Ready to bring the laughs, former Saturday Night Live star Jay Pharoah steps into a new role as the host of Fox’s game show The Quiz With Balls. Premiering May 28, the show pits two families against each other in a series of trivia challenges and physical feats, vying for a $100,000 prize. One twist? Giant balls are involved, and incorrect answers could land contestants in a pool. As Pharoah put it, The concept of ‘Wipeout’ crossed with ‘Family Feud’ is a beautiful mix together. Some of you can’t swim, but it’s fine! We’ve got a lifeguard out there just...
- 5/30/2024
- by Steve Delikson
- TVovermind.com
One of many Friedemann Friese games to begin with the letter “F” is 2020’s lesser-known Faiyum – a game that centres on the titular region of Faiyum. This region lies adjacent to the Bahr Yussef channel and according to Faiyum was an uninhabited swampland 4,000 years ago. Over several decades and under the instruction of successive Pharaohs, the people of Egypt toiled to reclaim the land and develop a controlled flood plain – which anyone with even a passing interest in ancient Egypt will now know as the key driver for their economic success and powerful empire.
With this kind of fact-based historical setting, my interest is already piqued, but I’ve struggled with most of Friedemann Friese’s games in the past. I really do enjoy Power Grid: Recharged, but I’ve struggled with others like Futuropia. I was concerned going into Faiyum that being an “F” game, it might be more...
With this kind of fact-based historical setting, my interest is already piqued, but I’ve struggled with most of Friedemann Friese’s games in the past. I really do enjoy Power Grid: Recharged, but I’ve struggled with others like Futuropia. I was concerned going into Faiyum that being an “F” game, it might be more...
- 5/29/2024
- by Matthew Smail
- Nerdly
Exclusive: Soapstone Comedy Presents, a VR comedy series from Meta and The Soapstone Comedy Club, is set to premiere Thursday, May 16 in Meta Horizon Worlds.
The series will include six immersive comedy shows debuting monthly through October at The Soapstone Comedy Club in Hanalei Bay. The full season line-up of comedian headliners who come to life as avatars kicks off with Jay Pharoah on May 16, followed by Pete Holmes on June 13, Natasha Leggero on July 11, Ron Funches on August 8, Jesus Trejo on September 5, and closes out with Cristela Alonzo on October 3. You can watch a trailer below.
“VR being introduced to the comedy world is a massive move — now the introverts can get in on the action and if you can’t get out for a night, you just pop your headset on, while your kids are destroying your house,” said Pharoah. “Really though, it’s a magnanimous leap for technology.
The series will include six immersive comedy shows debuting monthly through October at The Soapstone Comedy Club in Hanalei Bay. The full season line-up of comedian headliners who come to life as avatars kicks off with Jay Pharoah on May 16, followed by Pete Holmes on June 13, Natasha Leggero on July 11, Ron Funches on August 8, Jesus Trejo on September 5, and closes out with Cristela Alonzo on October 3. You can watch a trailer below.
“VR being introduced to the comedy world is a massive move — now the introverts can get in on the action and if you can’t get out for a night, you just pop your headset on, while your kids are destroying your house,” said Pharoah. “Really though, it’s a magnanimous leap for technology.
- 5/2/2024
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix’s Good Times reboot has drawn ire from audiences and national organizations such as the NAACP for its perceived stereotypical depictions of African Americans since its trailer was first released on March 27. That same day, a Change.org petition, which has gathered some 5,000 signatures, was launched calling on viewers to boycott the new show which “promotes violence, culture destruction of the Black community and alcohol abuse,” the creator of the petition wrote.
Showrunner Ranada Shepard understands the knee-jerk reaction.
“You haven’t seen J.B. [Smoove] and Yvette [Nicole Brown] and Marsai [Martin] and Jay Pharoah and Slink Johnson on couches all across America, which typically happens when you’re rolling out a show. There was no framing that the audience had, it was just: Watch this and form an opinion. And, they watched and they formed an opinion,” Shepard tells THR in the conversation below.
Shepard took over from...
Showrunner Ranada Shepard understands the knee-jerk reaction.
“You haven’t seen J.B. [Smoove] and Yvette [Nicole Brown] and Marsai [Martin] and Jay Pharoah and Slink Johnson on couches all across America, which typically happens when you’re rolling out a show. There was no framing that the audience had, it was just: Watch this and form an opinion. And, they watched and they formed an opinion,” Shepard tells THR in the conversation below.
