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Exclusive: There’ s going to be some glory, curves and rage over at Ava DuVernay’s Array this summer, in all the best ways.

Back for its fifth year, the Array 360 conversation and screening series will feature films and more from directors Patricia Cardoso, Bill Duke Ed Zwick over the next two months.

Starting on August 3, Cardoso will be kicking off the 2024 program at Array’s Creative Campus in LA’s Historic Filipinotown with a screening of her Sundance award winning 2002 film Real Women Have Curves. The director, who helmed a May 30, 2018 episode of the DuVernay created OWN TV series Queen Sugar, will provide live commentary on the acclaimed picture for the Scene on Screen event.

Check out the full Array 360 2024 schedule below

Two week later, DuVernay and Array will be hosting a daylong Filmmaker Tribute for Bill Duke. With a spotlight on the Palme d’Or nominated director/actor...

New year, new month, new titles to watch at Prime Video! The streamer has kicked off January 2024 in fashion with plenty of classic titles that were released on the first of the month, including 2007’s “No Country for Old Men” and Quentin Tarantino’s hit “Pulp Fiction,” but the best is still yet to come this month, including Lula Wang’s highly anticipated miniseries “Expats,” the A24-produced adult animated musical comedy series “Hazbin Hotel,” and much more.

Check out The Streamable’s picks for the best of January, and continue below for everything coming to the streamer this month!

30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Prime Video in January 2024? “Role Play” | Friday, Jan. 12

The new action-thriller comedy stars Kaley Cuoco as Emma, a suburban New Jersey woman with a wonderful husband, two kids, and a secret life as an assassin for hire.

Zorro and Expats are the big shows coming to Prime Video in January. The former is what Amazon are calling a “bold reinterpretation” of the classic hero El Zorro for 2024. Starring Miguel Bernardeau as Diego de la Vega and Renata Notni as Lolita Marquez, it’s definitely an intriguing-sounding action-adventure series, with a ten-episode first season based on the iconic character originally created by Johnston McCulley all the way back in 1919.

Meanwhile, upcoming drama series Expats is based on the bestselling 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee, and follows “the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community” in Hong Kong. Nicole Kidman has been known for picking the right kind of shows to lead in the past, so let’s hope this is another banger for the actress, who is also on board as an executive producer here.

Here’s everything coming to Amazon Prime Video and Freevee this month.

Andy Garcia is a highly acclaimed and versatile Cuban-American actor, director, and musician. Born as Andrés Arturo García Menéndez on April 12, 1956, in Havana, Cuba, he has made a significant impact in the film industry with his iconic characters and dedication to his craft. Despite his success, Garcia remains a private and guarded individual, focusing on his acting roots and personal projects. Let’s take a closer look at his journey, from his early life to his rise to stardom and his notable contributions to the world of cinema.

Andy Garcia. Depositphotos

Andy Garcia’s parents, Amelie Menéndez and René García Núñez, were both Cuban natives. His mother was an English teacher, while his father worked as an attorney and avocado farmer. Garcia’s family was relatively affluent until Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. In 1961, when Garcia was just two years old, his family fled to Miami Beach, seeking refuge from the political turmoil.

Paul Eckstein, co-creator of the TV series “Godfather of Harlem,” died Tuesday, an Amazon publicist confirmed to Variety. He was 59.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our brilliant colleague, Paul Eckstein, the co-creator and executive producer of ‘Godfather of Harlem’ and a beloved member of the MGM+ and ABC Signature families. Working on the series was a labor of love for Paul who based the show in part on his family’s personal history. Paul was passionate, a creative force, known for his kindness, and generosity. He was a mentor and friend to many, and he will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and his longtime collaborator Chris Brancato,” MGM+ and ABC Signature said in a joint statement.

Eckstein served as a co-creator, executive producer and writer on the Emmy-award-winning series “Godfather of Harlem,” which stars Forest Whitaker as a Harlem mobster.

Paul Eckstein, the co-creator and and executive producer of “Godfather of Harlem,” has died at the age of 59. Eckstein passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday morning, his family said.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our brilliant colleague, Paul Eckstein, the co-creator and executive producer of Godfather of Harlem and a beloved member of the MGM+ and ABC Signature families,” MGM+ and ABC Signature said in a statement. “Working on the series was a labor of love for Paul who based the show in part on his family’s personal history. Paul was passionate, a creative force, known for his kindness, and generosity. He was a mentor and friend to many, and he will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and his longtime collaborator Chris Brancato.”

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Paul Eckstein, who produced the 1997 MGM film Hoodlum and co-created the Epix/MGM+ drama Godfather of Harlem with his writing partner, Chris Brancato, has died. He was 59.

Eckstein died peacefully in his sleep Tuesday, according to a statement from MGM+ and ABC Signature. He was in Jamaica, where he was teaching a screenwriting workshop for Strike Star Entertainment.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our brilliant colleague Paul Eckstein, the co-creator and executive producer of Godfather of Harlem and a beloved member of the MGM+ and ABC Signature families,” the companies said. “Working on the series was a labor of love for Paul, who based the show in part on his family’s personal history.

