By: LATF Staff | June 9, 2016, 10:16 a.m.
Common, Alice Smith and Charlie Wilson have been added as special guests for The Academy Celebrates The Black Movie Soundtrack II at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, August 31, at 8 PM.
Back by popular demand, Grammy-winning musician Marcus Miller and acclaimed producer/director Reginald Hudlin reprise the Hollywood Bowl’s 2014 celebration of classic music from black cinema. The 2016 edition will feature new clips and music, as well as some favorites from the original show.
The evening will once again be hosted by actor and comedian Craig Robinson.
Special guests, including the previously announced Philip Bailey, Verdine White, and Ralph Johnson of Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as Full Force, will perform with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra led by Vince Mendoza. Additional special guests will be announced at a later date.
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BY DEVAN COGGAN • @DEVANCOGGAN
(Bryan Bedder/Getty Images; Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Posted June 9 2016 — 1:29 PM EDT
Chadwick Boseman and Josh Gad are heading to court.
Open Road Films has picked up U.S. rights to Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall, starring Boseman as the lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. Josh Gad also stars as Marshall’s law partner, a young, inexperienced Jewish lawyer named Samuel Friedman.
Open Road also revealed that Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell, Sterling K. Brown, and Keesha Sharp have officially joined the cast in unspecified roles. Principal photography began in late May in Buffalo, New York.
Trial lawyer Michael Koskoff penned the script for Marshall alongside his son, Macbeth screenwriter Jacob Koskoff. The screenplay follows Marshall as a young man working for the NAACP in pre-World War II America, and he’s soon sent to Connecticut, where he’s tasked with defending a black chauffeur accused of sexually assaulting and attempting to murder his wealthy employer. Facing a segregationist court and a tabloid frenzy surrounding the case, Marshall is forced to team up with the untested Friedman, who has never before tried a case.
Boseman recently made his debut as T’Challa/Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, and he’ll soon star in the upcoming standalone Black Panther movie. Gad lent his voice to the recent Angry Birds Movie, and he’ll next appear in the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie as Le Fou.
A release date for Marshall has yet to be announced.
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by Dave McNary, June 9, 2016
Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. rights to “Marshall,” starring Chadwick Boseman as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Josh Gad as lawyer Sam Friedman.
Joining the previously announced cast are Kate Hudson, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell, Sterling K. Brown and Keesha Sharp (“The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”).
Reginald Hudlin (producer of “Django Unchained”) is directing and Paula Wagner (“Mission: Impossible,” “The Last Samurai”) is producing through her Chestnut Ridge Productions banner along with Jonathan Sanger (“The Elephant Man”) and Hudlin.
Financiers are Star Light Media Inc., Hero Film Ltd. and Sky Legend along with Hunter Ryan and David Ryan. Executive producers are Peter Luo and Belton Lee.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has all international distribution rights for “Marshall,” which began principal photography in Buffalo, New York, on May 23. The production is utilizing New York State’s Film Production Program.
“Marshall” is based on the young Marshall defending a black chauffeur in 1941 against his wealthy socialite employer in a sexual assault and attempted murder trial that quickly became tabloid fodder. Marshall was partnered with Friedman, a young Jewish lawyer who had never tried a case.
The screenplay is a collaboration between renowned trial lawyer Michael Koskoff and his son, screenwriter Jacob Koskoff (“Macbeth”).
The film is being produced with the full support of the Marshall and Friedman estates, including their children, John W. Marshall and Lauren Friedman.
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‘Marshall’ filmmakers heap praise on WNY
“Marshall” producers Jonathan Sanger, left, and Paula Wagner discuss the architecture of Buffalo with Mayor Byron W. Brown on Sunday. Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News
By Mark Sommer | News Staff Reporter, on May 22, 2016 – 8:36 PM, updated May 22, 2016 at 11:53 PM
Actors Kate Hudson, James Cromwell and Chadwick Boseman bring star power to the movie “Marshall” that begins filming Monday in Buffalo.
But Buffalo’s architecture plays a major supporting role, too.
“We scouted a lot of different cities, but Buffalo has preserved so much fantastic architecture from the turn of the last century,” director Reginald Hudlin said Sunday outside City Hall.
Hudlin joined the movie’s producers and a group of Chinese investors to receive a Buffalo welcome from Mayor Byron W. Brown and other political officials.
“There is literally no way we can have this kind of production value – I mean, you just look at City Hall here, and this incredible work,” Hudlin said as he pointed to carved details outside the art deco building. “And there are so many places like this. And not just the public buildings. Even when we go to private homes, there are so many people here who are really into preservation.”
On Sunday, the film’s producers announced Hudson, Cromwell, Sterling K. Brown and Dan Stevens have joined a cast that stars Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall and co-stars Josh Gad as lawyer Samuel Friedman.
