Liesl Tommy Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Gordon Cox Theater EditorThe Tony Awards Landmarks on This Year’s Nominations ListIn a Broadway season that was the first after the devastating 15-month shutdown caused by the pandemic, the Tony nominations list encompassed some notable landmarks of its own.L Morgan Lee, up for featured actress in “A Strange Loop,” became the first openly transgender artist ever to be nominated for a Tony Award. “Six” composer Toby Marlow is the first non-binary person to get a nom. Lynn Nottage became the first writer to be nominated for play (“Clyde’s”) and musical (“MJ”) in the same year.

A stage musical adaptation of the Fannie Hurst novel Imitation of Life and its film versions is under development at Universal Theatrical Group, with Lynn Nottage writing the book and John Legend handling the music and lyrics. Liesl Tommy is attached to direct.

EXCLUSIVE: Hailey Kilgore (Power Book III: Raising Kanan), David Iacono (The Flight Attendant) and Jeremie Harris (Legion) have signed on to star in the noir film Cinnamon, which will stream exclusively on Fox’s free service, Tubi.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentAfter Oscar nominations were announced Feb. 8, the buzz seems equally centered on who was nominated and who wasn’t.There’s an impressive roster of work in both categories.

Disney+’s Beauty and the Beast prequel series will not be moving forward at this time. The decision comes as the lead cast of the eight-episode series had been assembled ahead of the planned summer 2022 shoot in the U.K.

British pop star Rita Ora is joining Disney+’s Beauty and the Beast prequel series.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeSinger/songwriter Rita Ora has joined the cast of Disney Plus’ upcoming ‘Beauty and The Beast’ prequel. The news was announced Monday during Disney Branded Television’s session at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. On the “Beauty and the Beast” (working title) prequel, Ora will star as “a fugitive with surprising abilities who carries with her a secret that could potentially affect an entire kingdom.” She joins a cast that includes Josh Gad, Luke Evans, Briana Middleton, Fra Fee and Jelani Alladin.Gad also serves as an executive producer and co-showrunner, along with Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.

Clayton Davis Jennifer Hudson’s name is already written in the Academy Awards history books. At 25, she became the youngest Black woman to ever win an acting Oscar for her turn as Effie White in “Dreamgirls” (2006). She’s also the first to do it for a debut role.

EXCLUSIVE: Jelani Alladin (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) is set as a series regular in Disney+’s upcoming Beauty and the Beast (working title) prequel series, joining previously announced Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Briana Middleton and Fra Fee.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFra Fee is staying in business with Disney Plus with a role in the upcoming “Beauty and the Beast” prequel series, Variety has learned exclusively.The live-action musical series was ordered at the streamer in June 2021. It stars Luke Evans and Josh Gad, who will reprise the roles of Gaston and LeFou (Louie) respectively from the 2017 live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film.

Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.

Respect director Liesl Tommy was joined by writer Tracey Scott Wilson, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and production designer Ina Mayhew at Deadline’s Contenders: New York award-season event Saturday to discuss their movie about legendary singer Aretha Franklin.

Jennifer Hudson reckons the tale of how she went full circle from singing Aretha Franklin’s Share Your Love With Me in her first American Idol audition to being handpicked by the Queen of Soul herself to star in a Franklin biopic is “a story only God could write.

(The following post contains SPOILERS for the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect”)The new Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” shows the Queen of Soul grappling with fame, fortune, finding the right note at the start of her career and everything that followed.

Aretha Franklin.Hudson stars as Franklin in upcoming biopic, Respect, directed by Liesl Tommy, written by Tracey Scott Wilson and set for release next month.At Sunday’s (August 8) world premiere of the film at the Regency Village Theatre in the Los Angeles district of Westwood, Hudson recalled her last conversation with Franklin, who she became friends with in the late 2000s and spoke to on a weekly basis up until Franklin’s death in 2018.She told The Hollywood Reporter: “The last time I heard

A smarter person than I said that prestige music biopics are superhero movies for boomers, and it’s a fine point. Like the Marvel or DC franchises, they’re marketing a familiar brand to an enthusiastic audience, which eagerly laps up what is, in essence, the same movie countless times over, working from a tightly constructed and unwavering structure.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticFrom age 10 till 30, Aretha Franklin sure could sing, but she hadn’t yet found her voice. At least, that’s the take served up in “Respect,” a solid if somewhat conventional feature directing debut for Broadway helmer Liesl Tommy which flatters Franklin in practically every way, beginning with the casting of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson as the First Lady of Soul’s younger self.

Fandango and United Artists Releasing are holding early access screenings on Aug. 8 for MGM’s Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. Tickets are now on sale on Fandango. The pic will preview at 500 theaters nationwide before its Aug. 13 release.

Jennifer Hudson demands some «Respect» in the trailer for the titular Aretha Franklin biopic, and we'll be damned if she doesn't deserve it!Fans got their first look at the film back in June 2020 when a teaser officially revealed Hudson as the legendary Queen of Soul.

We’ve had definitive biopics on legendary Black soul artists like James Brown (“Get On Up“), Miles Davis (“Miles Ahead“), Tina Turner (“What’s Love Got To Do With It“), and Ray Charles (“Ray“). And while she’s appeared in many films and there have been documentaries made about her, there’s never really been a definitive movie biopic about the Queen of Soul, at least one that’s stuck in the collective conscious.

Dave McNary Film ReporterJennifer Hudson is producing and eyed to star in an untitled Christmas song comedy at New Line.The feature will include both new and classic Christmas songs and center on a down-and-out singer’s life being turned upside down when she is mistaken for writing the next Christmas hit. Ira Madison III is writing the screenplay.Hudson will next be seen as Aretha Franklin in the biopic “Respect,” directed by Liesl Tommy.

Dino-Ray Ramos Associate Editor/ReporterEXCLUSIVE: Scott Budnick’s impact and advocacy-focused company One Community has inked a deal to co-finance the forthcoming Aretha Franklin biopic Respect directed by Liesl Tommy and starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson. MGM will team with BRON Creative and One Community to release Respect domestically via UA Releasing on August 13, 2021.

IndieWire. Hudson also reunites with Dreamgirls co-star Gilbert Glenn Brown, who plays Dr.

Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, has just been released – you can watch below.Jennifer Hudson stars as the Queen of Soul in the new film, due for release next January, directed by Liesl Tommy and written by Tracey Scott Wilson.The official synopsis outlines how Respect follows “the rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international stardom.”Alongside Hudson, the film will star Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Mary J.

transforms into Aretha Franklin in the new trailer for the Franklin biopic “Respect.” The film is set to premiere this December.The official trailer for “Respect” debuted during the BET Awards on Sunday night, with the Oscar winner’s powerful cover of “Respect” soundtracking the preview.The clip features scenes of Franklin performing and asserting herself during interactions with the men in her life and those in the music industry.