*Disney has officially announced its Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie for the live-action “Aladdin” remake.
Will Smith, who had been circling the role of Genie, has signed on the dotted line for the role alongside Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine and relative newcomer Mena Massoud in the title role.
The original animated movie was a comic take on the Arabic folk tale of a young man granted three wishes by a genie trapped in a lamp.
The three cast members were announced Saturday at the D23 Expo in Anaheim Calif.
On Friday, Disney announced the addition of Taraji P. Henson to Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2,” due March 9, 2018.
The 2012 Oscar-nominated original followed Ralph, the villain of the arcade game “Fix-It Felix, Jr.,” on a journey to lose his bad guy reputation. Footage shown of the sequel showed Ralph and Vanellope heading into the Internet and being bombarded with people holding signs saying things like “Sexy housewives want to meet you” and “my sister-in-law got rich.”
Henson plays a new character named Yesss, who appears to be an expert on the world wide web and shows the pair around. Yesss introduces them to a Marvel-yourself booth and to all the Disney princesses, who are voiced by their original actresses, who it turns out are all very misunderstood (i.e., Jasmine is allergic to cats).
“Those perfect models of femininity are the princesses,” Yesss explains.
The musical “Sweetee” with book, music and lyrics by Gail Kriegel, playing at the Ford Foundation Studio Theatre, located at 480 West 42nd Street in Manhattan, has a cast made in heaven. Every single actor, dancer and singer is perfect for their role. Jordan Tyson as Sweetee captures the essence of a poverty stricken interracial southern girl bred in the church. She has high moral values despite the fact her mother makes money the only way she knows how, on her back. Sweetee comes up in the South throughout the depression era of the late 1930s, early ’40s. A time when whites would shoot or lynch a black person simply for living.
Sweetee has a dream and a voice like an angel and the ambition to do something with it. She loves her mother but can no longer tolerate the conditions she lives under and longs for a better life. Naive, she runs away and joins a band of orphan musicians who are under the sponsorship of good looking, smooth talking Reverend Dan, portrayed by Jeremiah James, who has hopes for a better life for himself, his family and the band, but must live under the confines of the oppressive conditions of the South. Even though a white man and rebel at heart, he has no choice but to obey the Jim Crow laws imposed on his band. Rev Dan’s outspoken ways has gotten him and his wife banned from several churches. He places his hopes into his ragtag band of colored orphans anticipating they can open some charitable doors. Filled with optimism, Sweetee throws her lot in with the group and under Reverend Dan’s management travels from church-to-church attempting to eke out a living.
Cheated and often broke, Reverend Dan has difficulty coming up with train fare to get the band from town-to-town, until one day Sweetee and the band of musical orphans make the acquaintance of a streetwise, fast talking, happy-go-lucky talent named Cat Jones played by Jelani Alladin who shows the band the ways of the road. Cat joins the band imploring them to get off the church circuit and start playing and singing money-making popular feel-good music to the consternation of Rev. Dan. It wasn’t long before Dan and Cat clash.
The band starts doing well with the new music under the tutelage of Cat but when Rev Dan books them for a church gig in NY, the band is divided. Sweetee is torn between her loyalty to Rev Dan and her love for Cat. She feels a responsibility to Dan so accompanies him to her hometown as a singer and then New York, frightened the entire time her traveling with a white man through the South could get them both lynched.
Some of the musical numbers consist of: “Amazing Grace,” “Nothing Comes Easy,” “Dream Big,” and “This Little Light of Mine.” The show music is feel good music: uplifting, foot-tapping and joyous. The cast, consisting of Cedric Cannon whose baritone is a delight to hear; Katy Blake, Adante Carter, Hugh Cha, Dave Droxler, Morgan Siobhan Green, Amir Royale, and Katherine Weber. All of whom make “Sweetee” a pleasant theatrical experience.