The filming is expected to continue through early July in Buffalo and other areas in Erie County as well as Niagara Falls.
“We have found perfect locations for this movie, and the people here have been fantastic,” producer Paula Wagner said.
Courthouse scenes will be primarily shot at the former Dillon Courthouse in Niagara Square and on the steps of City Hall. Scenes will also be filmed this week inside the Niagara Falls Public Library’s LaSalle Branch, where the second floor has been painted to look like Marshall’s office.
The filmmakers chose Buffalo because of the locations, local acting and crew talent, tax credits and cooperation of the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission, Hudlin said.
“We’re making a large financial investment, and once you make a decision like this there’s no turning back, so it’s a very carefully weighed decision,” Hudlin said. “We thought about it very seriously, and Buffalo was the place that checked all the boxes.”
Brown, who recalled watching Hudlin’s movie “House Party” in the early 1990s, was thrilled filmmakers picked Buffalo for the major motion picture about a civil rights champion.
“I want to thank the ‘Marshall’ cast and crew for choosing our community,” Brown said. “This could have been done in a lot of different places in the country. The fact that they chose Buffalo demonstrates Buffalo’s growing reputation as a great place to film a movie and to film for TV.
“Thurgood Marshall was one of the greatest legal minds in our nation’s history, and to have this movie filmed here in Buffalo is a tremendous honor,” Brown said.
President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 nominated Marshall to be the first African-American on the Supreme Court. The civil rights attorney had a 25-year association with the NAACP. He won 29 of his 32 cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, in which the justices ruled “separate but equal” public education could never be truly equal.
“For me, there is a short list of people who kind of made America fulfill its promise, and Thurgood Marshall is one of those people,” Hudlin said. “It’s to the point where, when my son was born, Thurgood was on the short list of names. Ultimately, I couldn’t do that to him,” he said, laughing.
Hudlin directed the films “Boomerang” and “Serving Sara” and co-produced “Django Unchained” and this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. He said he jumped at the opportunity to direct the film.
“I loved the script because it wasn’t a typical bio-pic, but a legal thriller that focuses on one case early in his career,” Hudlin said. “I thought the case perfectly encapsulated so many of the complexities and challenges of his career. It also works as a great movie, where you don’t know the outcome.”
Hudlin said the film takes place in 1941 but has an important message for today.
“This movie is what we need as a culture right now,” Hudlin said. “At a time where we as a nation need to renew our commitment to the foundations of American democracy, which is fairness and justice, and judging people by their character, this movie renews all those things in a fresh way.
“We feel this movie will bring everyone together, and inspire us to be our best selves,” Hudlin said.
Wagner put together the producing team, financing and cast. The film producer, who was Tom Cruise’s longtime business partner, co-produced the “Mission Impossible” film trilogy and other blockbusters.
“I think we are making a film that not only is going to be entertaining, but it’s a film that has relevance to now,” Wagner said.
The film takes place in Bridgeport, Conn. A Greenwich socialite in 1940 accused her African-American chauffeur of rape and kidnapping. The NAACP enlists a Jewish lawyer, Samuel Friedman, to defend the chauffeur, with Marshall hired to assist Friedman during a period of considerable anti-Semitism and racism.
“We wouldn’t be here without Chadwick Boseman playing Thurgood Marshall,” Wagner said. “He is a phenomenal young actor, and when we met him, Reggie knew immediately, I knew immediately, we knew immediately that the soul, the essence of Thurgood is right there in Chadwick Boseman as an actor.”
Boseman’s film credits include portraying Jackie Robinson in “42’ and James Brown in “Get On Up.”
Brown said the “Marshal” production is expected to spend $4.5 million, hire more than 100 crew and extras and book 1,100 hotel room nights.
“Not only is it great to showcase our community in this way, and have this great film filmed here in Buffalo, but it also puts people in our community to work,” the mayor said.
Brown credited the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission, noting movie and television production generated $16 million in 2015 and is on pace to top $20 million this year.
Sam Hoyt, regional president of Empire State Development, praised the state’s film tax credit program for upstate New York.
“This has a snowball effect,” Hoyt said. “They’re going to have a great experience here, they’re going back to Hollywood and are going to say Buffalo is a great place to film movies, to do television production and we begin to get the reputation that we’re a great place to do business. We are going to see much, much more film production to come.”
Hudlin said there are several scenes that call for large casts of people, black and white.
“We will be challenging Buffalonians to the max to have them appear in the film,” Hudlin said. “We are going to be making stars out of some of the folks here in town, not just in background but with speaking lines as well.”
Hudlin said he’s become smitten by the region in his short time here.
“I can’t say how much we are enjoying being here in Buffalo,” Hudlin said. “It’s a beautiful city, it’s perfect for our production. But the most striking thing is the generosity of the citizens here. You guys have a wonderful secret here in Buffalo that we want to tell everybody about.”
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