Shepard took over from...
- 4/25/2024
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This isn’t the Good Times of your childhood.
Yvette Nicole Brown, who voices the character of Beverly Evans in the new animated version of Good Times for Netflix, promises it will be an “edgier, more irreverent” reboot of Norman Lear‘s groundbreaking TV sitcom.
After one of Brown’s followers wrote on X Wednesday that “I’m surprised you attached yourself to this project. Looks nothing like the show we grew up on,” Brown responded with a promise that the reboot will offer as much, if not more, than the original.
“This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times of our childhood but it’s still a show about family, fighting the system and working to make things better despite where you start out in the world,” Brown wrote. “That 100% lines up with my values.”
This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times...
Yvette Nicole Brown, who voices the character of Beverly Evans in the new animated version of Good Times for Netflix, promises it will be an “edgier, more irreverent” reboot of Norman Lear‘s groundbreaking TV sitcom.
After one of Brown’s followers wrote on X Wednesday that “I’m surprised you attached yourself to this project. Looks nothing like the show we grew up on,” Brown responded with a promise that the reboot will offer as much, if not more, than the original.
“This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times of our childhood but it’s still a show about family, fighting the system and working to make things better despite where you start out in the world,” Brown wrote. “That 100% lines up with my values.”
This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times...
- 3/27/2024
- by Lynette Rice
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has slotted Friday, April 12 for the premiere of Good Times, the animated series reboot of the late Norman Lear’s groundbreaking TV sitcom. We’re also getting a first look in the trailer above.
J.B. Smoove (Reggie Evans) and Yvette Nicole Brown (Beverly Evans) star along with Jay Pharoah (Junior Evans), Marsai Martin (Grey Evans), Gerald “Slink” Johnson (Dalvin Evans) and Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola (Lashes by Lisa)
Per the logline, the animated Good Times series finds the latest generation of the Evans family, cab driver Reggie (Smoove) and his wife, the ever-aspirational Beverly (Brown), scratching and surviving in one of the last remaining housing projects in Chicago along with their teenage artist son, Junior (Pharoah), activist daughter Grey (Martin), and drug dealing infant son, Dalvin (Johnson). It turns out the more things change the more they stay the same and keeping your head above water in a system with...
J.B. Smoove (Reggie Evans) and Yvette Nicole Brown (Beverly Evans) star along with Jay Pharoah (Junior Evans), Marsai Martin (Grey Evans), Gerald “Slink” Johnson (Dalvin Evans) and Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola (Lashes by Lisa)
Per the logline, the animated Good Times series finds the latest generation of the Evans family, cab driver Reggie (Smoove) and his wife, the ever-aspirational Beverly (Brown), scratching and surviving in one of the last remaining housing projects in Chicago along with their teenage artist son, Junior (Pharoah), activist daughter Grey (Martin), and drug dealing infant son, Dalvin (Johnson). It turns out the more things change the more they stay the same and keeping your head above water in a system with...
- 3/27/2024
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
"The Blackening" is finally changing the narrative for Black characters in the horror space - and it's about damn time.
The Tim Story-directed horror-comedy mashup, cowritten by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, reunites a group of friends - portrayed by Perkins, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji - for a Juneteenth cabin trip gone horribly (and gorily) wrong, as they all find themselves trapped playing a deadly game with a deranged killer on the loose. While the scenario may sound familiar, it's unlike anything audiences - especially Black audiences - have ever seen before.
With its comedic moments, satirical elements, and hero-esque endgame, "The Blackening" is rare compared to traditional horror stories where Black characters don't get to control their own fate, much less survive until the end of a movie. So the cast consider it an honor...
The Tim Story-directed horror-comedy mashup, cowritten by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, reunites a group of friends - portrayed by Perkins, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji - for a Juneteenth cabin trip gone horribly (and gorily) wrong, as they all find themselves trapped playing a deadly game with a deranged killer on the loose. While the scenario may sound familiar, it's unlike anything audiences - especially Black audiences - have ever seen before.
With its comedic moments, satirical elements, and hero-esque endgame, "The Blackening" is rare compared to traditional horror stories where Black characters don't get to control their own fate, much less survive until the end of a movie. So the cast consider it an honor...
