Questlove set to executive produce new J Dilla documentary

Mark Ruffalo, better known for his role as The Hulk, has signed on to executive produce an upcoming docuseries that explores the fight against systemic injustice for Native communities. “Natives” aims to highlight the ground-breaking achievements of Indigenous activists and allies in what Ruffalo coins as “The Native Century” — an era in which younger and older generations of Natives can better get in touch with their cultural heritage. Ruffalo is a three-time Oscar nominee and two-time Emmy winner for performances in works like the 2015 film “Spotlight” and 2020 miniseries “I Know This Much Is True.” Earlier this year, he executive produced the documentary “Lakota Nation vs. United States,” which exposes the exploitation of Native people by virtue of colonization from the late 1400s to modern day.

Following his exit from the popular soap Eastenders, Danny Dyer is set to present a Channel 4 show that sees celebs denied light for days on end. Back in January, Danny revealed that he would be leaving the fictional borough of Walford after playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter for a glorious nine years. Many fans wondered what would be next for the 45 year old actor after previous roles in films The Football Factory, The Business and Human Traffic.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Troy Kotsur, the Oscar-winning actor of “CODA,” has joined Mounia Meddour’s uplifting drama “Houria” ahead of its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival. Meddour’s follow-up to her Cesar-winning film “Papicha” tells the story of Houria, a gifted dancer with dreams of joining the Algerian National Ballet. To make ends meet, she bets in clandestine fights overnight. However after winning a final, Houria is violently assaulted by a man determined to get his money back. When she wakes up in a hospital, she no longer is able to speak and will certainly never dance again. Refusing to abandon her dream, she throws herself, heart and soul, into her physical recovery and meets at a rehab center other women damaged by life. Houria resolves to help them transcend their wounded bodies and stand tall by teaching them how to dance through a choreography inspired by sign language.

Craig Zobel, the Emmy Award-nominated writer, director and producer who was most recently responsible for the Kate Winslet-led crime drama “Mare of Easttown,” will direct and executive produce “The Penguin” for HBO Max. The series is a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” from earlier this year, with Colin Farrell once again starring as the waddling crime boss.Zobel is has established himself as one of the most dependable and artistically ambitious filmmakers working in both film and television.

BreAnna Bell Caroline Moore has been promoted to president of development and production at Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg’s production company The Js. Previously, Moore served as the company’s SVP of development and production. The elevation comes in light of her success as an executive producer on FX’s “The Patient,” which was released on Aug. 30. The series, co-created by Fields and Weisberg, is available for streaming exclusively on Hulu. The Js is currently adding to its development slate, working with a range of playwrights, novelists and television writers to create a host of entertaining stories as part of its overall deal at FX Productions.

K.J. Yossman Jemima Khan (“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”) and Jaime Ray Newman (“Dopesick”) have boarded Seemab Gul’s Oscar-qualifying short film “Sandstorm” as executive producers. A coming of age story, centering around a Pakistani schoolgirl called Zara, “Sandstorm” navigates the “tricky terrain of internet dating in a conservative Muslim society,” according to the logline as well as questions “the objectification of the female body and its relationship to honor in Pakistani culture.” In the short, Zara sends her virtual boyfriend a “sensual dance video” which he then uses to blackmail her. “Caught between his manipulative behaviour and the desire to experience love on her own terms, Zara searches for the strength to reject the confines of a patriarchal society,” reads the synopsis.

The co-executive producer of popular US comedy series Scrubs has been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault. Eric Weinberg, 62, is said to have “relied on his Hollywood credentials” to lure young women to photo shoots where he is alleged to have assaulted them, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney.The charges stem from alleged incidents involving five different women in the years between 2014 and 2019.

Refresh for more details: Rust Productions and its star and producer Alec Baldwin have reached a settlement with the estate of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. As part of the peace, the DP’s husband Matthew Hutchins will executive produce Rust, which will return to production in January 2023 with the original cast.