“Paul was passionate, a creative force, known for his kindness and generosity. He was a mentor and friend to many, and he will be dearly missed.”

Eckstein also led the...

Paul Eckstein, co-creator and executive producer of the drama series Godfather of Harlem and an actor who appeared multiple times on Star Trek: Voyager and other shows, has died. He was 59. A spokesperson for MGM+ and ABC Signature told Deadline that he died unexpectedly in his sleep on June 6.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of our brilliant colleague, Paul Eckstein,” MGM+ and ABC Signature said in a statement. “Working on the series was a labor of love for Paul, who based the show in part on his family’s personal history. Paul was passionate, a creative force, known for his kindness, and generosity. He was a mentor and friend to many, and he will be dearly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and his longtime collaborator Chris Brancato.”

Family and friends described Eckstein as “many things: a celebrated storyteller, a devoted husband,...

The third season of Hoodlum’s Five Bedrooms will stream on Paramount+ New Year’s Day.

Back for another eight-episodes Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Roy Joseph, Katie Robertson and Johnny Carr.

This season, they navigate their way through the perils and pleasures of not only co-housing, but turning said house into a bed and breakfast.

Plus, there are now two couples living under one roof, a garden-variety blindside betrayal, a brave new sexual journey, an unexpected parenting proposal, plus one-and-a-half unexpected marriage proposals.

Five Bedrooms is created by Michael Lucas and Christine Bartlett, who wrote the third iteration with Alisha Hnatjuk and Mithila Gupta.

The set-up director is Peter Templeman, alongside Fiona Banks and Craig Irvin.

Andy Walker is the producer, with executive producers Nathan Mayfield and Tracey Robertson.

The third season has been developed and produced with support from Film Victoria, and assistance from Screen Australia.

The...

Ridley Scott’s 2007 feature, American Gangster, let Denzel Washington lead a regime change in uptown mob movies. That heralded position had always been held by Bumpy Johnson, who steered the underworld through the real-life Harlem Renaissance, holding his own against the Irish and Jewish mobs, and enjoying a long relationship with New York’s Italian criminal outfit. Partnered with Harlem’s crime queen Stephanie St. Clair and her gang the 40 Thieves, Johnson made his bones in the turf war with Dutch Schultz from the Bronx in the 1920s and ‘30s. Lucky Luciano gave the order to take out Schultz and declare Bumpy a family associate. Bumpy played chess with the head of the Five Families for years in front of the Ymca on 135th Street.

Laurence Fishburne played “Bumpy Rhodes,” based on Bumpy Johnson, in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1984 gangster film, The Cotton Club, and reprised the role as Johnson in the 1997 film Hoodlum.

Baratunde Thurston’s animated project “How to Be Black” has been put into development at ABC, hailing from 20th Television Animation and ABC Signature. Thurston, author of the memoir of the same name and podcast host of “How to Citizen with Baratunde,” will write and executive produce alongside Courtney Lilly, producer and writer known for “Arrested Development” and “The Cleveland Show,” who recently renewed his overall deal with ABC Signature. The bestselling book “How to Be Black” focuses on the community and family that raised a young Thurston in 1980s Washington, D.C.

Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland will also executive produce via Cinema Gypsy Productions, the production banner behind “Black-ish,” “Grown-ish” and “Mixed-ish.” The company, founded in 2000 with an eye toward developing projects that highlight cultural, racial and gender diversity issues in America, produced the hit podcast series, “Bronzeville,” as well as “Thurgood” (HBO), “Five Fingers” (Lionsgate), “Akeelah and the Bee...

Clarence Williams III, the actor who portrayed Linc Hayes on TV’s The Mod Squad as well as played Prince’s father in Purple Rain, has died at the age of 81.

Williams management confirmed the actor’s death to Variety, adding that Williams died following a battle with colon cancer.

The New York City-born Williams, the grandson of jazz great Clarence Williams, made his acting debut on Broadway and other theatrical productions in the mid-Sixties before he was cast in The Mod Squad, the influential counterculture police series that ran for five seasons on ABC.

Clarence Williams III, an actor known for portraying Linc Hayes on “The Mod Squad” and Prince’s father in “Purple Rain,” died on June 4. He was 81.

Williams’ management confirmed his death to Variety, citing the cause as colon cancer.

Williams broke through in 1968 as one of the stars of the counterculture cop show “The Mod Squad,” also starring then-unknown actors Peggy Lipton and Michael Cole. He was a mainstay of the series until its end in 1973, and went on to have a career in film, television and theater spanning four decades.

