Greenlit means a project is officially a go, so all you have to do is follow these leads to stay up to date. You never know where you’ll find an opportunity to land an audition!
“Carmen Sandiego”
TV favorite Gina Rodriguez is adding more features to her resume with her recent starring role in “Annihilation” and the upcoming remake of “Miss Bala.” It was already announced that she would voice the character of Carmen Sandiego in a new Netflix animated series, set to drop in 2019, but now, the streaming platform is expanding their brand with a standalone Carmen Sandiego live-action film that Rodriguez will star in as well. No writer or director is attached yet, but there is a chance that the two projects will share more than just a star as they both continue to add talent.
“Born a Crime”
Hollywood darling Lupita Nyong’o thrilled theater fans this past season with her Broadway debut in “Eclipsed,” a role in which she rightfully earned a Tony nomination. Now, she and the play’s director, Liesl Tommy, will team up again, as Tommy has signed on to direct the movie adaptation of “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah’s best-selling memoir, “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.” Nyong’o will be playing Noah’s mother, Patricia, in the film and will be reunited with Tommy for her film directorial debut. The Public Theater casting department staffed “Eclipsed” and they did the same for Oscar-nominated “Lady Bird” so they might cross over into film to work with Tommy again on this project.
Spielberg’s Hernan Cortes Amazon Miniseries
Steven Spielberg is currently enjoying a box office success with his new “Ready Player One,” which had video game fans of all ages in theaters opening weekend. He’s also giving people who would rather stay home some attention, too, and has partnered with writer Steven Zaillian to produce a new Amazon miniseries on Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes, with Javier Bardem set to star. The streaming network has given a four-episode order to the miniseries, which will be written by “Schindler’s List” scribe Zaillian from a screenplay adapted by the late Dalton Trumbo. Speilberg works almost exclusively with CD Ellen Lewis, so if he has a say in who will attach more talent to the project, she will probably be on board.
“Now Apocalypse”
Starz is neither the first nor last network to jump on the all-too-present theme of apocalypse with their latest project. The network just ordered the first 10 episodes of a new comedy series titled “Now Apocalypse,” created and executive produced by Gregg Araki, with Steven Soderbergh also attached to executive produce. The coming-of-age series seems a little less dark than the title suggests, but Soderbergh is saying, “If this isn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever read, it’s tied for first.” And he just directed the recently-released “Unsane.” “Now Apocalypse” will be co-written by Vogue.com sex columnist and Viceland “Slutever” creator and host Karley Sciortino. Araki has been directing across multiple platforms and several shows, including “13 Reasons Why” and “Riverdale,” and hasn’t been particularly consistent with casting directors so he’ll have a lot of choices to work with. But if Soderbergh has a suggestion, it will probably be Carmen Cuba, who he has been loyal to recently.
“Jurassic World”
Colin Trevorrow’s busy schedule may not have allowed for him to direct the upcoming “Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom.” In fact, he and J.J. Abrams swapped roles and Trevorrow has been over at Disney writing the next Star Wars universe film. Steven Spielberg officially confirmed this weekend that he’s found some time to return for the third one and take back his directing duties. Due out in 2021, the third installment of the “Jurassic World” series has Trevorrow executive producing and writing alongside Emily Carmichael. The first two films have had two different casting directors: John Papsidera for the first and Nina Gold for the second. With Trevorrow returning, it’s likely he’ll return to Papsidera, but either is possible.
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