Noticias

African American-founded, faith-based channel Impact Network is making a big push into entertainment and lifestyle content with the ramping up of its Saturday programming slate, the hiring of a new chief creative officer and executive producer of original content, and the launch of a 6,000-foot production facility in Detroit with a music division, Variety has learned exclusively.

The privately owned Impact Network has a reach of 80 million homes and distribution deals with DirecTV, Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Verizon Fios, Frontier, Cable Bahamas, Cox and Altice USA. Founder and CEO Bishop Wayne T. Jackson is looking to increase that footprint by beefing up the channel’s previously announced “Super Saturdays” block of programming, which will include talker/cooking show “Soul Food With Tara Wallace” and the Fredro Starr-hosted “Behind the Grind,” with the additions of music-video countdown show “Turn Up!” and “Impact-Plus,” an initiative that will give independent and established...

Overlong and erratically paced, Brendan Kyle Cochrane’s New York City-based “Equal Standard” opens with a self-conscious scene that heavy-handedly hints at an impending tragedy. There in the sun-dappled kitchen of the happy Jones family, Detective Chris (Tobias Truvillion), Sergeant Jackie (Syleena Johnson) and their adorable daughter lovingly go about their rosy morning routine, while an over-sentimental score embellished with stark notes of caution (one of the film’s various recurring motifs of unsubtlety) accompanies the perfect picture. As the doting husband and wife exchange their daily goodbyes before taking off for their high-risk professions, there is so much weight and emphasis placed on the concerned Jackie when she says “Be safe” that you prophetically know Chris is soon going to need that advice.

Aiming to be “The Wire” of the Black Lives Matter era with a multi-pronged yarn penned by first-time feature writer Taheim Bryan, “Equal Standard” sadly exhibits...

Julia Stiles isn't afraid to admit she made a major misstep while filming Save the Last Dance.  With the cast and crew based in Chicago for the duration of the shoot, there were more than a few hot nights in the city, the actress revealed to E! News in a joint Zoom chat with onscreen love interest Sean Patrick Thomas. "Although, guess who missed out on a lot of the fun? Me," Stiles shared. "Because I was such a little do-gooder."  Every evening film choreographer Fatima Robinson (the woman tasked with making the likes of Rihanna, Usher and Leona Lewis look good) would call to tell her that she was taking Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr and other cast members on...

It was a week filled with wheeling and dealing, as new pacts to build, merge, spin-off and create were announced by real-world and digital entities. There was also a pause to remember Robert Freeman, who photographed some of the early and influential Beatles albums.

This week in music:

BMG Builds Out La Presence: BMG will develop a new full-service music facility in Los Angeles. The location will be a 30,000-square-foot space at 5670 Wilshire Blvd, just seven blocks east from BMG’s current facility at 6100 Wilshire Blvd. BMG currently employs around 135 staff in Los Angeles with plans for further expansion in the new year. The move continues the company’s expansion, which also is taking place in Nashville and New York. The new space will consolidate BMG’s west coast publishing and recording teams, together with synch and licensing, film and books, and BMG Production Music.

Sony Peels The Onion: Sony Music Entertainment...

Watch out – a bloodsucking fiend is stalking the highways and by-ways of lower Manhattan… and she has a PhD! Abel Ferrara’s vampire mini-epic puts Lili Taylor through an ordeal that’s harrowing, transformational and either profound or pretentious depending on how you roll with existential philosophy. We acknowledge that Ferrara is a good judge of actor-flesh: sharing in the theory-speak and blood-soaked grue are Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, and Kathryn Erbe.

The Addiction

Blu-ray

Arrow Video USA

1995 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 82 min. / Street Date June 26, 2018 / Available from Arrow Video

Starring: Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderon, Fredro Starr, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Imperioli, Jamal Simmons, Robert W. Castle, Michael Fella.

Cinematography: Ken Kelsch

Film Editor: Mayin Lo

Production design: Charles Lagola

Original Music: Joe Delia

Written by Nicholas St. John

Produced by Denis Hann, Fernando Sulichin

Directed by Abel Ferrara

By the time Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction came along,...

The rapper Prodigy, half of the hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, has died in Las Vegas, multiple sources confirm. He was 42 years old.

“It is with extreme sadness and disbelief that we confirm the death of our dear friend Albert Johnson, better known to millions of fans as Prodigy of legendary N.Y. rap duo Mobb Deep,” a Mobb Deep representative wrote in a statement to Xxl.

“Prodigy was hospitalized a few days ago in Vegas after a Mobb Deep performance for complications caused by a sickle cell anemia crisis. As most of his fans know, Prodigy battled the disease since birth.

[[tmz:video id="0_ht0didi3"]] The star of 'Night Of' -- that TV show you keep hearing about -- isn't just a great actor, he's got some rap cred too ... just ask his co-star on the show, Sticky Fingaz. Riz Ahmed is getting a lot of buzz for his role on the HBO hit, but he's also been doing music in his native land, England for a long time. So, we asked Sticky if he and Riz chopped it up about a possible collab.

