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“As We Know It,” an apocalyptic zombie comedy starring Chris Parnell and Pam Grier, has sold rights to Buffalo 8.

The Santa Monica-based production and distribution company will release the movie in theaters on Nov. 10 with plans for streaming and video-on-demand in late November or early December.

“We are thrilled to announce the release of this captivating and clever comedy, infused with an exhilarating twist of a zombie apocalypse horror,” Buffalo 8’s head of distribution Nikki Stier Justice said in a statement.

Set in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, the comedy-horror-romance movie follows a struggling writer named James Bishop, who is dealing with a messy breakup with the help of his best friend while trying to finish his latest book before the impending nuclear zombie apocalypse. The cast also includes Mike Castle (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Oliver Cooper (“Project X”), Taylor Blackwell (“Resident Alien”) and Danny Mondello (“Sidetalk”).

Josh Monkarsh wrote...

Actor and producer Jonathan Lipnicki has joined production, post-production and distribution company Buffalo 8 as an executive producer.

Lipnicki made a mark with his performance alongside Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire,” before becoming the lead in the family franchise “Stuart Little.” He will soon be seen in the upcoming TBS show “The Joe Schmo Show,” Peter Pardini’s film “Man Goes on Rant” and Britt Robertson-led film “The Re-Education of Molly Singer.”

Lipnicki will play a key role in packaging and project development within Buffalo 8’s EP services division, identifying storytelling opportunities and bringing together top-tier talent based on his extensive relationships spanning Hollywood studio films through to the independent sector.

Founded in 2010 by Luke Taylor and Matthew Helderman, Buffalo 8’s credits include Netflix original film “Rodney King,” directed by Spike Lee, “Little Men” from director Ira Sachs, which played at Sundance and Berlin and Netflix documentary series hit “Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes...

Spike Lee is set to direct Frederick Douglass Now, his third movie adaptation of a one-man stage show by Roger Guenveur Smith, after A Huey P. Newton Story and Rodney King.

The new film is set up at Buffalo 8, which produced “Rodney King” with Luna Ray Media. Netflix acquired “Rodney King” last year. “Frederick Douglass Now” will mark the latest collaboration between Lee and Smith, who has played distinctive roles in 10 of Lee’s movies, stretching back to his second feature, “School Daze” (1988).

Douglass was one of the most extraordinary figures in U.S. history: a self-liberated slave, orator, publisher, and pioneering feminist who pleaded the case for abolition before Abraham Lincoln and made plans with the President for moving freed slaves to the North during the Civil War. Douglass lived from 1818 to 1895.

Smith’s one-man show begins with the actor rapping from his own text, mashing up references...

Ten months into the year, it’s hard out here for an Oscar contender. Being worthy of remembering, or being watched by Academy members, demands a warm film-festival reception, rave reviews, effective marketing and distribution, strong theater attendance, and word of mouth. Check out this curated (alphabetical) selection of long-shot performers who are worthy of Oscar consideration, but may see their movies get lost in the intense competitive awards shuffle.

1. Bryan Cranston

Category: Best Actor

Awards: Nominated for Best Actor by SAG and the Oscars for “Trumbo,” Cranston won three Best Actor in a Drama Emmys for playing Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and won SAG Best Actor in TV movie as Lbj in “All the Way.”

Last Hit: “Why Him?” ($60 million domestic)

Title: “Last Flag Flying” (Amazon Studios)

Bottom Line: This layered New York Film Festival opener stars Cranston in one of his signature large, colorful, entertaining performances as Sal,...

Ten months into the year, it’s hard out here for an Oscar contender. Being worthy of remembering, or being watched by Academy members, demands a warm film-festival reception, rave reviews, effective marketing and distribution, strong theater attendance, and word of mouth. Check out this curated (alphabetical) selection of long-shot performers who are worthy of Oscar consideration, but may see their movies get lost in the intense competitive awards shuffle.

1. Bryan Cranston

Category: Best Actor

Awards: Nominated for Best Actor by SAG and the Oscars for “Trumbo,” Cranston won three Best Actor in a Drama Emmys for playing Walter White in “Breaking Bad” and won SAG Best Actor in TV movie as Lbj in “All the Way.”

Last Hit: “Why Him?” ($60 million domestic)

Title: “Last Flag Flying” (Amazon Studios)

Bottom Line: This layered New York Film Festival opener stars Cranston in one of his signature large, colorful, entertaining performances as Sal,...