Williams portrayed Prince’s father in 1984’s “Purple Rain” and had a recurring role as FBI Agent Roger Hardy on beloved TV show “Twin Peaks.” He also had a long-running collaboration with director John Frankenheimer, playing Bobby Shy in 1986’s “52 Pick-Up,” Chaka in 1994’s “Against the Wall,” Archie in the 1997 TV movie “George Wallace” and Merlin in 2000’s “Reindeer Games.

Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Cicely Tyson, who distinguished herself in theater, film and television, died on Thursday afternoon. She was 96.

“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. “Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”

Her memoir “Just As I Am” was published on Tuesday.

Tyson broke into movies with the 1959 Harry Belafonte film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” followed by “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Refusing to participate in the blaxploitation movies that became popular in the late ’60s, she waited until 1972 to return to the screen in the drama “Sounder,” which captured several...

The story of how “Rom” managed to screen in Busan is quite interesting. During the last September, after “Rom” was submitted and picked to screen in Biff, the Vietnam Cinema Department had said that the Hoan Khue company, which produced “Rom”, had sent the movie to the festival before it was approved by Vietnam’s censors. It also asked the company to explain why the film had been produced by foreigners without getting the script approved as required by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The company then wrote to the Busan festival organizers and asked that the film be withdrawn. (source: e.vnexpress.net) However, the movie was eventually screened, since, according to Park Sungho, a Biff 2019 representative, “we did not want to cancel the screening because a lot of fans had bought the tickets and cared for the movie. A film festival has to keep its connections...

Second features from directors Natalie Erika James (Relic) and Samuel Van Grinsven (Sequin in a Blue Room) are among the 28 projects to recently share in $1 million worth of development funding from Screen Australia.

The agency announced the funding recipients today, with money going towards seven features, 16 TV drama and five online projects.

These are the first projects to be announced for the 2020-21 financial year, from both the Premium and Generate funds.

Projects funded via Premium Plus, the additional development funding allocation Screen Australia launched to support the industry through Covid-19, are expected to be announced later today.

Screen Australia head of development Nerida Moore said: “It’s great to see producers thinking globally and developing unique stories for Australian audiences and the world. We’re excited to support these original story ideas, many with distinct storyworlds and fantastic comedic imaginations that I’m confident will resonate. We’re also...

The story of infamous New York City drug kingpin Bumpy Johnson aptly fit in Chris Brancato’s wheelhouse. The co-creator, showrunner and executive producers of Epix and Disney TV Studios’ Godfather Of Harlem penned the 1997 film Hoodlum, which centered on the early life of Johnson in the 1920s and ’30s.

This time, he’s tackling Johnson’s life in the ’60s. “The idea now that Bumpy had been friends with Malcolm [X] made us think about this collision of civil rights… and Malcolm’s theory that when the gangster became politicized, America would tremble was something we wanted to explore,” Brancato said at Deadline’s Contenders Television virtual event, where he appeared with executive producer and star Forest Whitaker.

For Whitaker, Godfather of Harlem was an opportunity to give some historical context to issues that are relevant now. “It was exciting to me to get a chance to play around with...

Ioan Gruffudd in ‘Harrow’.

Released today, the Covid-Safe Guidelines developed by the Australian Screen Sector Task Force set the stage for an imminent return to screen production – but only after travel restrictions are eased and the insurance risk issue is solved.

The 41-page document is designed to help producers eliminate and minimise the risks associated with exposure of personnel to Covid-19 as production resumes.

The task force comprised reps of Screen Australia, Screen Producers Australia, the Meaa, Aftrs, state agencies, guilds, the ABC, Sbs, Ausfilm and a number of production companies.

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said, “These guidelines are an essential tool to help the Australian industry get back to the business of creating world-leading screen stories. Whilst each production will need to have their own individual plan, we hope that the Covid-Safe Guidelines will help inform practitioners on what they need to be considering before they get back up and running.

First Ad Jeremy Grogan, Dop Martin McGrath and camera operator Nicolas Owens on the ‘Wakefield’ set (Photo: Lisa Tomasetti).

The Australian TV drama production sector has virtually ground to a halt with multiple shows suspending shooting last Friday.

Jungle Entertainment and BBC Studios shut down the ABC-commissioned Wakefield, the eight-episode drama set in a Blue Mountains psychiatric hospital.

“The limitations we’ve put on our incredible cast and crew over the last two weeks have made shooting more and more difficult and it is now logistically impossible and unsafe to continue,” Jungle CEO Jason Burrows tells If.

“We’re lucky to have partners in the ABC, Screen Australia, Screen Nsw and BBC Studios who have been very supportive. I just hope the government will provide some financial relief to those in need in our team, and the wider industry, while they are out of work.”

Hoodlum Entertainment called a halt...

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of four screen industry events, halted production on Netflix’s Clickbait and two major movies and postponed shooting of two TV reality shows.

Meaa members were informed today by the Clickbait producers there would be a two week hiatus due to general health concerns, nothing specific as no one associated with the production has contracted the virus.