Review Michael Noble 10 Sep 2013 - 14:44

Boardwalk Empire's fourth season gets off to a confident, painterly start. Here's Michael's review of New York Sour...

This review contains spoilers.

4.1 New York Sour

I've commented before about the informal tetralogy of TV shows that between them have charted the long American twentieth century. From Deadwood to The Wire, via Mad Men and, of course, Boardwalk Empire, we have a succession of investigations into America at, very roughly, forty year intervals. Mad Men, the only non-hbo show on the list, focuses on one central character, although the rest of the cast are interesting enough. Deadwood and The Wire offer broader tapestries of life in a particular territory. Boardwalk, which is often marketed as an example of the first type, is now clearly of the second, having expanded its scope considerably. Steve Buscemi is still the man at the top of the bill...

Dmx is returning fire in his war with Onyx rapper Fredro Starr -- telling TMZ, he ain't one bit afraid of the guy's death threats ... claiming, Starr's "a midget" who "can't even reach my knee."X tells us, "I am not worried about him ... All he is is a sitcom Moesha gangsta. He should just stick to being a reality gangsta cause that's about all he's good for." (Fyi, Starr appeared on the show "Moesha" back in the 90s.

'Godfather'-referencing track from Drake's forthcoming Thank Me Later hit the Internet late Wednesday.

By Jayson Rodriguez

Drake

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Drake's long-awaited collaboration with Jay-z, "Light Up," has finally arrived, leaked onto the Web late Wednesday (May 26) by mixtape DJ the Evil Empire.

In the song, from Drake's forthcoming Thank Me Later LP (due June 15), the young Mc rhymes about his fast ascent to fame while Jay-z, the elder statesman, gives the So Far Gone star a lesson in living life on the throne.

"But I just wanna tell the truth/ Before one of these haters loads a couple shells and shoots," Drake spits. "The sh-- feels like when Fredro Starr/ Was in 'Sunset Park' stunting hard in his yellow goose, yeah/ And I'm a motherf---ing list target/ But a target nonetheless, and I just started/ Was that directed at moi? Can't be/ They must be talking to themselves — Hov,...

More Afm news

The American Film Market just wouldn't be the Afm without the so-called lobbyists.

They are the guys who've earned that moniker because of their use of the Loews hotel as one all-mighty pitching floor. And this year's potpourri of players is as mixed and as colorful as ever.

An urban Kung Fu fighter, a fully finished juiced-up rap drama with Fredro Starr and a yet-to-be-made horror flick about a half-woman, half-spider are among the titles boosted by the lobbyists.

Penned by L.A. based martial arts expert and filmmaker Mark Hoadley, "Mark of the Cobra" is being put together by husband and wife team Mark and Sheila Hoadley. The married duo is busy here pulling together the financing for their $2.5 million passion project.

Sheila Hoadley said she felt there was "more respect" for the producers presenting to people from the lobby.

And her project has something else on its side.

I’m not a fan of rap. I’ll start there. I appreciate some of the beats and the coordination between the music and the words. I appreciate the craft and the poetic touches it takes to achieve rhymes in places that most people could never squeeze one in. I appreciate the attitude and the energy. But that said, I’m not a fan of rap. Here is of list of things that I don’t appreciate: the money grabbing, the arrogance, the women (those poor women), the cheesy lyrics, the constant cursing, the shameless materialism. I’m sure there are plenty of rappers who aren’t all about the cheap tricks and quick bucks, but many are.

For a non-fan, rap music videos are a blessing for two reasons. One is that they end in about three minutes. So even if you’re looking to see your favorite Three...

Opens

Friday, Jan. 16

To put it concisely, "Torque" is "2 Fast 2 Furious" on 2-wheelers.

And while those wheels in question -- including the Aprilia Mille RSV, Triumph TT 600 and the very rare Y2K (just ask Jay Leno) -- are things of gleaming, fuel-injected beauty, the vehicle that they ride in on is a major drag.

Although the current generation could certainly use a souped-up "Easy Rider" or "Wild One" of its own, with the exception of a decent train-top chase, "Torque" is all vroom and no action.

Young males seeking a break from the Northeast cold could help the Warner Bros. release make a bit of noise this weekend, but without the draw of a Paul Walker or Vin Diesel, its long-term prognosis will likely be on the mild side.

Doing his best Kurt Russell/Steve McQueen/Mel Gibson, New Zealand native Martin Henderson is Cary Ford, a renegade biker boy who has returned to California after an extended vacation in Thailand.

Before he had skipped town months earlier, Ford found himself in possession of a couple of motorcycles belonging to the Hellions biker gang, whose empty tanks were filled up with large quantities of crystal meth.

Now that Ford's back, Henry (Matt Schulze), the Hellions ruthless leader, wants his stuff returned. But when Ford refuses to play by his rules, Henry frames him for the murder of Junior (Fredro Starr), younger brother of Trey (Ice Cube), the equally callous leader of the Reapers gang.