- 6/16/2023
- by Njera Perkins
- Popsugar.com
One of the year’s most infectious horror comedies, The Blackening, arrives in theaters this Friday, June 16, 2023.
The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game.
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins (“The Amber Ruffin Show,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sarcastic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
The Blackening stars Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah.
Melvin Gregg as King, Grace Byers as Allison, Antoinette Robertson as Lisa, Sinqua Walls as Nnamdi,...
The Blackening centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain’t no motherf****** game.
Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Barbershop) and co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem) and Dewayne Perkins (“The Amber Ruffin Show,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), The Blackening skewers genre tropes and poses the sarcastic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
The Blackening stars Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Yvonne Orji, and Jay Pharoah.
Melvin Gregg as King, Grace Byers as Allison, Antoinette Robertson as Lisa, Sinqua Walls as Nnamdi,...
- 6/14/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So we’re going to do the hard work for you.
We’re off to sunny Spain this week to unwrap the story of Mummies — Warner Bros Pictures’ animated hit that combines ancient Egyptian tropes with classic family comedy. Now the second biggest Spanish animation ever, worldwide box office takings are over $50M and growing, and talks of a sequel are emerging.
Name: Mummies
Country: Spain
Producer: 4 Cats Pictures, Warner Bros Spain
For fans of: Tad: The Lost Explorer, Capture the Flag, The Mummy, family animation
Worldwide distribution: Warner Bros Pictures
The...
We’re off to sunny Spain this week to unwrap the story of Mummies — Warner Bros Pictures’ animated hit that combines ancient Egyptian tropes with classic family comedy. Now the second biggest Spanish animation ever, worldwide box office takings are over $50M and growing, and talks of a sequel are emerging.
Name: Mummies
Country: Spain
Producer: 4 Cats Pictures, Warner Bros Spain
For fans of: Tad: The Lost Explorer, Capture the Flag, The Mummy, family animation
Worldwide distribution: Warner Bros Pictures
The...
- 4/19/2023
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
The film year of 2022 pretty much ended with a “music biopic”, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (at least I’m making it the “year’s end” as it was the last advance screening I attended). It did fairly well at the box office but didn’t come close to the critical and award accolades of Bohemian Rhapsody or Judy. But that’s not going to halt Hollywood from “mining” this material, and so we’re getting a tune-filled “true” tale at the end of 2023’s first quarter. Oh, but this has a twist in that it doesn’t center around a beloved performer. No, this concerns the head of a record company. Yeah kids, in those ancient days before streaming and downloading, people went to brick-and-mortar stores and bought discs produced by these companies Aka recording labels. And one of the biggest of them in the mid-...
- 3/31/2023
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Exclusive: Keir Gilchrist (Atypical) and Lucy Hale (The Hating Game) will topline Daniel André’s debut feature, Mort in Sherman Oaks—an offbeat romance that will also star Francesca Eastwood (Old), Jim Gaffigan (Linoleum), Jay Pharoah (SNL), Rhys Coiro (Paradise City) and more.
The film written by André is about a down-and-out mortician living in near-future Los Angeles, where individuals can receive their Ldc (life day count) by using a specific scientific method. When Mort (Gilchrist) finds out he has less than a year to live, his fiancé Nicole (Eastwood) leaves him and he’s forced to accept his fate. Mort joins a dating service that matches people by their death dates and meets Kate (Hale), all while being stalked by a deranged pimp named Simon (Coiro).
Monica Potter (Goliath), Clara McGregor (The Birthday Cake), Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek), Leslie Stratton (Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman), Dylan Flashner (The Card Counter...
The film written by André is about a down-and-out mortician living in near-future Los Angeles, where individuals can receive their Ldc (life day count) by using a specific scientific method. When Mort (Gilchrist) finds out he has less than a year to live, his fiancé Nicole (Eastwood) leaves him and he’s forced to accept his fate. Mort joins a dating service that matches people by their death dates and meets Kate (Hale), all while being stalked by a deranged pimp named Simon (Coiro).
Monica Potter (Goliath), Clara McGregor (The Birthday Cake), Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek), Leslie Stratton (Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman), Dylan Flashner (The Card Counter...
- 6/16/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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