Matchbox Pictures and Tony Ayres Productions told the union they will continue to closely monitor the situation and then reappraise to ensure the safety of cast and crew.

Ayres and Christian White co-created the Us-set, eight-episode thriller which began shooting in Melbourne in November, directed by Brad Anderson, Emma Freeman, Ben Young and Laura Belsey. Filming was due to wrap in April.

Filming of Fremantle/Seven Network’s Australia’s Got Talent and ITV Studios Australia’s/Nine Network’s The Voice has been postponed.

‘Five Bedrooms.’

BBC One has acquired both series of Hoodlum Entertainment/Network 10’s Five Bedrooms from NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

It’s the second major deal for the Michael Lucas and Christine Bartlett-created relationships dramedy, which launches in the Us on NBCU’s streaming service Peacock in April.

The first series will premiere on BBC’s main channel in a daytime slot soon.

Now shooting, the second season again stars Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Roy Joseph, Kate Jenkinson and Hugh Sheridan, with Andy Walker as series producer.

The new faces are Daniel Lapaine as Joseph, brother of Peacocke’s Ben, and Josh McKenzie as Xavier, a potential love interest for Joseph’s Harry. Screen Australia and Film Victoria are co-funding with 10.

Directors Fadia Abboud and Shirley Barrett joined set-up director Peter Templeman. Emerging writer Xavier Coy is the new addition to the writing team alongside Lucas,...

Exclusive: BBC One has secured the keys to Australian drama Five Bedrooms from NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

The British public broadcaster becomes the latest international network to pick up the series, which will launch on NBCU’s streaming service Peacock in the U.S. in April. The show is set to launch on BBC’s main channel in a daytime slot soon.

The eight-part series is produced by Hoodlum Entertainment, the Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield-run company behind ABC Studios International’s crime drama Harrow, with production investment from Screen Australia and developed and produced with the assistance of Film Victoria. international sales are being handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios.

Originally commissioned by Australia’s Network Ten, This Life-esque Five Bedrooms is the story of five loosely connected friends at the singles table at a wedding who, after too many champagnes, and wines and whiskeys and beers,...

Hoodlum Entertainment, Aurora Films’ Antony Waddington and Ákos Armont and Sweetshop & Green’s Sharlene George and Gal Greenspan are teaming up to produce an asylum seeker drama adapted from a 2018 book.

Kurdish-Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani chronicled his harrowing experiences in the tome No Friend But The Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison.

Boochani fled Iran in 2012 after the newspaper he co-founded was raided by the Iranian government. He attempted to travel to Australia by boat from Indonesia but the vessel was intercepted and he ended up on Manus Island, where he spent nearly seven years.

He wrote the book, which details the riots which erupted in 2014, in Persian on WhatsApp on a contraband phone smuggled onto the island, which was subsequently translated into English by academic Omid Tofighian.

It has been sold to 19 countries and won a slew of awards including the Victorian Prize for Literature, which the author accepted via video link while in detention.

Stephen Peacocke, Katie Robertson, Doris Younane, Roy Joseph and Kat Stewart at a table read for series 2.

NBC’s Us streaming service Peacock has bought Hoodlum Entertainment’s Five Bedrooms just as production of the second series of the relationships dramedy gets underway for Network 10.

Peacock will start to roll out in the Us on Comcast and Flex on April 15, spanning 24 million homes, followed by a nationwide launch on July 15.

There will be three versions: free, ad-supported; a more extensive, ad-supported tier that will be free to Comcast and Cox Cable subscribers and cost $US5 a month for everyone else; and an ad-free offering for $US5 for Comcast and Cox subscribers and $US10 for everyone else.

Created by Michael Lucas and Christine Bartlett, the second series again stars Stephen Peacocke, Katie Robertson, Doris Younane, Roy Joseph and Kat Stewart.

The network is expected to announce the full cast, directors and writers later this week,...

Keli Lee with The Gloaming’s Emma Booth and Ewen Leslie.

Disney Television Studios has axed ABC Studios International, the London-based unit which has a first-look deal with Hoodlum Entertainment and co-commissioned The Gloaming with Stan.

The London-based unit led by Keli Lee, ABC Studios’ managing director, international content and talent, appears to be a victim of Disney’s $US71 billion acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets.

Disney TV Studios, which encompasses ABC Studios/ABC Signature, 20th Century Fox TV and Fox 21 TV Studios, is re-evaluating its UK presence and overall international strategy, according to Variety.

However the move may not have any immediate or even longer term impact in Australia. Hoodlum had renewed its first-look deal with ABC Studios International and Disney Media Distribution will handle sales of The Gloaming.

Produced by the creator/showrunner, Sweet Potato Films’ Vicki Madden, Fiona McConaghy and 2 Jons’ John Molloy and Jon Adgemis,...

ABC veteran Keli Lee has left the international arm of ABC Studios as Disney considers the future of the London-based content unit, Variety has learned.