In very short order Ford, his hot girlfriend Shane (Monet Mazur) and his faithful, compact posse (Jay Hernandez and Will Yun Lee) find themselves racing across the Southern Cali desert with the Hellions, the Reapers and the cops in hot pursuit.

Making his feature debut, in-demand music video director Joseph Kahn feels the need for speed and obliges with the kind of tricks he learned shooting cutting-edge clips for the likes of Moby, Janet Jackson and Eminem.

But all the video game-inspired effects in the world can't distract from Matt Johnson's dumb-talking script, which has tried to strike a kind of hip comic book pose, but ends up wielding all the street cred of a temporary tattoo.

Major props do go out to the bike wrangler, whose sleek chrome selections look mighty appealing kicking up all that dust under that hot desert sun.

Torque

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures a Neal H. Moritz production

Credits:

Director: Joseph Kahn

Screenwriter: Matt Johnson

Producers: Neal H. Moritz, Brad Luff

Executive producers: Mike Rachmil, Graham Burke, Bruce Berman

Director of photography: Peter Levy

Production designer: Peter J. Hampton

Editors: Howard E. Smith, David Blackburn

Costume designer: Elisabetta Beraldo

Music: Trevor Rabin

Cast:

Cary Ford: Martin Henderson

Trey: Ice Cube

Shane: Monet Mazur

McPherson: Adam Scott

Henry: Matt Schulze

Dalton: Jay Hernandez

Junior: Fredro Starr

Running time 81 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13...

"Light It Up" is reminiscent of the socially conscious films of the late '60s and early '70s. Passionate about justice and proudly wearing the mantle of its idealism, the film is as much a sociopolitical document as it is entertainment. That this film from Edmonds Entertainment achieves a nice balance between those twin but not always compatible goals is a tribute to writer-director Craig Bolotin.

"Light It Up" will undoubtedly play well in urban situations. The question is: How well will 20th Century Fox marketers reach out to white and middle-class audiences? Bolotin has certainly done his job by delivering a playable movie with terrific performances from a young, talented cast.

The story gets under way swiftly and moves at a steady though edgy pace toward an uncertain climax. It starts on an ordinary winter day at a rundown New York high school -- meaning freezing classrooms, a leaky roof and not enough textbooks. Unable to use his classroom, a teacher (Judd Nelson) takes a class off campus with nearly tragic results when a holdup occurs at the fast-food joint he has turned into a makeshift school room.

When the teacher gets suspended by the authoritarian principal (Glynn Turman), his students revolt. An NYPD officer (Forest Whitaker) newly assigned to school security intervenes, and in a struggle with a student is accidentally shot in the leg.

The campus is quickly evacuated, police surround the building and seven students barricade themselves inside with the wounded officer as their hostage.

Suddenly, the young people realize that for the first time in their lives they have a platform for their complaints, that the media and city are waiting to hear their demands. But what do they want? And what do they have to say about their lives?

Naturally, the seven represent a schematic cross section of student society. But Bolotin views the youngsters with sympathy, spending enough time with each to delineate the reasons behind their actions and the trouble in their young lives that leads to such despair. What these youngsters want is respect; instead, they are subjected to snap judgments and stereotyping by adults.

R&B singer Usher Raymond emerges as the group's leader, a basketball flash whose life has gone into a spiral since the shooting death of his father by police. Rosario Dawson, a popular beauty who aspires to a medical career, stays behind initially to tend to the wounded cop but gradually finds herself involved in the rebellion.

The key player, though, is Robert Ri'chard's budding artist, whose family life is so devastating that his terror at being sent home from school at midday precipitates the crisis.

The others -- a tough-talking gang banger (actor/hip-hop artist Fredro Starr), a hustler (Clifton Collins Jr.) and a pregnant, alienated punker (Sara Gilbert) -- are more types than characters, though these actors acquit themselves well.

Bolotin wisely confines his story to the school where Elliot Davis' mobile camera with wide angle lenses prowls the crumbling school corridors designed by Lawrence G. Paull. And while the plot line and characters are often dictated by the film's thematic intentions, Bolotin manages to keep the story as organic as possible.

LIGHT IT UP

20th Century Fox

Edmonds Entertainment

Producer: Tracey E. Edmonds

Screenwriter-director: Craig Bolotin

Executive producer: Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds

Director of photography: Elliot Davis

Production designer: Lawrence G. Paull

Music: Harry Gregson-Williams

Co-producers: Bridget D. Davis, Helena Echegoyen

Costume designer: Salvador Perez

Editor: Wendy Greene Bricmont

Color/stereo

Cast:

Lester Dewitt: Usher Raymond

Officer Dante Jackson: Forest Whitaker

Stephanie Williams: Rosario Dawson

Zacharias "Ziggy" Malone: Robert Ri'chard

Ken Knowles: Judd Nelson

Rodney J. Templeton: Fredro Starr

Lynn Sabitini: Sara Gilbert

Robert "Rivers" Tremont: Clifton Collins Jr.

Principal Armstrong: Glynn Turman

Running time -- 99 minutes

MPAA rating: R...