Naman Ramachandran Malala Yousafzai, who heads her own film and TV production company, Extracurricular Productions, is joining “Joyland,” Pakistan’s Oscar submission in the international feature category, as an executive producer. The film had its world premiere at Cannes earlier this year where it won the Queer Palm and the jury prize at the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand. It subsequently had its North American premiere at Toronto. It is currently playing at both the BFI London Film Festival, where it is competing for the Sutherland Award, which recognizes the most original and imaginative directorial debut, and the Busan International Film Festival, where it is in the A Window on Asian Cinema strand.

EXCLUSIVE: Colman and Raúl Domingo have signed on as executive producers, under their Edith productions banner, on Chuck Schultz’s . The documentary film, featuring veteran actor Sharon Washington (Joker, The Kitchen), takes us on Sharon’s journey as she writes her award winning first play “Feeding the Dragon” about her childhood growing up in the St. Agnes Library in New York City.

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Radnor (Hunters), Rob Huebel (The Descendants), Becky Ann Baker (Girls), Chandra Russell (Southside) and John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop) are set to star in the upcoming comedic drama All Happy Families. The film will shoot in Chicago, IL, and is the sophomore feature from director Haroula Rose (Once Upon a River), who co-wrote the script with Coburn Goss. 

Jesse Collins has been named showrunner and executive producer of the 80th Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, dick clark productions and NBC announced Tuesday. “We are thrilled to have Jesse produce the historic 80th Golden Globes. His record of success puts him among the premier producers of live television events and we are looking forward to his ideas for capturing the excitement of the ‘Party of the Year’ in Beverly Hills,” Helen Hoehne, president of the HFPA, said in a statement.Dionne Harmon, the president of Jesse Collins Entertainment, is also an executive producer.

Emmy-winning producer Jesse Collins has been tapped as showrunner and executive producer of the 80th Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, dick clark productions and NBC announced Tuesday. Jesse Collins Entertainment president Dionne Harmon also will serve as an executive producer of the show that will air live coast-to-coast from the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday, January 10 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on NBC and Peacock.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has promoted Matt Lappin to serve as co-executive producer of the late night show. In his new role, Lappin will help oversee the show’s daily creative direction; his promotion was announced on Tuesday by executive producers Stephen Colbert and Tom Purcell. Lappin was most recently senior supervising producer. As co-executive producer, he’ll be part of a team that also includes co-EPs Denise Rehrig and Tanya Michenvich Bracco. Together, they’re all helping Colbert and Purcell run the ship in the absence of former executive producer Chris Licht, who departed “The Late Show” earlier this year to take over CNN as its CEO.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The rebirth of the Golden Globes has found its showrunner. Jesse Collins, who just won an Emmy earlier this month as the producer behind “The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent,” has signed on to executive produce and showrun the 2023 Golden Globes as it returns to NBC in January. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC and telecast producer Dick Clark Prods. announced on Tuesday that Collins would be at the helm as the Globes airs its 80th edition on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. ET. The Globes will continue to take place at its longtime home inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

EXCLUSIVE: There is another change in the executive producer ranks of HBO’s House of the Dragon. Jocelyn Diaz will not be returning to the Game Of Thrones sequel as it is headed into its second season. Sources said she had a one-year deal with an option for a second, which is not being picked up.

on Instagram he said: “This has been in the works, in many ways, before a word of the book was written. There were two things I knew for sure”.“First, that Questlove had to be a part of it, because he is storyteller number one when it comes to explaining Dilla’s genius; he really precedes us all”, he continued.

A new documentary on the legendary Detroit producer and rapper J Dilla is in the works from executive producer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, drummer for The Roots and director of the Oscar-winning Summer of Soul. The film is based on the book Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas. Questlove will team up once more alongside Joseph Patel, his co-producer on Summer of Soul, with a producing team of Zarah Zolhman, Shawn Gee, Tariq Trotter, Rodrigo Bascuñán, Darby Wheeler, and Anupa Mistry (both Patel and Mistry are former employees of The FADER).