“Sweetee” has a two week run and ends June 18. This is a play of picking oneself up by their bootstraps and despite hardships fulfilling dreams. “Sweetee” leaves the audience wanting more. Get your tickets now!!!
Deardra Shuler has experience in theatre, music, concert promotion, television and publishing. She was affiliated with the Negro Ensemble Company and is a former manager of the children’s theatre,”TADA.”
She has produced and promoted concerts in Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, and Radio City Music Hall. Ms. Shuler is the former Editor and Managing Editor of three New York City minority newspapers. Presently, she is the Entertainment Editor of The Black Star News. As a freelance writer she writes for several New York City newspapers; including the Examiner, Amsterdam News and EURweb. Deardra has a column in California and is the former PR chairman for the FESPACO film festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Africa. She is presently program manager for BlakeRadio.com where she also hosts her own show “Topically Yours.”
EuropaCorp and STXfilms announce an intimate Fireside Chat today, April 24, for the highly-anticipated EuropaCorp thriller The Circle, based on Dave Eggers’ acclaimed novel. Twitter CEO & Co-Founder Jack Dorsey will join Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt and screenwriter/director James Ponsoldt to discuss the film and issues related to our modern socially-connected world and technology.
The chat will be livestreamed from The Circle Twitter handle (@WeAreTheCircle) today (April 24) at 11am PT / 2pm ET. The Circle will be released by STXfilms on behalf of EuropaCorp on April 28th.
Using the film’s provocative themes as a jumping off point, the hour-long chat will include topics of discussion such as diversity within the tech industry, leading a tech company, our data-driven world, and the boundaries of privacy online.
The Circle is a gripping modern thriller, starring Emma Watson (“Harry Potter”), Tom Hanks (“Sully”) and John Boyega (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”). When Mae (Emma Watson) is hired to work for the world’s largest and most powerful tech & social media company, she sees it as an opportunity of a lifetime. As she rises through the ranks, she is encouraged by the company’s founder, Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks), to engage in a groundbreaking experiment that pushes the boundaries of privacy, ethics and ultimately her personal freedom. Her participation in the experiment, and every decision she makes begin to affect the lives and future of her friends, family and that of humanity.
*Saban Films has acquired North American distribution rights to “Armed Response,” a sci-fi thriller starring Wesley Snipes and directed by John Stockwell.
Anne Heche, WWE superstar Seth Rollins, Gene Simmons and Dave Annable also star in the film, which follows a team of highly trained operatives who find themselves trapped inside an isolated military compound after its AI is suddenly shut down. The crew begins to experience strange and horrific phenomena as they attempt to uncover what killed the previous team.
The project – from WWE Studios, Simmons and Erebus Pictures, with a script by Matt Savelloni – is now in post-production.
*Solange Knowles, A Tribe Called Quest and LCD Soundsystem will headline this summer’s 12th annual Pitchfork Music Festival July 14-16 at Chicago’s Union Park, reports Billboard.
The festival also announced what they are calling a “special collaboration” with Solange’s Saint Heron, a label and arts platform. The partnership will include an onsite art installation space with contemporary African American art as well as film screenings, art talks, late-night jazz sessions and more throughout Chicago.
So far, the announced Saint Heron events include a night of film and discussion on July 13 at the Black Cinema House at the Stony Island Arts Bank; a poetry reading and talk presented with Young Chicago Authors at Soho House Chicago on July 14; and an After Fest Jazz Jam & Party on July 15th at The Promontory with a “special surprise guest.”
LCD Soundsystem will play Pitchfork on Friday July 14, Tribe on July 15 and Solange closes out the festival on Sunday, July 16. Additional line-up announcements as well as more Saint Heron events will be made in the coming weeks.
Tickets for this year’s Pitchfork festival will now increase to $75 a day and $175 for a three-day pass from the $65/$165 tier when early-bird tickets first went on sale in November.
This year’s event is also offering a VIP tier called “Pitchfork +PLUS” which at $365 for a three-day pass includes access to premium food, specialty bars, deluxe bathrooms, shaded seating areas, cell-phone chargers, storage lockers and come-and-go entry.
