EURweb |
FILM/TV BITS: Phifer, LL in ‘Slow Burn’; Diddy dances to MTV; Singleton backs Brewer’s ‘Maggie’; Freeman gets ‘Gone.’
*Mekhi Phifer, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in the upcoming suspense thriller “Slow Burn.” The film's multicultural perspective on modern-day urban politics centers on an ambitious district attorney (Ray Liotta) who finds himself in a bad situation when his assistant district attorney (Jolene Blalock) confesses to killing a man in self-defense. Her story is contradicted by a stranger named Luther Pinks (LL Cool J) and becomes further complicated by record store clerk (Phifer) and a gang lord. Lionsgate has picked up North American and U.K. distribution rights to the project, written and directed by Wayne Beach.
*Sean “Diddy” Combs is executive producing a new reality series for MTV set in the world of competitive street-dancing. The as-yet-untitled show, Diddy says in a statement, “will showcase the drive, determination and expression of this dance generation -- picture 'Rocky' but with dance troupes." The news comes days after MTV announced it was airing the dance-themed series “Moves” from Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. Her show, premiering in the fourth quarter, follows six dancers as they work to achieve their dreams of making it in the business.
*Executive producers John Singleton and Stephanie Allain will re-team with their "Hustle & Flow" director Craig Brewer for Paramount’s “Maggie Lynn,” a country-music drama that Brewer will write and direct, reports Variety. The film follows a woman who gets her heart broken and achieves a sense of self-worth by returning home to Tennessee, where she teams with her older brother to play country music in honkytonks. After addressing rap in “Hustle & Flow” and the blues in his upcoming "Black Snake Moan," Brewer was interested in tackling blue-collar country & western and wanted to make a film in the spirit of "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Urban Cowboy."
*Morgan Freeman has taken a starring role in “Gone, Baby, Gone,” which director Ben Affleck began shooting in his hometown of Boston this week. Freeman, an Oscar winner for “Million Dollar Baby,” joins Ben's brother Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan and Ed Harris in the Miramax film about two Boston private eyes who investigate the case of a missing child in a neighborhood of broken families, bitter cops and crazy ex-cons, reports the Boston Herald. The feature is based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name and was adapted by Affleck.
.jpg)
