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One Night in Miami, the feature film adaptation of Kemp Powers’ Olivier-nominated stage play, starts production in New Orleans this week.

Cast includes Kingsley Ben-Adir (The OA) as civil rights activist Malcolm X, Eli Goree (Riverdale) as professional boxer and civil rights activist Cassius Clay (before becoming Muhammad Ali), Aldis Hodge (Clemency) as NFL champion, actor and civil rights activist Jim Brown, and Grammy and Tony Award-winner Leslie Odom, Jr. (Harriet) as singer/songwriter, entrepreneur and civil rights activist Sam Cooke.

Regina King will direct and executive produce and her team includes Jess Wu Calder and Keith Calder of Snoot Entertainment (Blindspotting, Anomalisa”) and Jody Klein of ABKCO (The Durrells in Corfu, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus) serving as producers.

Set on the night of February 25, 1964, One Night in Miami follows a young, brash Cassius Clay as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center the new Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World.  Against all odds, he defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the sports world. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay – unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws – spends the evening at the Hampton House Motel in Miami’s African American Overtown neighborhood celebrating with three of his closest friends: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. 

During this historic evening, these icons, who each were the very representation of the Pre-Black Power Movement and felt the social pressure their cross-over celebrity brought, shared their thoughts with each other about their responsibilities as influencers, standing up, defending their rights and moving the country forward to equality and empowerment for all black people. The next morning, the four men emerge determined to define a new world for themselves and their community.

”One Night in Miami is a love letter to Black manhood that powerfully explores themes of race, identity and friendship,” says Director Regina King.  “Each of them has contributed so much to culture and history. We’re so excited to have Kingsley, Eli, Aldis and Leslie in the lead roles showing a different side of these iconic men”, said King in a press release.

Originally staged in 2013, Kemp Powers’ critically acclaimed play takes a well-known real-life event and imagines what might have been. Powers explores this pivotal night, the dynamic relationship between these four men, and how their friendship, successes and shared struggles fueled their paths to becoming the civil rights icons they are today.

No release date has been set for the film yet.

The post Regina King Makes Her Directorial Debut with ‘One Night in Miami’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

Source: Slaven Vlasic / Getty

Actor Sterling K. Brown was overwhelmed to the point of tears when he found out key details about his lineage on a recent episode of Henry Louis Gates’ show “Finding Your Roots.”

Before Gates dove into Brown’s deep past, the Emmy-Award winning actor had to come to terms with the loss of his most recent ancestor, his father.

The “This Is Us” star spoke about losing his dad at ten years old and the last memories he has of his father.

“I remember him like winking as they pulled him out into the ambulance,” Brown said of the last time he saw his dad on the episode.

“I remember thinking in my mind, That’s probably it. That’s probably it. It’s just something unsaid.”

Even though young Brown was overcome with emotion, he immediately felt compelled to “hold it together” despite his grief. But as an adult, the father of two learned that letting the tears flow was the best thing for him.

He no longer “holds it together” when he feels the pains of the loss.

“Not anymore. Now I just look at a picture and I’m like, Wah!” Brown revealed.

So it was not surprising that learning the birthplace of his ancestors led Brown to be visibility moved to tears. As Henry Louis Gates read off the birth place of his ancestors, Brown was stunned.

“Wow, man,” exclaimed Brown. “Wow. That’s, uh … That’s cool,” he said while weeping.

You can watch the clip below:

During the emotional conversation, Brown learned that his lineage goes back to Africa. The actor’s great-grandmother and grandfather was born on the continent. It’s very rare for African Americans to find native-born Africans on their family tree, but Brown has someone in his bloodline born on African soil just two generations away. The documents did not disclose where on the continent his family is from.

A new profile of Jean-Luc Picard himself, Sir Patrick Stewart, provides us with juicy new information about CBS All-Access’s upcoming Star Trek: Picard as well as Stewart in a stunning red suit. What more could we ask for?

Although many of the finer details about Star Trek: Picard are still under wraps, the Variety cover story on Stewart fills in a lot more about the political situation an older Picard contends with. The retired Picard is living in semi-isolation, “estranged from Starfleet,” on a French vineyard (likely the Picard family chateau first seen on The Next Generation) when we meet him.

While this much we could divine from hints and previews, what’s fascinating here is the extent to which both Starfleet and the Federation as a whole have apparently shifted away from the “haunted” Picard’s ideals. It seems like Picard will be operating in this show without Starfleet sanction.

He’s haunted by a pair of catastrophes, one personal, the other societal — the death of his android colleague Lt. Cmdr. Data (as seen in “Nemesis”) and a refugee crisis spawned by the destruction of the planet Romulus (as seen in Abrams’ “Star Trek”). When those two seemingly disparate strands of his life cross, Picard returns to action, this time without the backing of a Starfleet whose moral center has shifted.

There seem to be real-world parallels happening in Picard, especially in terms of the Federation—and this stemmed from Stewart’s desire to explore echoes of our current international stage. Though the show will remain true to creator Gene Roddenberry’s more utopian dream of humanity’s future, that doesn’t mean it can’t explore the fallibility of human institutions.

