Los Angeles Comic Con returned on Oct. 4-6, reinforcing its status as L.A.’s largest event for comics, animation, sci-fi, and pop culture. With over 125,000 attendees, the convention was lively and filled to the brim with star power, creatives, and fans.
AAFCA celebrated prolific producer Jason Blum and breakthrough filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty while handing out trophies to its AAFCA Award winners
Notes, quotes and things picked up on the run from coast-to-coast and all the stops in between and beyond.
Essence has named four actresses as its annual Black Women in Hollywood honorees. They are Regina Hall and Amandla Stenberg, who both starred in “The Hate U Give,” KiKi Layne of “If Beale Street Could Talk” and Jenifer Lewis of “black-ish.” The awards luncheon will be held Feb. 21 in Beverly Hills, California. In a statement, Essence salutes “the marvelous work and stunning achievements” of the four. Chief creative and content officer MoAna Luu also notes that they represent “the dynamic intersection of art and activism that is influencing how we shape our own destiny.” Hall was also in “Support the Girls,” and became the first
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) straddles two different worlds which never intersect, one, black and poor, the other, white and privileged. That’s because she lives in the ghetto in Garden Heights, but her parents (Regina Hall and Russell Hornsby) have sent her to Williamson, an exclusive prep school located on the other side of the tracks. They know that Williamson gives her a better chance of making it out of the ‘hood than the local public high school which is only good for girls who want to get “high, pregnant or killed.” Consequently, Starr uses slang when hanging out with her
Some are touting ‘The Hate U Give,’ as “the first Black Lives Matter movie.” Red flags should have gone up the moment we learned that Fox, recently acquired by Disney, was behind the film with a massive public relations budget, footing the bill for hundreds of advance screenings with celebrity guests, marketing swag, and heavy media saturation – especially in Black markets. We might also wonder about the choice to have Audrey Wells, a White screenwriter whose credits include “Under the Tuscan Sun” and “The Truth About Cats and Dogs,” adapt an urban Black novel for the screen.
For movies opening October 5, 2018.
WIDE RELEASES Christopher Robin (PG for action) Ewan McGregor handles the title role in this musical fantasy revolving around the now-grown pal of Winnie the Pooh’s (Jim Cummings) return to Hundred Acre Wood to recapture the sense of wonder which captured his imagination as a child. With Hayley Atwell, Brad Garrett, Toby Jones and Sophie Okonedo. The Darkest Minds (PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and mature themes) Adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s futuristic best seller set in the U.S. in the wake of a pandemic which has killed 98% of children under 20 and where the survivors have been rounded up