Premiering tonight on ESPN is One Night in Vegas.  It is part of ESPN's 30 for 30 film series.  This particular episode will take you back to the notorious night of September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas when Mike Tyson fought Bruce Seldon for the WBC heavyweight championship.  And this is also the night hip-hip and the African American community lost one of storytellers, poet, actor, and revolutionaries: Tupac Shakur.  

Director Reggie Rock Bythewood will go into the friendship Mike Tyson and Tupac shared with each other while rising to be stars from poverty.  This documentary will include commentary from friends, associates, and onlookers from that evening including Maya Angelou and Michael Eric Dyson.

Beyond Scared Straight on A & E

From The Hollywood Reporter website.....

A&E has ordered a sequel to the hugely influential and Oscar-winning 1978 documentary "Scared Straight!"

Teaming with the documentary's original producer, Arnold Shapiro, the cable network has ordered four one-hour specials of "Beyond Scared Straight!" that will chronicle modern confrontational approaches to juvenile crime prevention.

The original version of "Scared Straight!" showed a then-radical inmate-led intervention program for young offenders at a New Jersey prison. Teens ages 12-18 were subjected to a brutal reality check from hardcore prisoners about what it's like to spend time behind bars.

The resulting documentary won an Academy Award for best documentary feature and, after airing on TV, won two Emmys in documentary categories. The film spawned similar programs across and the country, was shown in school classrooms for years afterward and was even spoofed on NBC's "The Office."

For a generation, "Scared Straight!" was the first glimpse of "reality TV."

"Beyond Scared Straight!" will once again show young offender intervention programs, only these have evolved since "scaring teens is no longer as easy of a task." Each of the four episodes will focus on a different prison program, following a group of at-risk teens and preteens going through the program and then catching up with them two months later.

JOYFUL NOISE

Synopsis:  After a Gospel choir in a small town is threatened to be shut down due to budget cuts, an unlikely duo (Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah) team up to try and save it.  The hip-hop superstar and country icon start out as rivals in this musically-driven film.  Latifah plays a mother who replaces the choir's director after his death.  Parton plays the widow of the director who also wants to be the leader of the choir.

Release Date:  The release date is unknown.  The movie is now in pre-production.

Will there be a Friday 4?

Ice Cube has been actively campaigning to make his 4th installment of the Friday movie series.  And he's made it known that he wants the original star of the movie, Chris Tucker, to reprise his role.  Cube has stated he already has the concept for the movie.  He just needs to get Tucker on board along with the film studio New Line Cinema to get the financing.

After the first Friday, Chris Tucker made the decision not to return for the sequels after becoming a born again Christian.  However, Tucker found huge success starring in the popular Rush Hour movies with Jackie Chan.

So will there be a Friday 4?  We'll see...

Just Me:  I would love to see Chris Tucker return to this sequel.  Quite frankly I'm not sure it should be made if he doesn't.  The first Friday was a true comedy classic.  No one can deny that.  It's one of the few movies starring an all African-American cast that penetrated pop culture.  Everyone saw it!  Whites, Blacks, Asians, old people, toddlers...everybody.  I remember people talking about and quoting this movie up to a year after it came out.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

a.k.a. THE FACEBOOK MOVIE

Tagline:  You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies

Synopsis:  On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.

The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg) and Justin Timberlake.  It was written by Aaron Sorkin and adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal.  None of the Facebook staff, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, will be involved with the project.

Back in June news hit the media airwaves about Angelina Jolie being cast as the last Egyptian Queen Cleopatra in a film based on Stacy Schiff's book Cleopatra: A Life.  And get this, the book isn't even out yet.  Even though the book isn't due out until this coming fall, producer Scott Rudin has already bought the rights to the film stating this film is being developed for Angelina Jolie.    Author Schiff has hinted to Brad Pitt playing Roman general Marc Anthony mimicking 1963's Cleopatra starring then couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Is is the Black Mr. & Mrs. Smith?

Boris Kodjoe is starring alongside Gugu Mbatha-Raw in a new NBC one-hour spy series titled Undercovers.  Kodjoe and Mbatha-Raw play two married retired spies who run a catering business.  While they're in the midst of their regular lives, the government comes calling the two sexy spies back to rejoin the CIA.  The show is filled with sexpionage, explosives, and martial arts.  In Entertainment Weekly Kodjoe says, "It's like WWE/Top Chef.  We're creating our own genre." 

Tagline:  more.sexpionage.
With day jobs and lives in the balance, date night is about to get a lot more exciting.

Season Premiere:  September 22, 2010

FELA! is a new broadway musical produced by a power-house trio:  Jay-Z and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.  This critically-acclaimed musical tells the true story of the life of Nigerian revolutionary and Afro-pop star Fela Anikulapo Kuti.  And this story is an inspiring one.  Drawing inspiration from his mother who was a civil rights champion, Fela defied a corrupt and oppressive military government and devoted his life and music to the struggle for freedom and human dignity.  FELA! has been described as a triumphant tale of courage, passion and love.  This show features Fela Kuti’s captivating music and some of the most mind-blowing dancing on Broadway.

If you would like to learn more about Fela Kuti, visit http://www.africanmusic.org/artists/felakuti.html

Venue
The Eugene O'Neill Theatre
230 West 49th Street
New York, New York 10019
212-239-6200 |  Outside New York: (800) 432-7250

Performance Schedule & Tickets
This musical is currently running from now until January 2, 2011.  The ticket prices ranges from $60-$120.  Click here for more details.

