Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson‘s “Empire” has caused quite the stir.
The FOX television show, which recently got green lit for a second season after only two episodes, has also indicated just how much black actors and directors are winning on the small screen, despite the constant snubs in film.
Vanity Fair reports:
According to a 2013 Nielsen report, African Americans watch 37 percent more television than any other demographic, and finally major networks have responded to that reality. Thanks in part to Rhimes’s three-show block on ABC’s Thursday night schedule, fondly called “Shondaland,” television shows featuring African-Americans, particularly women, as main characters are no longer an exception in primetime television.
While everyone was up in arms about the fact that Ava DuVernay got a major snub at this year’s Oscars, it seems as though the director saw it coming.
Though most were quick to jump to race as the cause, it seems as though the snub was a bit more complex. Ava, who started her career as a film publicist, may not have had the connections needed to get her into the boys club that is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . According to Entertainment Weekly:
Actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. The directors’ branch of the Academy is, quite literally, a boys’ club. According to a 2012 study by the Los Angeles Times, the directors’ branch is 91 percent male, and 90 percent white. That alone wouldn’t prevent a DuVernay nomination, of course, but her lack of personal and professional connections with those directors would, she thought. “I know not one person in my branch,” she said.
In addition, Ava was also intent on telling the Selma story her way. In the film, she depicts President Lyndon B. Johnson as being reluctant to pass the Voting Rights Act–a move she has defended and seemingly rubbed the Academy voters the wrong way. Entertainmet Weekly reports:
It’s impossible to know what thousands of Academy members are each thinking when they ink their ballots, but through interviews with voters, most of whom spoke to EW on condition of anonymity, it seems [Ava’s defense] came off as strident and defensive. “[The filmmakers] misrepresented history with the way LBJ was presented,” says a member of the actors’ branch. “They had an obligation to present it correctly and they didn’t.”
Whatever the cause may be, the filmmaker is determined to continue blazing the trail stating, “I’m trying to be clear and follow my own footsteps because there is no black woman’s footsteps to follow.”
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is on its way to a theater near you and it looks like it is going to be as hilarious as the first one. The film features Craig Robinson and his buddies as they botch an attempt to go into the past by ending up in a future, where they have to fix the past which is actually the present.
Watch the trailer above.
She blessed us with Mean Girls, and now Tina Fey is back at it with “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” The made-for-Netflix comedy features Ellie Kemper as a former doomsday cult member trying to get used to living in New York City.
Though Tina will not be making a physical appearance, her sense of humor will be ever present in the show she created with longtime colleague Robert Carlock, who she worked with in producing “30 Rock.”
Watch the hilarity above.
It seems just like yesterday that Divergent premiered and stole all our hearts. Now, the trailer to the second installation of the series is here.
The film, which comes out on March 20, features a gun-slinging Shailene Woodley and no-nonsense Kate Winslet, accompanied by the handsome Miles Teller and Theo James–all reprising their roles.
There will be shooting, jumping in front of trains, crying, self-scarifice and all the other things we love in our sci-fi movies.
SOURCE: Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Coming Soon, The Wrap| PHOTO CREDIT: FOX, Wenn
