Tag Archives: business ventures

‘Insecure’ Producer Amy Aniobi Inks 2-Year Deal With HBO

Real to Reel Global Youth Film Festival

Source: Sheri Determan/WENN.com / WENN

Amy Aniboi, a co-executive producer for HBO‘s hit series Insecure, has inked her own deal with the cable giant. Her two-year deal will not interfere with her current role with Insecure and has her working alongside Issa Rae on other works.

THR exclusively reports:

The two-year pact will have Aniobi continue as a co-executive producer of Insecure — which is going into its fourth season — and writing limited series The Dolls with her Insecure colleagues Issa Rae (who will also star) and Laura Kittrell. HBO has also put into development Attachment, a comedy series Aniobi co-created and will executive produce; she’ll also develop new projects for the network.

Attachment, produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, centers on a first-generation Indian-American tech CEO who’s forced to share her tiny New York City apartment with her mother, who’s considering a divorce. The two learn to live with each other — and for themselves.

Aniobi co-created the series with actress and producer Melanie Chandra (Code Black), who will be a consulting producer. Jude Weng (Fresh Off the Boat, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) is set to direct and will also executive produce along with Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine’s Lauren Levy Neustadter.

Aniobi is also in development on three feature-film projects: American Princess at Fox and Bye Bye Bye and Love in America for Universal.

Congratulations to Amy Aniobi.

Photo: WENN

Spread the love
             
 
   

‘Luke Cage’ Exec Producer Cheo Hodari Coker Secures Deal With Amazon

New York Premiere of 'Luke Cage'

Source: Derrick Salters/WENN.com / WENN

Cheo Hodari Coker, the executive producer for Marvel’s Luke Cage, might have been shorted an opportunity to continue the story of Harlem’s Hero but he’s on to collecting bigger bags. It was recently announced that Coker’s production company just signed an exclusive deal with Amazon and will be headquartered in the Pacific Northwest.

Deadline reports:

In a stealth and strategic move in the television talent wars, the House of Bezos has signed now ex-Cage showrunner Coker and his new Fighting 99th Entertainment shingle to an overall deal to develop and produce new series. The finances of the agreement were kept under lock, but the deal is for three years, I’ve learned.

The arrangement will also see Coker based primarily out of his adopted hometown of Seattle. The Emerald City is, of course, also home to Amazon’s main HQ.

“Amazon is the future, and their bespoke, specific approach to building groundbreaking shows offers an amazing opportunity, one that I’m incredibly thankful for,” Coker, the former music journalist and Notorious scribe, said today of the deal. “I can’t think of a better place to launch the first shows developed under my Seattle-based Fighting 99th Entertainment banner, and am excited for people to see what we have in store.”

Amazon had the pre-Christmas love too.

“We’re very excited to welcome Cheo to the Amazon Studios family,” said Vernon Sanders, co-head of Television at Amazon Studios. “From Notorious to Luke Cage, Cheo is a provocative, revolutionary storyteller, and we’re happy he’ll be creating those kinds of bold new series exclusively for Prime Video.”

Big congrats to Cheo Hodari Coker and the Fighting 99th Entertainment team!

Photo: WENN

Spread the love
             
 
   

Entrepreneur Bars: Black Thought Freestyles At The EforAll Summit [Video]

Black Thought EforAll Summit 2018 Freestyle

Source: EforAll / Christa Brown

As Hip-Hop music and culture continue to inform and enhance the world’s social landscape, it is fitting that one of the art form’s top lyricists lent his formidable talents for a summit connected to entrepreneurship. Tarik “Black Thought” Trotter of The Roots fame was one of a trio of keynote speakers last week at the Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) Summit in Lowell, Mass.

The fourth annual EforAll Summit this year went with the theme “Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” which featured the aforementioned Black Thought, Bill Cummings of the Cummings Foundation and Cummings Properties, and Brandale Randolph of 1854 Cycling Company. The event was attended by budding and current entrepreneurs, city leaders, and students from area high schools and colleges.

“Our goal was to convene individuals from across the country to discuss ways we can strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and think about collaboration in a different way,” EforAll CEO David Parker offered in a statement via press release. “It was such a pleasure to work with the many community organizations and businesses who made the event possible. It fit the theme of “Entrepreneurial Ecosystems” and also demonstrated our mission of fostering inclusive entrepreneurship.”

Along with the event’s main theme of building a solid entrepreneurial ecosystem, the summit also moved into segments such as “Leading From The Ground Up,” and “The Art of Pitching.”

Black Thought EforAll Summit 2018 Freestyle

Source: EforAll / Christa Brown

The Bad Lieutenant sat down with EforAll’s Content Manager Christa Brown and laid out his personal challenges and triumphs as it relates to entrepreneurship. “Be brave, you have to take the risk to get the reward, you have to go through it to get to it,” Trotter offered in the chat.

Black Thought EforAll Summit 2018 Freestyle

Source: EforAll / Christa Brown

The EforAll Summit crowd was then treated to a freestyle as only Black Thought can deliver, and the MC used the theme of entrepreneurship to inform his bars.

Check out Black Thought’s EforAll Summit freestyle below. To learn more about EForAll, click here.

Photo: EforAll/Christa Brown

Source: HipHopWired.com

Spread the love
             
 
   

RZA & Alamo Drafthouse Join Forces To Open Kung Fu Themed Bar

Spike TV 10th Annual Guys Choice Awards

Source: Michael Boardman/WENN.com / WENN

It is shaping up to be quite the year for the Wu-Tang Clan as the crew is in the midst of a world tour in support of the 25th anniversary of their debut album Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chamber). RZA, the “Abbot” of the Clan, has partnered with high-end movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse for a new concept bar set to open on New York’s Staten Island AKA Shaolin.

Movie Web reports:

On Staten Island’s very first official Wu-Tang Clan Day and the 25th anniversary of the rap masterpiece Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA are proud to unveil plans for The Flying Guillotine, a kung fu-inspired bar concept. The Flying Guillotine is set to be located in the upcoming Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island in late 2019. Says RZA.

“It’s an extreme pleasure to be partnering with Alamo Drafthouse on their Staten Island location. When I first visited Alamo Drafthouse in 2004, I was blown away by the food, drink, and service that accompanied a slew of cool, genre and time-crossing films. The kung fu film selection was my favorite, and the opportunity to see these classics once again on a large screen returned me back to my youth.”

Serving an extensive menu of themed cocktails, spirits, and collaboration beers created by RZA and Alamo Drafthouse’s beverage director Bill Norris, The Flying Guillotine will also include a video store offering free rentals from an exhaustive collection of titles (including martial arts classics personally approved by RZA), as well as an archive of memorabilia and posters that cover the vast span of kung fu film history. Alamo Drafthouse Staten Island will also feature monthly screenings of martial arts classics with after-parties at The Flying Guillotine. 

Check out RZA giving a virtual 360-degree tour of The Flying Guillotine in the clip below.

The space will be open to the public in late 2019.

Photo: WENN

Spread the love