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“We do live in a very mad, mad world right now,” Colman Domingo admits.

The Emmy winner — known for his turns in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Zola, and Fear the Walking Dead — is particularly attuned to the topic. The Madness, his new Netflix thriller that premieres Nov. 28, follows a media pundit caught in a deadly conspiracy. Check out the brand-new teaser above.

“You can just turn on the news right now, and you’re like, ‘What is being said? And how is that being done? And why is that normal?’ None of it is normal,” Domingo says. “This [series] is really letting you know that you’re right. It’s not normal. Let’s get to the bottom of it.”

As executive producer and director Clement Virgo explains in a making-of featurette below, “The Madness is a metaphor for the world we are in now: the social media world.”

The Madness...

Netflix has shared the teaser trailer and key art for The Madness, the upcoming thriller conspiracy series starring Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo.

Consisting of eight episodes, the series will launch on the streaming service on November 28, 2024.

In The Madness, Muncie Daniels is a political consultant-turned-tv pundit who may have lost his way in life. While on a work sabbatical in the Poconos to write the great American novel, Muncie finds himself the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he’s being framed for the crime.

Muncie is forced to go on the run in a desperate fight to clear his name and unravel a global conspiracy before time runs out. Along the way he’ll reconnect with his family, find unlikely allies, and fight against disinformation in a post-truth age.

In addition to Colman Domingo, The Madness cast includes Marsha Stephanie Blake, Gabrielle Graham,...

Colman Domingo plays a media pundit who stumbles on a murder he fears he’s being framed for in the trailer for The Madness, the upcoming conspiracy thriller from Netflix, that dropped on Monday.

“I got a bull’s eye on my back,” a paranoid Domingo, in the role of Muncie Daniels, says at one point in the fast-paced teaser after he visits a murder scene deep in the woods of the Poconos and finds he’s the only witness to a crime.

As the walls close in and he fears a set-up to make him take the fall, Daniels strives to reconnect with his estranged family — and his lost ideals — in order to clear his name. The eight-episode thriller, with the Emmy winner in the starring role, is set to bow on Netflix Nov. 28.

The ensemble cast for The Madness includes Marsha Stephanie Blake, Gabrielle Graham, John Ortiz, Tamsin Topolski and Thaddeus J.

As Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo heads toward his second consecutive Best Actor Oscar nomination, the “Sing Sing” star will likely dominate the holiday season Netflix charts with “The Madness.” The drama series with a juicy premise debuted its first teaser on Monday, one month before its streaming debut.

Domingo, an Oscar nominee this year for Netflix’s “Rustin” and an expected contender in 2025 for the A24 prison drama, stars as Mncie Daniels on the series “a political consultant-turned-tv pundit who may have lost his way in life.”

But wanderlust is the least of Muncie’s issues, as the Netflix plot description reveals: “While on a work sabbatical in the Poconos to write the great American novel, Muncie finds himself the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he’s being framed for the crime. Muncie is forced to go on the run in a...

Colman Domingo just might be the most prolific man in Hollywood.

Just on the TV side alone, Domingo is currently in production on Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” reimagining, and now the trailer for his other Netflix series “The Madness” has been released. Domingo sure knows how to stay busy.

The actor plays Muncie Daniels, a political consultant-turned-tv pundit who takes a work sabbatical to write the next great American novel. While in the Poconos on his writing retreat, though, Muncie finds himself as the only witness to the murder of a well-known white supremacist, and now he’s being framed for the crime.

Per the official synopsis, “Muncie is forced to go on the run in a desperate fight to clear his name and unravel a global conspiracy before time runs out. Along the way he’ll reconnect with his family, find unlikely allies, and fight against disinformation in a post-truth age.

HBO announced today that Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler have officially joined the cast of the upcoming DC series Lanterns. Aaron Pierre will play John Stewart and Kyle Chandler has been cast as Hal Jordan.

The anticipated series follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

Lanterns is an HBO series in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios. Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King will co-write the series based on the DC comic Green Lantern.

James Hawes directs the first two episodes. The series is executive produced by Mundy, Lindelof, King, and Hawes.

Aaron Pierre currently stars as the lead in Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge, which debuted on Netflix on September 6th and was the #1 title worldwide on the streaming service for three weeks in a row.

DC Studios and HBO have announced today that Aaron Pierre will play John Stewart in Lanterns. Kyle Chandler was recently cast as Hal Jordan, though the expectation is that Pierre will eventually be the Dcu's main Green Lantern.

Nathan Fillion was previously cast as Guy Gardner in Superman.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the hunt for John came down to Pierre and Stephan James. They both took part in screen tests alongside Chandler on Thursday and Friday and while each "had their boosters," a final decision was made yesterday.