Sources said Disney has told the creative community that there “has been a re-evaluation of ABC Studios International” and that it is re-assessing “the creative direction” of the business.

There have been changes in Disney’s international operations in the wake of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in March. Numerous film and TV staffers at both entities have moved around as the combined business takes shape, and ahead of the wider international rollout of the Disney Plus streaming platform next year.

Lee had served as managing director at ABC Studios International. A longtime ABC staffer and former senior casting exec, she relocated from the U.S. to London to take the newly created role in 2015. Her task was to drive Disney and ABC...

Tony Sokol Dec 2, 2019

Crime is part of the American experience, says Paul Eckstein, creator of Godfather of Harlem.

Martin Scorsese's The Irishman appears to be a swan song for an era of the gangster film. But Epix's Godfather of Harlem, which just closed out its premiere season, is keeping the genre fresh.

The series bridges generations of actors to tell the story of a mob kingpin who bridged the criminal worlds. Bumpy Johnson, played by Oscar-winning actor and director Forest Whitaker, ran Harlem under Mafia protection in a deal brokered by "Lucky" Luciano which lasted forty years. By the time he was 30, Johnson had spent almost half his life in prison. He went back in for a 15-year stretch in 1951 for conspiring to sell heroin. The series paints him as a standup guy, who did time rather than implicate his Mafia partners.

Johnson was a poet who contributed to...

The story of how “Rom” managed to screen in Busan is quite interesting. During the last September, after “Rom” was submitted and picked to screen in Biff, the Vietnam Cinema Department had said that the Hoan Khue company, which produced “Rom”, had sent the movie to the festival before it was approved by Vietnam’s censors. It also asked the company to explain why the film had been produced by foreigners without getting the script approved as required by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The company then wrote to the Busan festival organizers and asked that the film be withdrawn. (source: e.vnexpress.net)

However, the movie was eventually screened, since, according to Park Sungho, a Biff 2019 representative, “we did not want to cancel the screening because a lot of fans had bought the tickets and cared for the movie. A film festival has to keep its connections...

Exclusive: Ioan Gruffudd is to move into directing for the first time on crime drama Harrow after the ABC Studios International-produced series was picked up for a third season.

The Welsh actor, who previously starred in U.S. drama Forever, will direct an episode of the third season for Australian public broadcaster ABC.

He joins the likes of Tony Tilse (Ash Vs Evil Dead), Grant Brown (Reef Break), Catherine Millar (Farscape), Mairi Cameron (The Second) and Peter Andrikidis (Reckoning) in directing.

Disney’s ABC Studios International produces in association with Hoodlum. It airs on Hulu in the U.S.

The is co-created by Secrets & Lies writer Stephen M. Irwin and producer Leigh McGrath and written by Irwin. Harrow tells the story of Dr. Daniel Harrow (Gruffudd), who is no ordinary forensic pathologist. Brilliant. Unorthodox. And a murderer? Harrow’s total disregard for authority and his unfailing empathy for...

Ioan Gruffudd in Harrow season 2.

Ioan Gruffudd is set to make his directing debut on season 3 of the ABC’s Harrow, which starts shooting next month in Brisbane and South-East Queensland.

The Welsh-born actor joins the roster of directors alongside Tony Tilse, Grant Brown, Catherine Millar, Mairi Cameron and Peter Andrikidis.

The new series follows Gruffudd’s forensic pathologist Doctor Daniel Harrow as he investigates the death of a young man who claimed to his son and gets entangled in a dangerous criminal underworld.

Hoodlum’s Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield continue as the producers, with funding from the ABC, Disney’s ABC Studios and Screen Queensland. The 10 episodes are again being written by co-creators Stephen M. Irwin and Leigh McGrath and Michaeley O’Brien.

Faustina Agolley, who guest starred in the second series, joins the cast of regulars with Jolene Anderson (Dr Grace Molyneux), Damien Garvey (Detective Sergeant Bryan Nichols...

‘Top End Wedding’ is among the eight films in contention for the feature film Spa Award.

Some 54 production companies are among the finalists for this year’s Screen Producers Australia (Spa) Awards, which span 12 categories across film, TV and interactive.

Eight titles will compete for the feature film gong. The nominees include the highest grossing Australian films of the year, Ambience’s Storm Boy and Goalpost Pictures/Kojo Entertainment’s Top End Wedding. Also in the running are Unicorn Films’ Celeste and Red Dune Films & Deeper Water Films’ Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan, as well as four yet to be released films, Blue-Tongue Films’ Judy & Punch, Closer Productions’ Animals, Ticket To Ride’s Standing Up For Sunny and SixFourSixty’s Angel of Mine.

Hoodlum is up twice in the drama series category for Tidelands and Five Bedrooms, as is Matchbox for Glitch and The Heights (the latter together...

Tony Sokol Aug 15, 2019

Vincent D'Onofrio sees hope in the gangster series Godfather of Harlem which resonates today.