DURHAM-“Hamilton” is coming to Durham Performing Arts Center. But we don’t know when, beyond sometime next year.
While dates have not yet been announced, it’s been confirmed that the runaway hit Broadway musical will play DPAC in the fall of 2018 as part of its 2018-19 Broadway season. Season tickets will go on sale in early 2018.
“Hamilton” tells the story of Revolutionary War figure Alexander Hamilton, with a cast of immigrants and a musical score by Lin-Manuel Miranda featuring R&B, hip-hop, jazz and blues. Last June, it won 11 Tony Awards including best musical.
In the wake of all the acclaim, shows at New York’s Richard Rodgers Theatre have been sold out for months on end. New York tickets have been changing hands for hundreds and even thousands of dollars on broker sites.
The best way to ensure getting a ticket for “Hamilton” at DPAC is to buy a season seat membership for the just-announced 2017-18 season. Season members will have first access to “Hamilton” tickets when they renew their membership for the 2018-19 season. For the upcoming season (which includes “Waitress,” “School of Rock” and “The Little
Mermaid”) memberships range from $18.79 a month to $79.25 a month, plus sales tax.The it-musical status of “Hamilton” was cemented in November when Vice President Mike Pence attended a performance shortly after he was elected. “Hamilton” star Brandon Victor Dixon addressed a curtain-call speech to Pence from the stage, pleading for tolerance and inclusion from the incoming presidential administration – prompting Twitter criticism by Donald Trump.
The touring version of “Hamilton” is also coming to Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, as part of its 2017-18 season. Charlotte “Hamilton” dates also haven’t been announced.
*Morehouse is celebrating just one president this President’s Day.
“This year, we are seizing the traditional President’s Day holiday as an opportunity to take a nuanced look at the good, the bad and the complicated moments of the Obama presidency, and the future of his legacy,” reads a flyer for the first ever Barack ObamaDay at the HBCU. “Join us for a powerful day of dialogue, debate, and discourse.”
Michael Eric Dyson is serving as the keynote speaker.
NewsOne is streaming some of today’s events on Facebook Live through 6 p.m.
*Season 10 of TV One’s longest-running and award-winning series “Unsung” continues with a profile on the platinum-selling singing group After 7 TONIGHT (Feb. 15) at 8 p.m. ET.
After 7 is a dynamic singing trio composed of brothers Kevon and Melvin Edmonds, along with friend Keith Mitchell. With the help of their popular brother, R&B singer/songwriter/producer, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, the trio signed with Virgin Records without even an audition. They garnered hits such as “Heat of the Moment,” “Ready or Not,” “Can’t Stop,” and “Baby I’m For Real.”
However, disagreements over the direction of their career led to frustrations with their label, and despite three gold albums, the group broke up at the top of their game – only to pick up where they left off two decades later, with their first studio album in 20 years, “Timeless.”
EUR/Electronic Urban Report chatted with members Kevon and Keith about the group’s legacy, their new music and the After 7 brotherhood. Following Melvin’s departure from the group, his son Jason has been carrying the torch. Check out our Q&A with the guys below.
Talk a bit about the emotions or nostalgia that come with reliving your musical journey for an episode of UNSUNG.
Keith: Well, I think that it is an emotional presentation. I haven’t seen the final version, but it is an emotional journey to have your life, or a piece of your life, chronicled with your friends and family. All the people that have been a part of this, and to have a piece like this put together, it is emotional to a degree because you… the tenure and time in the business has taught us that it’s a privilege to do something that you love, to create something that you really didn’t know that you could do, then it happens and you’re successful at it, and then it touches people. So you get to leave something in the world that touched other people, that has a life to live beyond you and hopefully touch other people in the future. It is emotional. It is nostalgic. It is a story that we felt should be told. It’s not the end of the story so we kinda had some reluctances about doing it because we’re still carving a pathway in our career but at the same time it’s an opportunity for fans and viewers to see and get an up close and personal view of After 7 and the journey that we’ve had.