It’s been 30 years, but Spike Lee is returning to the world of “She’s Gotta Have It.”

Lee’s first feature film debuted in 1986 and helped launch one of the industry’s most significant directorial careers in the three decades since. Now, Lee is bringing those same characters to TV.

Read MoreSpike Lee and Ava DuVernay Remember the First Time They Saw Black Characters They Identified With — Watch

DeWanda Wise stars as Nola Darling, an unapologetic young woman living in Brooklyn trying to figure out her social and professional lives. That pursuit brings another tricky aspect: navigating her relationships with three different lovers.

The newest trailer from Netflix touches on her relationships with Greer (Cleo Anthony) and Jamie (Lyriq Bent), while also featuring Anthony Ramos’ take on Mars Blackmon, the “She’s Gotta Have It” character who eventually became a cultural touchstone.

The “She’s Gotta Have It” cast also includes Margot Bingham,...

Set in Los Angeles during the 1992 race riots, Gook – the spellbinding second feature from writer-director Justin Chon, following Man Up – looks at bigotry through the eyes of two Korean brothers caught in the firestorm. Chon, best known as an actor in the Twilight series, plays Eli, who teams with his brother Daniel (David So), a wannabe R&B singer, to run a women's shoe store that their father established on the border of South Central, where the customers are mostly black and Chicano. Eli and Daniel are of the community,...

Almost certainly the most confrontational film about the Asian-American experience since “Better Luck Tomorrow,” Justin Chon’s “Gook” is about as subtle as a trash can smashing through a pizzeria window, but this isn’t a story for subtle times. Set on April 29, 1992 — the first night of the Los Angeles Riots — it’s not a story about subtle times, either. On the contrary, this messy but lived-in drama is intended for a climate that’s tilted towards hatred and erasure, an environment in which people are forced to scream their voices hoarse just to remind the world of their basic humanity. You don’t call a movie “Gook” because you feel heard.

A frequently angry call to action that’s shot in spare black-and-white (all the better to evoke the scrappy kind of indies that were arriving on the scene back in the “Clerks” era), “Gook” hinges on two normal Korean-American guys.

Although Amazon made a big splash by landing Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq as their first original movie, that certainly hasn’t kept Lee in any sort of exclusive deal with them. His next couple of projects find him jumping over to Netflix instead, starting with his film of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show Rodney King (which premiered […]...

Director honoured alongside collaborator Roger Guenveur Smith.

Spike Lee, along with his long time collaborator actor, writer and director Roger Guenveur Smith, were honoured at a black tie gala in Cannes on May 22.

The event, which is benefitting Planned Parenthood, was held at the American Pavilion.

Lee delivered a special keynote conversation with Smith during the event.

Lee and Smith’s most recent collaboration is the Netflix original film Rodney King, a history-infused one-man show film that is currently streaming worldwide.

Rodney King producers, and Smith’s partners at his production company Luna Ray Media, Steven Adams and Bob L Johnson were also in attendance along with Spike’s wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, among others.

Smith and Lee previously adapted Smith’s Obie Award-winning solo performance of A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning made for TV film, directed by Lee.

The pair collaborated on Lee’s School Daze, Do The Right Thing, [link...

It’s been 31 years since Spike Lee first came to the Cannes Film Festival with “She’s Gotta Have It,” but the rebel yell that that film represented still rumbles at the back of his throat. He is here this year with a subject no less unsettling: “Rodney King,” a filmed version of a performance piece by the amazing Roger Guenveur Smith, who also wrote it. The film amounts to an hour-long tone poem, a kind of trancelike recitation of the life and death of the man who was videotaped being beaten near to death by Los Angeles police officers and.

The talk of Netflix is everywhere in Cannes. Not Netflix per se, though also that, but more significantly the changes coursing through the entertainment industry and manifesting themselves at the film festival: the rise of the streaming services, the sheer volume of content being produced and the magnetic appeal these new services have for leading artists in film. Director Noah Baumbach (“The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)”), Spike Lee (“Rodney King”), Bong Joon-ho (“Okja”) are all here in Cannes, all with films that they’ve made for Netflix. At the press screening of Baumbach’s film at 8:30 on Sunday morning,...

Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, John Cameron Mitchell, Karen Allen and Eugene Jarecki are among the filmmakers who will take part in the discussions and panels that will be held at the American Pavilion during the course of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Lee will be joined by his longtime collaborator Roger Guenveur Smith, who stars in Lee’s current one-man Netflix film, Rodney King, on May 22.

Wenders will take part in an industry panel on “Making Movies That Matter,” scheduled for May 25.

Mitchell will discuss...

Known among with-it insiders as the Ampav, the American Pavilion has become a vital part of the Cannes Film Festival over the last 30-odd years. This year’s lineup was announced today, with such special guests as Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, John Cameron Mitchell, Christine Vachon and IndieWire’s own Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson.

Read More: Cannes: ‘Dogtooth’ Made Yorgos Lanthimos One of the Most Exciting Filmmakers in the World, and He’s Just Getting Started

Such anticipated films as “Brigsby Bear,” “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” “Rodney King,” “Wonderstruck” and “Patticake$” will be discussed; Kohn and Thompson are set to record a live edition of the Screen Talk podcast. Avail yourself of the full lineup below and let the Ampav Fomo wash over you in waves.

Read More: IndieWire’s Movie Podcast: Screen Talk (Episode 148) – Here’s What We Know (And What We Don’t Know...

Cannes programming features actors, film-makers, executives.

American Pavilion (AmPav) has unveiled its annual roster of events throughot Cannes.

The schedule includes In Conversation slots with producer Christine Vachon of competition entry Wonderstruck, as well as Cinetic Media’s John Sloss and Dana O’Keefe in a separate session. Sloss also produced Wonderstruck.

Additional conversations include Spike Lee and Roger Guenveur Smith, who will jet into town to talk up their Netflix special Rodney King.

Topics in the series include: The Hollywood Bubble, The Anatomy Of A Successful Movie Marketing Campaign, Hollywood & China and The Future of International Film Production.

Also under the spotlight are talks titled Making Movies That Matter, The Profession of Casting, and Taking the Smallscreen to the Bigscreen: Why TV Shows Have Started Premiering at Film Festivals.

AmPav will feature an Lgbtq showcase and awards ceremony and reception, and the Queer Night Party on May 23.

For the full programming schedule, click here.

Exclusive: Veteran filmmaker to receive honour on May 22.

Spike Lee and long-time collaborator Roger Guenveur Smith will discuss their Netflix Original documentary Rodney King during a Cannes keynote followed by a gala event at The American Pavilion on May 22.

Luxury concierge service WanderLuxxe will host the charity benefit black tie gala later in the day in honour of Lee and Smith at The American Pavilion.

Screen International is media partner on the event, which will feature performances and tributes to the filmmakers.

Lee directed Rodney King, which stars Smith in his one-man show that is currently streaming worldwide on Netflix.

King was beaten by four police officers following a high-speed car chase in March 1991. The ensuing acquittal of the officers sparked the La Riots 25 years ago.

Smith’s producing partners Luna Ray Media, Steven Adams and Bob L. Johnson will attend the gala.

Buffalo 8 also served as producers and Matthew Helderman, Luke Taylor, and Patrick DePeters...

Exclusive: Veteran filmmaker to receive honour on May 22.

Spike Lee and long-time collaborator Roger Guenveur Smith will discuss their Netflix Original documentary Rodney King during a Cannes keynote at The American Pavilion on May 22.

Luxury concierge service WanderLuxxe will host a charity benefit black tie gala that night in honour of Lee and Smith at The American Pavilion.

Screen International is media partner on the event, which will feature performances and tributes to the filmmakers.

Lee directed Rodney King, which stars Smith in his one-man show that is currently streaming worldwide on Netflix.

King was beaten by four police officers following a high-speed car chase in March 1991. The ensuing acquittal of the officers sparked the La Riots 25 years ago.

Smith’s producing partners Luna Ray Media, Steven Adams and Bob L. Johnson will attend the gala.

“We are so thrilled to be able to partner with such respected filmmakers such as Spike Lee and Smith along with Luna...

On Wednesday, former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle met with several hundred people and some members of media in Chicago’s South Side to unveil their plan for the Obama Presidential Center, a stone-and-glass complex to be built in the city’s Jackson Park, as reported by The New York Times. It would include a children’s play area and a community garden for schoolchildren. Obama also wants food trucks and some grills so people can barbecue in the true form of the South Side of Chicago.