On Epix's upcoming gangster series Godfather of Harlem, Vincent D'Onofrio plays Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, and Giancarlo Esposito plays Adam Clayton Powell Jr. They are two rising titans at cross purposes.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was New York's first elected Congressman of African-American descent and was instrumental in pushing social and civil rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Gigante was a rising star in the Genovese crime family, whose first father was Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Gigante is pushing back against the social changes affecting his upward mobility. Back in the golden age of racketeering, Lucky made a deal with Harlem mobster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, played by Forest Whitaker in Godfather of Harlem.

Johnson is a mythic figure, played twice by Laurence Fishburne, in Francis Ford Coppola's 1984 film The Cotton Club,...

Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein’s new Epix series Godfather of Harlem tells the story of crime boss Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker), a figure in the early 1960s who returned from a ten-year jail stint to find his neighborhood overrun by the Italian mob.

One of the more intriguing true-life historical points played out in the series is his relationship with Malcolm X, as the two join forces to manage the social upheaval and mob war that looms. In the trailer, Malcolm X says to Johnson, “You have guns, but I have an army.”

“Bumpy has his hustle going, and Malcolm has his,” Brancato told Deadline following the TCA afternoon session.

Brancato shared with the TCA press corps that as part of the creators’ research about the duo’s unique relationship, they not only combed through books about Malcolm X and Johnson, but interviews were conducted with “surviving heirs” of the two.

Filmmaker Bill Duke is set to direct The Power of One: The Diane Latiker Story, a film based on Chicago activist Diane Latiker.

Duke has appeared in a number of films including X-Men: The Last Stand, Menace II Society, Mandy, and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, which he also directed.

Global Genesis Group is producing The Power of One alongside Jbm Productions.

It follows Latiker’s journey as she fought her way amidst the violence of a Chicago community to found Kids Off the Block, a safe place for children to do school work and be mentored away from the street gangs. Latiker opened her heart and home to at-risk youth in the turbulent Roseland neighborhood, in spite of opposition from local government officials, members of her own family and the vicious gangs. The movie follows Diane’s harrowing and dramatic rise over thirty years ago from working...

Poppy Montgomery (L) and Tracey Vieira at the ‘Reef Break’ premiere (Photo credit: Alister Rendell)

Outgoing Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira reflects on the challenges and milestones of her career at the agency and why she is heading in a new direction.

Q: So, after 17 years dealing with Us studios, Australian and international producers and governments, are you looking for new challenges?

I’ve had the incredible privilege of working for 17 years across so many aspects of the industry due to the roles I have had. I’ve had the benefit of working with international filmmakers and studios, local producers, writers and directors, agencies, guilds and unions, local councils, state government and the federal government and also across both international production, local production and screen culture events.

It’s been absolutely incredible to be exposed to so many sectors of the industry but I’m at a point where I...

Paul Benjamin, who appeared in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, has died. Lee announced on Instagram that the veteran actor died June 28. The cause of death was not immediately known. Benjamin was 81.

Benjamin, who played one of the three wise Brooklyn “cornermen” in Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing, began his career in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy. He went to play small roles in Sidney Lumet’s The Anderson Tapes and Born to Win, then segued into more extensive TV work later in the 1970s.

He appeared as a death row inmate in a 1988 episode of In The Heat of the Night and also in the 1994 pilot episode of ER, which led to his recurring role of homeless man Al Ervin during the next few seasons. Benjamin also worked on the American Masters documentary of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ralph Ellison, which aired on PBS, as...

Holly Throsby.

The Letdown‘s Alison Bell and Sarah Scheller are adapting Holly Throsby’s debut novel Goodwood into a series for the ABC and Disney’s ABC Studios International.

Goodwood is a part mystery, part coming-of-age love story, set in a small town that is torn apart when two of its residents go missing.

The series will be produced by Alice Bell and Claudia Karvan, with Imogen Banks executive producing under her Endemol Shine Banks banner together with ABC head of drama, comedy and Indigenous Sally Riley and ABC Studios International managing director, international content, platforms and talent, Keli Lee.

Throsby says: “One of the central themes of Goodwood is the relationships between people, especially between strong women. It is so fitting, and an absolute dream for me, to have such an incredible group of women in charge of bringing my book to life on screen.”

Bell says: “Holly...

Hulu has released its list of all the new content coming May 1 as well as everything that will leave the streaming service at the end of the month.

Highlights include Hulu Originals like “Into The Dark: All That We Destroy,” the show’s eighth episode coming May 3. Hulu describes the show as “A geneticist who fears that her son may be becoming a serial killer creates a group of clones in an attempt to cure him of his psychopathic tendencies by allowing him to relive the murder of his first victim.”

George Clooney’s “Catch-22,” which is on the Joseph Heller novel of the same name arrives mid-month. Per Hulu: “‘Catch-22'” is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian, a Us Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him.” The show stars Kyle Chandler,...