Fun Fact:  FELA! won three Tony Awards for Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound Design.

Oscar-nominated Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, Crash) will be among the cast of the new NBC drama Law and Order: Los Angeles.  The season is scheduled to premiere this coming fall.  He will be playing the deputy district attorney splitting time with the other district attorney, Alfred Molina. 

Other cast members include Skeet Ulrich (Scream) and Corey Stoll who are playing a detectives, and Regina Hall (Scary Movie, Death at a Funeral) who will be residing as the assistant district attorney. 

This show comes just in time following the cancellation of the original Law and Order series after a 20 year run.  This Dick Wolf created series will be premiering September 29, 2010.

Tagline:  Welcome to Los Angeles. They say this is the place where anyone with the right attorney can get away with murder. We say this is the place that needs some Law & Order.

BOOM KACK!!!!!

Yes, it's yet another dance show on TV.  I know what you're thinking.  With Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and ABDC -- do we really need another one?  But this might be a little different.  The Hollywood Reporter has revealed E! and Ryan Seacrest are teaming up with Making the Band's choreographer Laurie Ann Gibson for a television series about choreographers and dancers in Los Angeles.

Just Me:  I'm not a fan of most of the current dance reality shows but I think this one could be good.  With Ryan Seacrest productions behind this project, it could be a little too cookie-cutter.  But Ms. Laurie Ann is going to add that edge to it.  I just hope they do away with the studio audience for this show.  I would like to see them really tell the personal stories of the dancers and see them from when they wake up in the morning, go to rehearsals, and innovate new dance routines.  What do you think about this show?

On Monday night, Variety announced that the sexy songstress Rihanna is stepping out from under her umbrella to star in her first feature film. She is scheduled to star in Universal’s Battleship, which is inspired by the classic Hasbro game of the same name.

Synopsis:  A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals.

Also starring in the film are Alexander Skarsgard and Taylor Kitch.  Kitch will play a Naval officer who leads the battle, while Skarsgard has been cast as his brother.  The story will be told from both perspectives of the battle; the humans and the aliens.  The battle will take place on land, in the water, and in the air.

Scheduled Release Date:  May 25, 2012

The Sicilian Girl (La siciliana ribelle)

Tagline:  What would drive a seventeen-years-old girl to betray her family? And if that family was the mafia?

Synopsis:  Inspired to a true story, on November 5th 1991, Rita Atria a young 17-year-old Sicilian girl, goes to see an anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino to denounce the Mafia system that was responsible for the murder of her father and her brother. It is the first time that such a young woman from a Mafia family rebels and betrays the Mafia. From that moment on, Rita's days are numbered.

Just Me:  I love mafia movies so this one is definitely on my list of a must-see.  I'm also intrigued by how young the girl is and that this is based on a true story.  Unfortunately, this movie is in limited release.  So unless you live in a big city or have a great theater in your city that shows independent and limited released films, you might have to wait until this is on DVD.

Release Date:  August 4, 2010

Middle Men

Tagline:  Money. Sex. Murder. Greed. Corruption.

Can you imagine living in a world where NO ONE told a lie? 

Well that is the world that screenwriter Mark Bellison lived in played by Ricky Gervais.  This movie starts out with the main character Mark Bellison being excited about going out on a date with Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), a beautiful woman who he's had a crush on for a long time.  They are not too far along in the date when Anna lets Mark know he doesn't stand a chance of being with her.  She lets him know he's fat, doesn't have enough money, is not successful enough, and with no doubt she's out of his league.  As harsh as that sounds, Mark's situation gets worse.  He wakes up the very next morning going into a job he's worked for years knowing along with his co-workers that he will be getting fired.  To top it all off Mark's rent is due and he could get evicted from his apartment while at the same time dealing with his sick, elderly mother.

My Side of The Blind Side

I took a look at the Oscar-winning film, The Blind Side, yesterday.  And I see why so many people love it.  It was one of those family-oriented, heartfelt films that anyone of all ages can enjoy.  It had that basic formula that all the sports films have about down-and-out athletes who want to make it.  You know that formula...

• People around them don’t think they have the talent to make it
• They have the talent but no one has given them a chance
•  In the end they beat the odds and surprise everyone
  

Pretty standard.

The movie is the story of the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive left tackle, Micheal Oher.  As a child in Memphis, Tennessee he grew up in the projects as the son of a drug-addicted mother and had little to no care being shuffled around from one foster home to another while also spending some time homeless on the streets.  This would all change for him one day due to an older guy in Oher’s neighborhood, ‘Big Tony’ Hamilton, who let him sleep on the couch occasionally.  In the movie 'Big Tony' convinces the football coach of a private school to admit Michael Oher in along with his own son.  And so the story began...

Back in March of 2009 it was announced that there would be a film biopic about the 'World's Most Dangerous Group", N.W.A.  The film will be produced by Ice Cube (Cube Vision), Dr. Dre, and Eazy E's widow Tomica Woods.  The film is still considered to be in development.  No news is available about just who will play the illicit, electrifying rappers from Compton, California.  But a writer for this biopic has been chosen...

Screenwriter Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center) has reportedly been hired to pen the film.  Oh and did I mention she's white.  Yes white.  Now me...I could care less.  I feel like the producers should hire whoever they think is best for the job.  And Cube has a track record  that's more than decent when it comes to producing film and television.  So I'm not worried.  But some people don't understand why a white women would be hired to write the story of this rap entourage that practically put west coast music on the map forever.

About N.W.A.