Famed Comedy Outfit The Second City Acquired By Strauss Zelnick-Run Private Equity Firm ZMC

Editor’s Note: Brian Tee has become a notable face of Asian Hollywood, providing representation to a community that has been wildly been underrepresented and, on more than one occasion, misrepresented. He has appeared in big banner films such as The Wolverine, Jurassic World, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards are being announced today in London via a livestream [above] that begins at 14:00 GMT/6:00AM PST.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 14-20:March 14: Actor Michael Caine is 88. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 88. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 76.

EXCLUSIVE: The New York DMA exploded last night at the box office with NYC theaters returning after a 50 1/2 week pandemic closure with an estimated gross of $307K, +614% from last Friday according to B.O. sources. I’m also told that the NY DMA was easily the No. 1 market in the country last night, followed by Salt Lake City, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Houston, Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit and Montreal.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe upcoming NBC drama series “La Brea” has added four new castmembers.Eoin Macken, Jack Martin, Jon Seda, and Lily Santiago have all joined the series. They join previously announced cast members Natalie Zea, Zyra Gorecki and Chiké Okonkwo.In the show, when a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother and son from father and daughter.

The Night Shift star Eoin Macken has been tapped as the male lead opposite Natalie Zea in NBC’s drama pilot La Brea. Another NBC series star, Chicago P.D.‘s Jon Seda, is one of two actors, originally cast in the project a year ago and released in June, who have been brought back to reprise their role, along with Chiké Okonkwo.

In July, The Second City was facing an existential crisis. Its namesake improv theaters in Toronto, Los Angeles and Chicago had shuttered amid the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively eliminating all revenue overnight.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorDavid Fincher’s “Mank” takes audiences back into 1930s Hollywood, a black and white world where the screenplay for “Citizen Kane” comes together. In Disney’s “Mulan,” audiences are transported to the Imperial City for the live-action heroine tale based on Chinese folklore.

In director Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah, Dominique Fishback plays Deborah Johnson, the fiancee of Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) and mother to his son, who was born just weeks after the activist was assassinated in Chicago in 1969 at age 21.

The Toronto Raptors had to postpone its National Basketball Assn. Sunday night game against the Chicago Bulls because it couldn’t field the league’s requirement of suiting up eight players.

Ron Kaplan, the veteran music agent who recently joined ICM Partners’ music department, was struck years ago by how remote philanthropy sometimes can feel from its impact on individuals. Kaplan ran his family’s foundation and the work mainly involved writing checks of donations at the end of each year.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe British playwright, director and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah has signed with CAA and Redefine Entertainment.He currently serves as the artistic director for the Young Vic in London and was previously artistic director of Baltimore Center Stage.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentIf anyone wondered what escapist entertainment might look like in a world where no one can escape, the Golden Globes comedy/musical film and television nominations for 2020 — aka The Year Formerly Known as Normal — provide a handy showcase of examples of the phenomenon.If the drama side of the Golden Globes is all about empowerment (“Nomadland”), outrage (“Promising Young Woman”) and social justice (“The Trial of Chicago 7”), the lighter side is all about

EXCLUSIVE: In a hot under-the-radar package, we can reveal that Oscar-winner Mark Rylance (The Trial Of The Chicago 7), Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien, Set It Up star Zoey Deutch and The Dig actor Johnny Flynn are set to star in Oscar-winning writer Graham Moore’s (The Imitation Game) directorial debut The Outfit.

The Casting Society of America has made its final callbacks for 2020, unveiling the film nominees for its 36th annual Artios Awards. The winners will be announced during the virtual ceremony April 15.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla The “Power” universe is expanding for the Starz franchise’s third spinoff “Power Book IV: Force,” with eight series regulars now joining lead Joseph Sikora.Cast members announced for the spinoff include Isaac Keys (“Get Shorty”), Lili Simmons (“Ray Donovan”), Gabrielle Ryan (“The Have and Have Nots”), Shane Harper (“Hightown,” “A Teacher,”) Kris D.

The Second City, the Chicago-based improv and sketch comedy brand that spawned Hollywood talent like Tina Fey, John Belushi, Bill Murray and Keegan-Michael Key, has been acquired by Strauss Zelnick's private equity firm, ZMC. "We are very excited to partner with management and the incredible talent at The Second City to grow the brand and build a diverse organization that elevates all voices.

Starz has set its main cast for Power Book IV: Force, the third installment in the Power universe. Lili Simmons (Banshee, Ray Donovan), Gabrielle Ryan (The Haves and the Have Nots, Bonding), Isaac Keys (Get Shorty, The Oath), Hightown alum Shane Harper, Kris D. Lofton (Ballers, Empire), Anthony Flemming III (Prison Break, The Beast), Lucien Cambric (Chicago P.D., The Chi) and Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.