As high-ranking executives at the most famous record company in the world, it was essential for us to project the utmost professionalism at all times. We talked in hushed tones nodding politely at staff whom, when we approached lowered their heads once pass the whispered comments began.

Denys Cowan and I were walking the halls of Motown Records. Denys had just joined me at Motown Animation and Filmworks as Senior Vice President. I was giving him the ten-cent tour of Motown’s brand spanking new offices as we discussed plans to take over the world.

“My god, they nodded at us.”

“We’re so blessed.”

“Long live the saviors of Motown.”

“Nay, saviors of the entertainment industry!”

“Nay Nay The World!!”

“Why Y’All Keep Saying My Name?” Said, Nay Nay.

Nay Nay commented that we “Looked like GQ cover models.” Denys was in Armani, I wore Boss— we both...

(L-r) Roy Joseph, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Kat Stewart and Stephen Peacocke.

The Australian obsession with housing prices and affordability is the inspiration behind Five Bedrooms, Hoodlum Entertainment’s drama which started shooting in Melbourne today.

Commissioned by Network 10, the series features an ensemble cast led by Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Roy Joseph, Kate Jenkinson and Hugh Sheridan.

Created by Michael Lucas and Christine Bartlett, the plot follows a group of very different people who find themselves at a singles table at a wedding.

After a few too many champagnes, wines, whiskeys and beers, the solution to all their problems seems to be buying a house together: A really big, five bedroom house.

Lucas tells If: “The idea of pooling together with friends to crack into the real estate market is something Christine and I have talked about for almost a decade now. As prices...

Deanne Weir.

Given the commercial pressures facing Australia’s free-to-air networks and funding agencies, the industry should look to private investors to fill the widening gap in financing TV dramas and features, according to Deanne Weir.

The chair of Hoodlum Entertainment who also runs her own investment company, Weir is talking to Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason about how to encourage private investment in the screen sector.

“We have to find ways to create an investor class, particularly as the financing gap in television becomes more of an issue,” she tells If. “We have to help producers become more pro-active and to educate private investors.”

In the final part of If’s series on the challenges and opportunities for the screen industry, If also spoke to Animal Logic CEO Zareh Nalbandian and Ausfilm CEO Debra Richards.

Pre-production has started in Sydney on Will Gluck’s Peter Rabbit 2, a co-production between...

Since Bill Duke the Sundance Special Jury-prize winning film “The Killing Floor” (1984), the multi-hyphenate talent has rarely been out of sight on screens big and small.

In the ’90s, Duke directed acclaimed crime films focused on black themes and characters, including the Cannes Fest competitor “A Rage in Harlem”; “Hoodlum,” with an enviable cast that included Laurence Fishburne, Queen Latifah and Cicely Tyson; and the Spirit Award-nommed “Deep Cover.”

Duke, one of TV’s most-in-demand character actors, has racked up dozens of credits in shows ranging from “Battlestar Galactica” to “Lost.” His big-screen directors include Steven Soderbergh, Paul Schrader, Jim Sheridan and the legendary Sam Fuller, who once assessed Duke as “the best film director in America today.”

Duke’s autobiography, “Bill Duke: My 40-Year Career on Screen and Behind the Camera,” was published last month, but Duke was first noted in Variety for his role in the 1972 ABC Afterschool Special,...

Jolene Anderson.

Former All Saints and Home and Away star Jolene Anderson is playing a key role in the second series of Hoodlum Entertainment’s Harrow, which is now shooting in Brisbane.

Ioan Gruffudd returns as the brilliant but flawed forensic pathologist Dr Daniel Harrow in the show created by Stephen Irwin and Leigh McGrath, alongside Robyn Malcolm, Darren Gilshenan, Hunter Page-Lochard, Ella Newton, Damien Garvey and Anna Lise Phillips. Missing is Mirrah Foulkes, who played Soraya Dass, Harrow’s love interest, in the first series.

Anderson is Harrow’s new colleague, a forensic pathologist named Grace, in the crime drama commissioned by the ABC and ABC Studios International.

Catherine Millar, Peter Andrikidis, Grant Brown, Geoff Bennett and Declan Eames are directing the 10-episode series scripted by Irwin, McGrath and Michaeley O’Brien and produced by Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield.

After his near-fatal shooting in the last episode, Harrow...

Damien Garvey and Mark Mitchinson in ‘Rake’.

As a regular in the ABC’s Rake since the second series, Damien Garvey has a ready explanation as to why the fifth series is the last.

“This series plays more like a documentary than a satire,” says Garvey, who plays Cal McGregor, the resilient former government minister, jailbird and now blow-hard TV show host.

“The scripts were written 12 or 15 months ago, depicting the most ridiculous scenes. Now you turn on the TV and what you see is very similar. You can’t make up enough stories like that about politics anymore.”

In Sunday night’s episode Cal was offered a vacant seat in the House and a ministerial portfolio while his ambitious wife Jane (Sonia Todd) has her eyes on the seat.

