Jill Scott Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The idea of a Botswanian detective agency was enough to hook me when I wrote about the cinematic adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency just over a year ago when Anthony Minghella and Richard Curtis were putting it together. In June, we found out that Anika Noni Rose was joining Jill Scott in the production. Now it's veered off-course and will no longer be a big-screen movie.

As was hinted last June, the book is getting a television series, but Variety reports that it won't have a big-screen lead-in. Instead, it will be a 2-hour pilot for the new HBO series, which has already gotten an order for 13 episodes. Since this is also a Weinstein Company production, the sale to HBO marks the company's "first big splash on the smallscreen side."

Harvey seems to be happy about it: "It's always been a dream of mine to produce a series for HBO. I've often called over there to tell them that they make better episodes than we make movies." Heh, I won't dig into that can of worms. For now, the series is going into production with the hope to hit HBO early next year. From here on out, scour all those television sites like TVSquad for further Botswanian detective news.

And, honestly, that's a question most of us married folk ask ourselves (and our friends, and our family, and that stranger in the bathroom) from time to time -- only to arrive home one night, catch a glimpse of that smile and realize it was the best decision we've ever made. (Erik wipes away a tear.) Except when that son of a bleep cheats with that bleeping bleeper, and you find yourself bleeping pissed. What happens next? Cinematical has just received the final one-sheet for Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married (click on the poster for a larger image), based on Perry's stage play of the same name. Returning to the big screen for the first time in seven years, Janet Jackson stars as one half of a couple who decide to attend a therapeutic help-our-marriage retreat, but find complications when one of the other wives brings along a sexy young temptress.

As with Perry's last film, Daddy's Little Girls, there's no dressing up in drag here -- however, Perry does co-star in the flick, alongside Jackson, Jill Scott, Denise Boutte, Richard T. Jones and Sharon Leal. Part comedy, part drama -- and part Jackson (yum) -- Why Did I Get Married arrives in theaters on October 12.

I first saw Anika Noni Rose on Broadway in her Tony Award-winning role in Caroline, or Change. She was great, but nearly got blown off the stage (just about anyone would have) by the incredible Tonya Pinkins. Then she had a similar situation in Dreamgirls, barely getting a mention in most reviews. She had the least flashy role by far, but I thought she held her own against the bombastic Jennifer Hudson and the ridiculously good-looking Beyonce. And now she's joining another powerful singer -- Jill Scott -- for Anthony Minghella's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Scott hasn't done much film acting, but has a part in the controversial Dakota Fanning film Hounddog, and a supporting role in Tyler Perry's upcoming Why Did I Get Married? No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency will be an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's novel of the same name. Any fans out there?

Rose will play Grace Makutsi, "the secretary/assistant detective to Precious Ramotswe (Scott), who owns a Botswana-based detective agency run by women." Relative newcomer Lucian Msamati will play Ramotswe's fiancé in the film. Minghella wrote the script with Richard Curtis (Love, Actually), and with Minghella at the helm, I think it is safe to assume that Detective Agency will be...long. Like, punishingly long. This also seems like quite a departure for Minghella, who usually takes on films about exceedingly pale people doing exceedingly cold things as slowly as possible. There's a whole series of Agency books, and it is "likely that a TV series based on Agency will follow the movie, but no deals are in place." Oh, and if you want to see Rose in something that will haunt her resume for decades -- check out From Justin to Kelly. Why that movie hasn't become this generation's Plan 9 From Outer Space is a mystery to me.

"If (fun on the set) meant anything, then Cannonball Run would be a great movie, because I'm sure it was fun to make." – Steven Soderbergh, Indiewire

Dave Chappelle's Block Party should be a nightmare – a self-indulgent vanity project without real rhyme or reason, a concert film with no organizing principle behind it other than that might be fun. ... But Dave Chappelle's Block Party is a lot of fun, and it never feels like you're peeking through the keyhole of a locked door at all the excitment the cool kids are having without you. What's even better is the fact that Chappelle's event and the subsequent film don't just offer the sights and sounds of a multi-millionaire comedian and his musician pals relaxing and having a good time; there's some serious stuff going on in this film behind the backbeats and smiles.

But there are backbeats and smiles, and plenty of them. Dave Chappelle organized a free concert for September 18th, 2004, to be held in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Not only were the bands performing kept secret, so was the actual location of the event; New Yorkers were invited, and at the same time the film opens with Chappelle roving the small town in Ohio nearest to where he makes his home and dispensing 'Golden Tickets" – good for a ride on a chartered bus, a hotel room and admission to the show – to the people in his community.

And Chappelle – mocking, mischievous and sharply aware of everything he's getting away with – is having a blast.