Kevin Willmott Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Actor, writer, director, producer Tosin Morohunfola has signed with ColorCreative for management.

EXCLUSIVE: Hyde Park Entertainment Group has won the rights to the latest memoir by BlacKkKlansman author Ron Stallworth, From BlackKklansman to Hip Hop Cop, a project which will see that work back in the hands of scribe Kevin Willmott, who won an Oscar for adapting the author’s BlacKkKlansman.

Deadline reports that Peacock has an exciting project in development: “Excellence: 8 Fights,” an eight-part events series about boxing legend Muhammed Ali. But it’s more who’s involved with the series that’s exciting.

Ellise Shafer An eight-part event series about boxing icon Muhammad Ali is in the works at Peacock from Regé-Jean Page, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Willmott, Variety has confirmed. Hailing from writer and executive producer Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Da 5 Bloods”), the drama is titled “Excellence: 8 Fights” and is based on Jonathan Eig’s definitive biography “Ali: A Life.” “Bridgerton” breakout Page and Freeman are both on board as executive producers. According to the show’s official description, “Excellence: 8 Fights” will “chronicle eight distinct and defining moments in the iconic life of Muhammad Ali. Each episode will be framed by one fight from Ali’s life, but the essence of the episode, what it’s really about, is the internal fight – the drama outside the ring – where we will explore the struggle going on in the heart and mind of one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.”

EXCLUSIVE: As we mark the 52nd anniversary of the Ali-Fraser fight today, Deadline can reveal that Peacock is developing Excellence: 8 Fights, a scripted eight-part event series about boxing great Muhammad Ali, based on the definitive biography Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig. The project hails from Oscar-winning BlackKklansman co-writer Kevin Willmott, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment, Regé-Jean Page and Emily Brown. Page is executive producing; there is currently no deal in place for him to star as Ali. CBS Studios and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, serve as the studios. Eig is producing.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The Gersh Agency has promoted literary agent Sandra Lucchesi and talent agent Matt Vioral to partners, expanding its total leadership to 28 people.  Gersh, which ranks as the lone privately-owned full service agency, makes the move amid consolidation and rapid ground-shifting in the representation landscape. A spokesperson told Variety the elevations serve to “highlight the strength and history of our resources while taking advance of our business around multi-hyphenate clients.” Agency co-presidents David and Bob Gersh, along with managing partner Leslie Siebert, said they were “very proud of the leadership Sandra and Matt have brought to the agency and their respective departments and how well respected they are by their industry peers. We are thrilled to promote them both to partner.”

Editor’s note: Judging from last year’s positive response to our Read the Screenplay series, Deadline is kicking off a new season of publishing the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race. Stay tuned for more, but Spike Lee is a pretty good place to start.

Malina Saval Associate Editor, FeaturesOriginal“Da 5 Bloods” (Netflix) Written by: Danny Bilson, Paul De Meo, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee Lee and Willmott won the Oscar for adapted screenplay for 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman” and their examination of PTSD and the aftermath of the fallen from Vietnam in “Da 5 Bloods,” encompassing the final performance of Chadwick Boseman, was deeply felt.

As a writer, director, and professor of film at the University of Kansas, filmmaker Kevin Willmott has had a long and fruitful career. Willmott’s storytelling focus often centers on the Black experience in the United States and often from a historical and social perspective.

Walker (Mo McRae) takes an immediate dislike to Boston (Trai Byers) when they first meet under Houston’s unforgiving sun: They’re digging a latrine, and Walker can’t abide Boston’s high mannered speech in conjunction with his skin tone, which is lighter than Walker’s by several shades. They tussle.

NEW YORK -- The sole photograph related to the Houston Riot of 1917 shows 64 Black soldiers sitting with arms folded and legs crossed behind a rope. Their sheer number, in a courtroom otherwise populated by white men, suggests they’re part of the audience but they’re not.

Patrick Hipes Executive Managing EditorEXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has acquired North American rights to The 24th, the period drama based on true events from Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman co-writer Kevin Willmott.

Ashok Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and BlacKkKlansman co-writer Kevin Willmott have teamed for a biopic onArthur Ashe, the civil rights activist and the only Black man to have won the men's singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. Oscar-winner Willmott, a frequent collaborator of Spike Lee and co-writer of the filmmaker's latestDa 5 Bloods, will pen the screenplay.

Also Read: Whitney Houston Biopic 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' in the Works From Director Stella MeghieAshe was an activist for civil rights and for AIDS awareness and is the only black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.

Dave McNary Film ReporterA biopic about Wimbledon tennis champion and African American civil rights activist Arthur Ashe is in the works at Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group and Warner Music Group.Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott, whose credits include “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods,” will write the screenplay, which has the full support of the Arthur Ashe Estate.Ashe’s inspirational story started on the public tennis courts in Richmond, Va., as he eventually rose to become

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorBlacKkKlansman Oscar winner Kevin Willmott is set to write the feature story of Wimbledon tennis champion and African American civil rights activist Arthur Ashe, a project which Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group and Warner Music Group (WMG) are teaming on.It’s a project that’s close to Amritraj’s heart, the Hyde Park producer being a former Wimbledon pro himself.

By Mackenzie Nichols