Mr. Obama said the center would also include “a studio where I can invite Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg to do workshops on how to make films.” He also envisions “a recording studio where I could invite Chance or Bruce Springsteen, depending on your tastes, to talk about how you could record music that has social commentary and meaning.”

Read More:...

The acclaimed director brings a stark quality to this recording of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man stage show about the incident that sparked the La riots

Spike Lee is marking the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Los Angeles riots with an hour-long Netflix special about Rodney King, whose vicious police beating triggered the chaos after the Lapd officers involved were acquitted despite their savage attack having been captured on video, filmed by a local man from his apartment balcony and seen by TV viewers around the world. That video became the most famous witness footage since the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; Lee used it as the prologue to his 1992 movie Malcolm X.

Related: Spike Lee: ‘Black men are still viewed as predators’

Continue reading...

Twenty-five years after the La riots, Spike Lee has made a film about Rodney King, whose beating by the police triggered the uprising. Does he think things have improved in the Us? ‘Race is always going to be an issue in this country’

Spike Lee can’t recall the first time he saw the grainy video of Rodney King being beaten by Lapd officers in March 1991. Those shaky, now infamous images shot by then 31-year-old plumber George Holliday reverberated first around the United States, and then the world – setting off a chain of events that culminated in an acquittal for the officers involved and five days of protest, violence and looting during which 53 people died. “I don’t remember,” Lee says, “but we used the footage in the opening to Malcolm X.”

Related: Rodney King review – Spike Lee's Netflix special is a bleakly poetic howl of rage

Continue reading.

Elisabeth Moss in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Two exciting new limited series are making rather unconventional debuts this week, with The Handmaid’s Tale premiering on Hulu, which hasn’t had such a big event program like this before, and Genius giving National Geographic its first scripted show. We’re also saying goodbye to Bates Motel, welcome back to Silicon Valley, and hello in a new form to Dear White People. Plus there are a couple new places to have a laugh at the president.

To help you keep track of the most important programs over the next seven days, here’s our guide to everything worth watching, whether it’s on broadcast, cable, or streaming for April 23–29:

SUNDAYSilicon Valley (HBO, 10pm)

The boys of Pied Piper return, but they’re no longer a united force. The fourth season promises internal strife, as Richard (Thomas Middleditch) appears to quit his own company, as...

This year, the April 29 anniversary of the Rodney King riots became a recognized event on the programming calendar. Over the next week, networks are releasing a half-dozen nonfiction narratives to commemorate the 25 years since the Los Angeles uprising, including three from some of our most compelling African-American filmmakers: Spike Lee, John Singleton, and John Ridley.

“Black directors have different viewpoints,” said Lee, who directed writer-actor Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show “Rodney King” for Netflix. “We don’t see the world all the same.”

Read More: L.A. Riots 25th Anniversary Documentaries, Ranked: Which Ones Best Explain the Unrest Now

Ridley and Singleton took a more traditional path to the material, digging into period video archives and interviewing many of the people directly involved in the riots that yielded 55 lives lost, 1,100 buildings destroyed by fire, and some $1 billion in property damage.

Lee came at the subject from another direction. Smith has...

Last month, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the streaming giant was in “very preliminary” talks with “Gilmore Girls” creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino for a second season of the revival of the early-2000s cult classic family dramedy.

“We hope [for more],” Sarandos told the UK’s Press Association. “We obviously loved the success of the show. Fans loved how well it was done; it delivered what they hoped.”

Read More: Amazon Pilots: Amy Sherman-Palladino’s ‘Gilmore Girls’ Follow-Up and a ‘Game of Thrones’ Star Goes to Space

However, during Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys Event on Sunday night, star Lauren Graham said she’s not sure there’s a need for a second season.

“If it all existed in a vacuum, I would play that character until my dying day…Now it’s become what could we do with this story that is satisfying, that is worth continuing.

Few artists have entered — and stayed — in the popular imagination over the last few decades like Tupac Shakur, whose 1996 murder only grew his legend further. Two decades later, his story is being told once again in Benny Boom’s “All Eyez on Me,” a biopic starring Demetrius Shipp, Jr. Watch the new trailer below.

Read More: ‘All Eyez on Me’ Trailer: Tupac Shakur Biopic Looks To Be This Year’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’

Shipp, Jr. bears a striking resemblance to the gone-too-soon rapper, poet and actor, whose lyrics expressed a fixation with his own mortality. 2Pac has been the subject of numerous documentaries — including the Academy Award–nominated “Tupac: Resurrection” and Nick Broomfield’s “Biggie & Tupac” — and been portrayed in other biopics, including “Straight Outta Compton.”