“Timeless” is your first studio album in 20 years, as you look back, are there any other moments or accomplishments that are as fulfilling releasing this new project?
Kevon: I think our debut album ‘After 7,’ released in 1989, that was a significant moment in our careers to finally, after many years as we had hoped for and aspired to do music, but the opportunity had not present itself until finally, after all that time had passed to have an opportunity presented to us in a way that opened the door that I don’t think would have opened anywhere else had it not been for the fact that my brother Face and L.A. got us signed to a production deal with virgin records, sight unseen. In a way, these things don’t typically commonly happen. For a group to be signed sight unseen — they don’t know what we look like. They don’t know what we sound like, and to get a record deal, and for that matter to go some twenty years later and to come out here and record another record and garner two top ten singles off of that record after being away for twenty years. So there’s a balance in there somewhere. I can’t really explain it other than it feels like these two, they fit. They’re like bookends.
Any challenges putting out this project, given this digital download age we are living, and R&B’s ability to be less commercial?
Keith: Of course there are challenges because we’re all in different places, we’re all doing different things. With the nucleus that you have here, Jason, Kevon and myself, we have been doing the legwork for After 7 for pretty much the last ten years or so. Melvin hadn’t been able to participate but we’re trying to perpetuate our legacy and the music. We didn’t plan on coming back. The opportunity kinda came out of Face preparing to do his project and creating a wealth and a body of music that all didn’t make his record, and so he had a couple of gold nuggets over there that fell on the floor and he got to talking to Kevon and before you know it, the idea came up to do a couple of singles. Melvin wasn’t there so that was the intricate part. We never would even think about recording an album without Melvin’s voice. It makes the sound of After 7, so if you don’t have that you won’t have After 7. So that was the pendulum piece and Face worked that out with Melvin. So there are challenges but it’s something that… we didn’t plan this, it’s kinda happened with the grace of God and pulling forces. We couldn’t have done this on our own. We know we have a fanbase, even though they may be older and they don’t buy records like these young kids do but I think they have starved for our brand of music, for Babyface brand of music, for Tyrese brand of music, Keith Sweat, New Edition… it’s coming back. The issue is, will it be supported by radio.
Talk about the brotherhood that’s formed when you’re a member of an iconic R&B group, especially for you Jason — you’re filling some big shoes. What does the After 7 brotherhood mean to you?
Jason: It’s amazing. To be able to do what you do with family, there’s no other experience I think that you can compare with it. This family is tremendously blessed. I remember Keith saying a little while ago that our parents — meaning my grandmother/Kevon and my father’s mom, and Keith’s mom, they were praying every single day, whether we were or not. So this whole thing is about timing and about God, cause even how After 7, how I’ve understood it, how it came to be was a God sent opportunity and so was the recording of this most recent album. So everything that we’ve done thus far has been about timing and staying prayed up and about being with family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Keith: What we’ve done couldn’t have been done without family. Long story short, it’s family, it’s love and it’s God.
It’s stated in your “Unsung” segment that you can’t talk about R&B music without mentioning After 7, so what does After 7 think about the current R&B landscape?
Keith: We feel like if the fanbase loves R&B, they have an obligation to support R&B music, and that goes with radio as well. I understand dollars and sense, but I also understand that when you saturate a market with 3-4 oldie stations, and they’re all playing oldies and those are the veins that our music can flow through but they only have a limited amount of songs that can play on their playlist, it makes it very difficult for SWV, Keith Sweat, New Edition, Fantasia… all of us are competing for a small amount of air space.