“In a way, the world of ‘Next Generation’ had been too perfect and too protected,” [Stewart] says. “It was the Enterprise. It was a safe world of respect and communication and care and, sometimes, fun.” In “Picard,” the Federation — a union of planets bonded by shared democratic values — has taken an isolationist turn. The new show, Stewart says, “was me responding to the world of Brexit and Trump and feeling, ‘Why hasn’t the Federation changed? Why hasn’t Starfleet changed?’ Maybe they’re not as reliable and trustworthy as we all thought.”

Real-world politics and humanitarian crises aren’t far from Stewart’s mind, and Picard will reflect that; the themes are at least partially due to Stewart’s own interest and engagement. And, of course, the realities of what’s happening around the globe.

“I’m not sure which one of us is in the most trouble,” [Stewart] says of Britain and the United States. “I think it’s actually the U.K. I think we’re f—ed, completely f—ed.” He points to studies predicting decades-long economic damage inflicted by the country’s looming withdrawal from the European Union. Of the U.S., he says, “There is a time limit to your f—ed state, which is four years away.” He expresses hope that “the United States that has given us the Trump administration” can change, but adds, “He will likely get reelected.”

I can only hope that Sir Pat’s predictions about our own state of affairs don’t prove to be correct. The Variety profile is a great summation of Stewart’s past and his current pursuits, as well as further news from the show, so head on over there for even more Picard. The series starts on January 23, 2020.

These pics of Sir Patrick Stewart on @Variety magazine are just mind blowing!! 😍 #StarTrekPicard pic.twitter.com/NknDgxlIzM

— Rashid Uzzaman (@rashiduzzaman82) January 8, 2020

(via Variety, image: CBS All-Access)

• Required reading: “Top 10 books about toxic masculinity” (via The Guardian)
• Iranian Americans discuss what they think will happen next. (via CNN)
• “Elizabeth Wurtzel Took Up Space, Even When the Literary World Wouldn’t Have Her” (via Vulture)
• In a time of terrifying news, at least we have this quarter to look forward to. Some things are still good.
  

  excuse me, i’m sorry, i need to yell this

  NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICAN SAMOA **FRUIT BAT** QUARTERS ARE COMING NEXT MONTH https://t.co/M23AnYaPmR

  — Doug Mack (@douglasmack) January 8, 2020

• Would you believe that “people are furious” because Regal Cinemas is switching from Coke to Pepsi? This is where we’re at. (via Comicbook.com)
• Some fans have launched a petition asking that Geralt/Jaskier be a playable couple option in The Witcher‘s video-game world. (via Metro)
• Speaking of The Witcher, our friends at The Portalist have compiled a masterlist of 21 of the best fantasy series currently on Netflix. (via The Portalist)
• Important Central Park squirrel census: there are 2,373 squirrels in the park! This has been your crucial fact of the day. (via New York Times)
• Nominees are in for the 31st annual GLAAD media awards, and include properties like Rocketman, Batwoman, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and many more. Bumping up all the nominated comic books to my must-read list. (via GLAAD.org)

What did you see out there today?

Yarn: BOUGHT. Needles: OUT. https://t.co/PyAOtBdjoX

— Knives Out (@KnivesOut) January 8, 2020

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Writer: James Tynion IV / Artist:Tony S. Daniel, Guillem March, Tomeu Morey / DC Comics

Bruce Wayne has a design for this city.

It’s 2020 and after nearly four years of King steering the Dark Knight (to varying degrees of success), the mainline Batman title has a new writer at helm. James Tynion IV is no stranger to the DC Universe, having written arcs on Detective Comics, Batman and Robin Eternal, among others while also currently weaving the delightfully devious tale that is Justice League Dark. And it’s very clear from the start that Tynion IV loves Batman and has a different trajectory for this character post “City of Bane,” which I am inclined to welcome.

Batman #86 marks the start of “Their Dark Designs” and where as King started his arc with a meditation on what a good death for Batman would be, Tynion IV’s Batman finds himself asking what a Gotham without Batman would look like. Given all of the different struggles that Batman has found himself these last four years, this thought makes a lot of internal narrative sense. It’s a clean pivot in ideology and sets the tone for the arc asking questions that many fans and non-fans have been asking for years; namely, for all of his ever-abundant resources why does Batman decide to dress up and play vigilante. Batman #86 does not pretend to answer the question, but rather plants the seeds that will surely sprout in later issues.

Tynion IV knows Batman’s voice as well as the immediate supporting casting. He absolutely captures Lucius Fox’s tech insights and Selina Kyle’s lovable roguishness. His mastery of the featured villains of the week is equally commendable and drives the different levels of conflict well. It’s helped by both Daniel’s artwork in the main story, March’s artwork in the epilogue, and Morey’s color in both bridging the gap. Daniel in particular does a fantastic job with the action sequences in the back half of the book.

This is a start of a new chapter in Batman, and it’s very much a solid Batman story. We have a good contrast of the continued duality of Bruce and Batman. We have a supporting cast that’s there to support Batman in this time of mourning and transition. We have villains who are still going about their business and have no intention of giving him a break. But it is also just a start, and while the repeating of chorus of “Bruce Wayne has a design for this city” is a tantalizing one, we’re going to need see more of what these designs are to figure out if it’s more than just solid.

8.4 “Designs” out of 10

Reading Batman? Find BNP’s other reviews here.

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The post New Year, New Team, Same Hero – Batman #86 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.