Garvey is a huge admirer of Richard Roxburgh – “he works very hard on the show” – and co-creator Peter Duncan and...

Ioan Gruffudd’s Australian crime drama Harrow is heading to the UK after Discovery and BBC Studios-backed broadcaster UKTV struck a five-show deal with Hollywood studio deal.

The volume deal also includes Katy Mixon’s American Housewife, the first U.S. comedy picked up by the broadcaster after an extensive sitcom search, and Jodie Whittaker-fronted The Assets as well as the return of Quantico and Code Black.

Harrow, which will air on UKTV’s Alibi, co-created by Secrets & Lies writer Stephen M. Irwin and producer Leigh McGrath tells the story of Dr. Daniel Harrow, played by Gruffudd, who is no ordinary forensic pathologist, whose unfailing empathy for the dead help him solve even the most bizarre of cases. The series is produced by ABC Studios International in association with Australian producer Hoodlum.

Season three of Quantico, which stars Priyanka Chopra as FBI recruit Alex Parrish, also returns to Alibi.

Australian broadcaster ABC has confirmed a second season of Ioan Gruffudd-fronted crime drama Harrow, produced by Disney’s ABC Studios International, that will start shooting in September.

This comes after Gruffudd, who previously starred in U.S. pathology drama Forever, told Deadline earlier this year that he was already working on a second season ahead of the show’s debut.

The show will start production later this year in Queensland. Co-created by Secrets & Lies writer Stephen M. Irwin and producer Leigh McGrath and written by Irwin, the 10-episode Harrow tells the story of Dr. Daniel Harrow (Gruffudd), who is no ordinary forensic pathologist. Brilliant. Unorthodox. And a murderer? Harrow’s total disregard for authority and his unfailing empathy for the dead help him solve even the most bizarre of cases. He is driven to give victims a voice and will bend every rule to get to the truth of what happened to them.

The Golden Globe-winning comedy series “Mozart in the Jungle” returns to Amazon for season 4 beginning on Feb. 16. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Rodrigo, the roguish conductor of the New York Symphony. In season 3, he and his troupe travelled to Venice, Italy to stage a new opera, “La Fiamma.” He clashed with Malena (Monica Bellucci), the diva at the head of the cast. Expect more fireworks this season as he back behind the podium in Gotham.

And the second half of season 1 of the rebooted live-action version of “The Tick” is set to stream on Feb. 23. Peter Serafinowicz plays the sassy superhero who says, “murder is just not cool.” The show is created by Ben Edlund, who introduced the character in comic book form in 1986. His comic was adapted into an Emmy nominated animated series that ran from 1994-1997 and a short-lived live-action version in 2001 that starred Patrick Warburton.

See Netflix schedule:...

Emmy winners Jeff Daniels (“The Newsroom”) and Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”) head up the new Hulu original series “The Looming Tower,” which chronicles the rise of Osama Bin-Laden. Also featured in this docudrama about the inter-agency rivalry between the CIA and FBI in the first part of this century are Golden Globe nominees Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg. The first of the 10 episodes starts streaming on Hulu on Feb. 28.

Before then, Hulu viewers will get a chance to see another acclaimed docudrama, the film “Detroit” by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”). She reteamed with screenwriter Mark Boal, who also picked up an Oscar for “The Hurt Locker,” for this acclaimed film. “Detroit” documents the riots that beset the motor city in the summer of 1967 after the police raid an unlicensed bar on July 23 and arrest the 82 patrons and staff. Over the course of just five days, 43 people died...

Exclusive: Well, it’s about time for this woman’s story to be told. She was a known figure throughout New York in 1920s Harlem. She fought against other mobsters to maintain her independent business and was also considered an activist for the black community at the time. Her name was Stephanie St. Clair and now Tim Story and Zero Gravity Management are developing a pic at HBO Films about her life.

Nicole Asher has been hired to script the story about the woman who was an immigrant from the Caribbean and ended up running something known as the Policy Bank — which really was the precursor to the American lottery system.

Yes, it was in the time of organized crime and the money flowed, but when mobsters Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano and a corrupt police force tried to take over her criminal enterprise she fought fiercely against them and won those battles.

Johnny Depp was recently photographed in full prosthetics to play real-life Boston gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger in the upcoming movie Black Mass.

The 50-year-old actor was wearing a balding wig cap, fake teeth, a blue open shirt with a gold chain, and a black leather jacket as he shot the film's final scenes in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Benedict Cumberbatch recently joined the cast as Whitey Bulger's brother Billy Bulger, along with Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott, who is reported to be playing FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick.

The Scott Cooper-directed crime drama is due for release in cinemas on September 18, 2015.

Bulger spent 16 years at large and 12 years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list before he was arrested in June 2011, aged 81. Prosecutors indicted him for 19 murders and he is currently serving two life terms.

Here are 9 other actors morphing into some of the world's most notorious real-life gangsters below:...