Here we see the highs and lows of his life and career, including the lead-up to his murder in Las Vegas after a boxing...

Whether you’ve just started “13 Reasons Why,” are bingeing it again or just miss it like crazy, here’s a little something to keep the show alive, way past that 13th tape has been played.

Listen to the Spotify playlist below for a complete list of songs heard in Netflix’s teen drama. Although the series was incredibly heartbreaking, the soundtrack was beautiful, ranging from dreamy and poignant to inspiring and frenzied. They’re the perfect tunes if you’re going to tool around on your bike or in your ’65 red Mustang with the windows down. Or put it on at a party and hug somebody you love.

Read More: Confessional TV: 6 Shows Told Through Diaries, Letters and Other Personal Accounts

In “13 Reasons Why,” shy high school student Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) is still mourning after his crush Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) killed herself. The senseless tragedy becomes a nightmare...

In Avi Nesher’s new film, “Past Life,” the filmmaker confronts a time in Israeli history that remains a large burden on the nation’s present: World War II.

Based on a true story and set in 1977 Jerusalem, the film follows two sisters — one a withdrawn classical musician, the other an extroverted scandal sheet journalist — as they set to unravel a family mystery.

Read More: Trump Protest Screenings of ‘1984’: Here’s What Audiences Had to Say After One Packed Screening

Their difficult father’s experiences in Poland during the war have cast a shadow on his daughters for their entire lives and they grow determined to learn the truth about his past. What follows is a complex and intriguing thriller about family, war and the secrets we (don’t) tell.

The thriller stars Nelly Tagar and Joy Reiger as the sisters, with Doron Tavery playing their father.

“Past Life...

Spike Lee tackles Rodney King in his new movie for Netflix, but it’s not your typical biopic. In “Rodney King”, veteran director Lee takes a look at King through the eyes of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man stage show which relives his 1991 beating at the hands of police and the subsequent 1992 Los Angeles riots. […]...

Time has become a precious commodity for television viewers. With dozens of original shows regularly premiering on streaming services alone, there are more options than ever, especially when embarking on new show catch-up. When whole seasons are available overnight, that can make prospects seem even more daunting.

But even if it’s just for a single season, sometimes a show’s best episodes come later in their run. And when they arrive, part of these memorable episodes stand out because they stand alone.

That’s why, in the spirit of helping out with a TV streaming sampler of sorts, we’ve compiled a must-see list of ten episodes from Amazon, Hulu and Netflix series that offer a convenient non-pilot entry point. Sample them à la carte or use them to help get some new fans hooked.

The Awesomes, “Paternity”

Like any good sitcom, the best episodes of now-departed “The Awesomes...

Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming one-man show “Rodney King,” directed by Academy Award nominee Spike Lee. The show is written and performed by long-time Lee collaborator, stage and film actor Roger Guenveur Smith.

Read More: ‘Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992’ Trailer: John Ridley’s New Documentary Explores the L.A. Riots

“Rodney King” will be available to stream on Netflix April 28, one day before the 25th anniversary of the announcement of the “not guilty” verdict in the King case. The verdict led to the Los Angeles riots, which became the most famous case of police brutality in the Us, and left more than 60 people dead and over 2,000 injured.

Read More: ‘Louis C.K. 2017’ Review: This Bold Netflix Special Proves Being Free From ‘Louie’ Can Be Better For TV

Lee and Smith had previously collaborated in the 2001 film adaptation of Smith’s solo performance “A Huey P. Newton Story,...

You time is valuable, and so are both services for different reasons.War Machine (Netflix)

Although there may be a competition going on between Amazon and Netflix for subscribers, the truth is that both company’s streaming services are essential for anyone who watches a lot of movies and TV and who wants to be part of the pop culture conversations as they happen.

There’s no denying that Amazon Prime is worth the $99/year, which not only gives you access to many movies but also a good amount of music streaming and digital media access, plus faster shipping for when you actually want some sort of physical product (you can also just get video content for $8.99/month, which oddly means paying more for less).

And Netflix is still a must-have for both its exclusive and nonexclusive content, though depending on one’s usage could be best for sporadic membership rather than continued subscription — now at $120/year...