So as you ask that question, we really need you to ask questions in your media platform of the industry which is radio, and beg upon them and the fanbase to support it because it’s only dying because somebody’s not playing it. It ain’t dying because people don’t want it. But the people who buy R&B, typically their lives are so filled right now with just surviving and living day-to-day, they can’t do what they used to do when they were younger. So it becomes the adults who can take a…. if there are four stations playing oldie music in the city, one of those stations somebody should be not so scared to go out on a limb and say, “Ok, we’re going to be the first oldie/new music station in the marketplace.”
That station could play more new R&B music than the old. They can still play the old but what I’m saying is, if you don’t create a lane, if you don’t create the landscape, and we understand we can’t get to the mainstream masses now, but at least open up the lane so that the people who want to hear us can hear us. But if we’re all fighting for the same playlist, we can’t be played enough times at those stations to have enough saturation so we catch enough of our fans in their car at a time so they can hear the music.
Jason: I will say this, you’ve got artists like BJ the Chicago Kid, and the freshman of the R&B class, doing as well a job as they can to keep R&B alive and I tip my hat off to them, like Luke James and Bryson Tiller. They’re some guys who are definitely keeping the flame alive and they’re breaking the barriers of whatever that may be around the R&B lane itself. They are bringing the sound of R&B back. I don’t think R&B really went anywhere, however, these guys are doing a tremendous job at carrying the torch and helping people remember the emotional aspects to what R&B is supposed to bring.
What’s next for After 7?
Kevon: We’re planning to hit the road, we’re real excited about that. We’re thrilled about the fact that we have released yet another single titled ‘Runnin’ Out,’ and it’s doing well. It’s climbing the charts right now and performing well at this point. So we’re excited about what the possibilities are with regards to that single, and God-willing, there may be another single to follow. As a result of that, it gives way to an opportunity to have more work out there on the road and live performances which are what we thoroughly enjoy doing. It’s even nicer when you have music that is relevant and current in radio. So it’s a fulfilling experience for us. It offers us the opportunity to walk in our purpose. I think we’re called to share our gift with everybody who has an appreciation for the kind of music that we do. It hasn’t changed. We stay in our lane — we know what out lane is. We sing about love, life, and relationships and if that’s been missed in radio, we’re back again to welcome you back to what you’ve been missing.
Tune in to After 7 on the next “Unsung” tonight! Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 8 pm ET on TV One.
*OWN announced today that its popular megachurch drama series “Greenleaf” will return for Season 2 on March 15, with the second half of its 16-episode run to air this summer.
The second season will see the Greenleaf family tree split at the root as Jacob (Lamman Rucker) ventures off to begin his new career with long-time rival church Triumph Ministries, breaking faith with his father, Bishop James Greenleaf (Keith David) while his mother, Lady Mae Greenleaf (Lynn Whitfield), struggles with Jacob’s decision to abandon the family.
Meanwhile, after exposing her Uncle Mac’s (GregAlan Williams) crimes, but failing to bring him to justice, Grace “Gigi” Greenleaf (Merle Dandridge) finds herself intrigued with someone new, Darius Nash (guest star Rick Fox), a local journalist who’s been closely following the ongoing threats plaguing the Greenleaf empire.
Oprah Winfrey also returns in her guest starring role as Mavis McCready, the sister of Lady Mae Greenleaf and a close confidante to Grace Greenleaf.
Lovie Simone, who plays Zora Greenleaf, also has been promoted to series regular for Season 2 after recurring in Season 1.
*Director Allison Anders (“Ring of Fire”) is truly a pioneer of the American independent film scene, so it was an honor to sit down with the filmmaker during the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to discuss her remake of director Garry Marshall’s 1988 smash drama “Beaches.” The original movie starred Bette Milder as CC Bloom and Barbara Hershey as Hilary.
Nikole Beckwith penned the script for the remake, which follows two youngsters who meet on the Venice Boardwalk, and embark on a lifelong friendship that’s ripe with challenges. Idina Menzel takes on the role of CC Bloom, an aspiring singer trying to make it in Los Angeles until she is discovered by a director who gives CC her first big shot. Hillary is played by Nia Long, the daughter of a prominent civil rights lawyer who struggles to find her own destiny. Their friendship—even with its ups and downs—sustains them for decades.
