John David Washington Talks Creating His Own Identity, Switching From Pro Football To Acting & Theatrical/Streaming Ahead Of ‘Beckett’ Premiere

Disney Branded Television has put into development From The Desk Of Zoe Washington, an original movie based on Janae Marks’ critically acclaimed book, executive produced by Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street Productions, and Gamechanger Films. The announcement was made Wednesday at Disney’s virtual TCA session.

Based on the novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, HBO’s Perry Mason tells the origin story of the titular famed defense lawyer, played by Matthew Rhys, in 1932 Los Angeles. To emulate that period of time, cinematographer David Franco referenced early color photography for the tools needed to shoot the series.

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(Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you have not seen “Respect.”)Did Dinah Washington really lose it when she attended one of Aretha Franklin’s shows and heard Franklin sing one of Washington’s songs — as depicted in the new movie “Respect”? Not quite — but it did happen at someone else’s show.

Audiences are about to see Michael B. Jordan in a way they’ve never seen him before.

You’ve seen Michael B. Jordan fight Black Panther.

Jordan Moreau Michael B. Jordan stars in the first trailer for the appropriately titled romantic drama “A Journal for Jordan,” directed by Denzel Washington.The film is based on the memoir “A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dana Canedy.

No matter who you believe, whether it’s the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) saying theaters are being destroyed by streaming or perhaps studios trying to explain how streaming and theatrical release models will benefit everyone involved, the truth is that the theatrical experience is changing in a big way. And some, like John David Washington, are concerned about the survival of the big screen experience.

Will Thorne Staff WriterThe opening night of the Locarno Film Festival was led by a pair of rousing call to arms for the theatrical experience.Early on it was rain, rather than COVID-19, which threatened to put a dampener on proceedings, as sodden conditions in the famous Piazza Grande forced the world premiere of “Beckett” indoors.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticJohn David Washington shot “Beckett” before last summer’s “Tenet” put the actor on a short list of potential action figures. But when it comes to this considerably more modest, Greece-set manhunt movie — which kicks off the Locarno Film Festival before releasing via Netflix on Aug.

For a film in which John David Washington lurches, staggers, stumbles, shambles, flounders, falters, wobbles, scrabbles and totters across an entire Greek province, getting shot, stabbed, cuffed (often in the very same already broken arm), punched, beaten, chased and stung by bees, is in two-car crashes but also gets hit by a car, escapes in the trunk of a car, gets in a taser fight in a car and eventually falls from a great height onto a car, “Beckett” sure is dull.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery CEO David Zaslav has big ambition to build up the Warner Bros. Discovery venture to reach some 200 million streaming subscribers around the world.But first, he has to close the $43 billion WarnerMedia spinoff transaction with AT&T that surprised in the industry in May.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino first made a splash in Locarno in 2010 when his atmospheric short “Diarchia,” starring Louis Garrel, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alba Rohrwacher, scooped the Leopard of Tomorrow prize and went on to earn an honorable mention at Sundance. His feature debut, “Antonia,” was an intimate portrait of Italian poet Antonia Pozzi who, like the director, grew up in upper crust Milanese society.

To date, Disney has tried to play an original animated film, a Marvel title, and an Emma Stone 101 Dalmatians villainess movie in theaters and on the PVOD tier of the studio’s streaming service, and this weekend they’ll accelerate windows again on the Dwayne Johnson-Emily Blunt theme park-inspired title Jungle Cruise.