Psycho, which is in development.

Morgan also penned last summer's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift for Universal. Based on the global success of Tokyo Drift, which grossed $158 million worldwide, the studio tapped Morgan to write a fourth installment of the franchise.

Universal's Jeff Kirschenbaum and Erik Baiers will oversee Morgan's untitled adventure pitch for the studio.

H2F Entertainment's Walter Hamada and Chris Fenton are executive producing.

Stuber/Parent is in postproduction on The Kingdom, which will bow in the fall. The company is shooting the Martin Lawrence starrer The Better Man and is in preproduction on the Luke Greenfield-helmed Big Brothers and the Benicio Del Toro vehicle Wolfman.

Morgan also wrote Cellular for New Line Cinema.