“People who love the original will get enriched a little more with this one. In a weird way, that’s kinda how I saw it. Let’s enrich what’s already there,” Anders told EUR/Electronic Urban Report during TCA.
Anders, whose film credits include “Gas Food Lodging,” “Mi Vida Loca” and “Grace of My Heart,” revealed that she hadn’t viewed Marshall’s “Beaches” until last year, which left her “amazed” by how “messy and complicated the friendship was, and enduring like all of our good friendships.”
When asked what she says to folks who believe remakes should only be made of movies that aren’t very good, Anders said, “I don’t think that that’s true because I actually think you can take a great movie and remake it if you’ve got something to enhance with it.”
She continued: “I do think there’s something to updating movies, because this century has been so…and the post mid-century onward has been loaded with so much. For one thing you get diversity. Which is how we all live — look at us right here in this room, so, let’s update that. Let’s give the black girl a complicated, messy life. Let her be the rich girl and have to deal with that. Challenge this stuff. Let the white girl be poor and have the crazy mother. Let’s change it up a bit. That’s how I grew up, (laughs)…the white girl with the crazy mother.
Check out the rest of our Q&A with Allison Anders below.
Describe your approach to recreating this classic for a new generation, and why did you want to take on this project?
AA: Well, when I was approached about it, and I read Nikole’s script, and I saw the original cause I hadn’t seen the original before, and (it) really moved me. Then Nikole’s script was so interesting because while Garry’s film is a classic and it works so brilliantly, and of course the actors are so beautiful and I stole things from him all over the place, but Nikole’s script is kind of…I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I felt like I was inside the female characters in a way that maybe Garry could not be.
Maybe it wasn’t because of his gender. Maybe because it was 1988 and there was just a way that we could be a little bit more raw with it while keeping it everything that he had there. So I feel like that was interesting to me, to keep what’s riveting about his version of ‘Beaches’ and then let’s push a little further. Let’s just hit an edge with it in a way that we can do now. And we can do it for a variety of reasons. We can do it because of how the world’s changed. We can do it with having an African-American as Hillary, which I loved, and the idea that we never explained why she’s wealthy. I love that.
Did you have Nia an Idina in mind for these roles? You wanted an interracial friendship?
AA: Lifetime was committed to that from the start. So when I came on they said this is what we’re going to do. They already had Idina attached and they hadn’t cast Hillary yet, and those two girls know each other and had a friendly relationship. They didn’t know each other real well but they had a warmth with each other, and I had worked with Nia before. I had already directed her before and we had a good time.
Could you talk a little bit about your approach to working with Nia and Idina.
AA: It was amazing because I tend to do a bit of improve. I like that because that’s the way I started out. I started out in the 80’s with very new actors, or sometimes people who hadn’t acted before, and I inevitably cast musicians who have not acted before, or gang members. So I always have to be open to like…you can’t force words that don’t work. I’m always open to playing with that on set. Having said that, I always have to keep an open mind about where it’s going to go later so this improve doesn’t bite me on the ass later in editing. I have to be careful with that. With these two girls, they just had such a grasp of these characters that they knew when they could make a change — and sometimes it was taking dialogue out. They had the room to be able to try something else than what was on the page, and then maybe we came back to what was already on the page.
Can you talk about the visuals? What kinda mood or story did you want to tell with the color palette of the film?
AA: Having the DP in sync with the production designer and the costume designer…everyone was sort of empowered to be storytellers. One thing I’ve learned is that when that happens, I learned this on ‘Murder in the First,’ a show that I did three seasons of, and it’s just like, every department regards themselves as a storyteller, and it made the storytelling better. So that happened on this, where it’s like, let’s all be empowered to tell the story, and that we’re all telling the same story together. Another thing with the visual style was that, what I loved with the DP John Brawley’s work is that he had this ability to capture characters very close against a really intense landscape. I really felt that I needed that for the beach and just different things, or how he composed his characters together. So we worked a lot on that stuff
Are there certain qualities in women that you enjoy exploring through your work?
AA: Absolutely. And there’s things that I wish I did more, which I’m just kinda hearing from my students. Like, one student right now said she wants to write about phobias. And another male student said he wanted to write about anxiety. I was like, see… I don’t put enough of this sh*t in my work. So I’m not like, stealing it, but….
You’re getting inspired.
AA: I’m getting inspired, yes. So I think in ‘Beaches,’ in the original, it’s so shocking when the transgression happens. When Hillary walks off with the guy that CC’s interested in. It was shocking to me watching last year for the first time. I think that things like that are great, cause the friendship endures. Now, maybe it won’t endure but when you see people f*ck each other over in this kind of selfish, clueless way, I think it’s real fascinating. I don’t think we see people making stupid mistakes enough, especially women. I think we’re afraid of saying we’re stupid to do these things. But we tell each other that. We go, ‘Why can’t you see that this is not the love for you?’ Or just, ‘Stop already.’
Speaking of being a teacher, many aspiring filmmakers and creators wonder if film school is even necessary in this digital upload/download age we live in now.
AA: I was just telling my writing students…I was having this conversation with both, I teach a history of American Independence and I’m teaching an autobiographic screening writing class, So I told them yesterday that I think it’s really important to get theory. I teach at a school where some of the greatest, I teach at UC Santa Barbara, and some of the greatest film theorists in the world are my colleagues. For me, theory taught me how to create meaning with the tools of cinema. So I said, not to knock anybody else, but I remember doing an interview in the late 90’s, somebody says, ‘Such and such director said you just get a Hi8 camera and just go make it.’ I was like, well, where do you get the theory if you don’t go to film school? You’re not going to get that in your manual for the camera. That’s what creates meaning and I find that that texture is important.
Lastly, you are a true indie film pioneer. What’s your strategy to surviving in Hollywood?
AA: TV… (laughs) The problem is, these movies have become so difficult to make, but you’re not always wanting to…not eveything’s a series. So it’s been hard to write stuff and it’s tough to get a series made. It’s really tough. I’ve developed two different series with AMC. It gets so far and then it doesn’t happen, and it’s for reasons that are so beyond your control. Whereas in movies, you can kind of negotiate in a way that you can’t with TV cause TV has it’s own things they have to answer to. But not everything’s a series. I’m writing a movie now. I hope I get to make it. It’s a love story, so we’ll see. It’s hard, but thank God that there’s TV to work, and there’s really good TV work now. I did a show called ‘Riverdale’ up in Vancouver that’s really fascinating cause it’s Archie’s comic characters in this sort of Twin Peaks world, and that was something that didn’t originate with me. I got the script and was booked and there I went.
At the time of this interview, we asked Allison Anders if Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler had seen her “Beaches” remake, to which she replied, “I don’t know, but I know Bette was very supportive. She had tweeted that she was very happy that Idina was doing CC.”
Did you catch the “Beaches” remake? Was it everything you hoped it would be? Sound off in the comments below.
If you missed Lifetime’s “Beaches” premiere Saturday night, catch the encore TONIGHT (01-22-17) at 8/7c.
*Disney has officially announced its Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie for the live-action “Aladdin” remake.
experience strange and horrific phenomena as they attempt to uncover what killed the previous team.
*Solange Knowles, A Tribe Called Quest and LCD Soundsystem will headline this summer’s 12th annual Pitchfork Music Festival July 14-16 at Chicago’s Union Park, reports 
Director Allison Anders (“Ring of Fire”) is truly a pioneer of the American independent film scene, so it was an honor to sit down with the filmmaker during the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour to discuss her remake of director Garry Marshall’s 1988 smash drama “Beaches.” The original movie starred Bette Milder as CC Bloom and Barbara Hershey as Hilary.