Pierre currently stars as the lead in Jeremy Saulnier's Rebel Ridge which debuted on Netflix on September 6 and was the #1 title worldwide on Netflix for three weeks in a row. In December, Aaron will take on the titular role of Mufasa in Barry Jenkins' animated Lion King prequel for Disney.

The actor was most recently seen leading the NatGeo series Genius: MLK/X,...

“Rebel Ridge” breakout Aaron Pierre will play John Stewart in the “Lanterns” series at HBO.

Pierre will star opposite Kyle Chandler, who will play Hal Jordan in the DC adaptation. The series follows new recruit Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

“Lanterns,” which is produced in association with Warner Bros. Television and DC Studios, has received a straight-t0-series order from the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network.

Chris Mundy will be showrunner and he’s set to co-write the series with fellow executive producers Damon Lindelof and Tom King.

“We’re thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm,” DC Studios co-chairmen and co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran said in a joint statement. “John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters,...

Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) has been tapped to star in Lanterns, HBO‘s high-profile series based on the Green Lantern DC comic. He is set to play John Stewart opposite Hal Jordan, a role Kyle Chandler has been in negotiations for and expected to close.

Pierre landed the John Stewart part after an extensive search. As Deadline reported two weeks ago, in the process’ final stages, he had emerged as a frontrunner alongside Stephen James.

The series from Ozark’s Chris Mundy, Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof and comic book writer Tom King follows new recruit John Stewart (Pierre) and Lantern legend Jordan (Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.

The eight-episode Lanterns is produced by HBO in association with Warner Bros Television and DC Studios. Mundy, who will serve as showrunner, Lindelof and King are co-writing and executive producing.

Emmy winner Colman Domingo isn't quite done collaborating with Netflix just yet. After starring in the 2023 Netflix biographical drama film Rustin, Domingo is set to star in a new conspiracy thriller series for the streamer called The Madness. It's slated to be released this Thanksgiving, so make sure to add this show to your watchlist!

The Madness is an upcoming Netflix limited series created by Stephen Belber. Belber also serves as co-showrunner with executive producer VJ Boyd. Clément Virgo is signed on as the director and is an executive producer as well. Other executive producers include Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kaitlin Dahill. Additionally, Chernin Entertainment is the production company behind the eight-episode series.

In The Madness, Domingo takes on the role of media pundit Muncie Daniels, who finds himself having to fight for his life and prove his innocence after he accidentally stumbles upon a murder in the woods of the Poconos mountains.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Thomas Kretschmann, Ashley Greene and Praya Lundberg have joined Anthony Hopkins on the sci-fi thriller and H. G. Wells reimagining Eyes In The Trees. Palisades Park Pictures is launching worldwide sales heading into Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Timothy Woodward Jr. will direct from a screenplay by B. Harrison Smith, Mike Manning, and Dominic Burns inspired by Wells’s The Island Of Doctor Moreau.

The story follows a video journalist (Meyers), his former protegeé (Greene) and a film crew who trek into an isolated forest in Thailand on an island known to locals as “The island of...

Ontario Creates’ International Financing Forum (Iff) will feature 40 projects from Canadian and international teams bringing new work from Malcolm McDowell, Clement Virgo, and Rafael Kapelinski, director of 2017 Berlin Crystal Bear winner Butterfly Kisses.

The forum, now in its 19th year, runs September 8-9 in Toronto in association with Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It brings together jury-selected producers looking to find co-producers and secure financing for upcoming projects.

Canadian projects include The Benefactor starring McDowell from A Clockwork Orange and Mozart In The Jungle in the story of a widower who believes his house is haunted.

Ontario’s Byron A. Martin of Byron A.

Earlier today, we shared the news that It’s What’s Inside, a horror film executive produced by Fear the Walking Dead cast member Colman Domingo, is set to be released through the Netflix streaming service on October 4th. Now Netflix has announced the premiere date for another of their collaborations with Domingo, a thriller series called The Madness! This one will be coming along just under two months after the release of It’s What’s Inside, as all eight episodes of The Madness will be available to watch on Netflix as of November 28th. That date happens to be Thanksgiving day this year, so a press release notes that “the series will be a perfect binge watch during the long holiday weekend!” Along with the premiere date announcement comes the unveiling of a batch of first look images, which can be seen in this article.

Created by playwright Stephen Belber, who also...

Exclusive: Lovell Adams-Gray, one of the leads of Starz’s popular crime drama Power Book II: Ghost, has signed with Luber Roklin Entertainment for management.

Created by Courtney A. Kemp, the first of several Power spin-off series returns for the back half of its fourth and final season on September 6. The show centers on Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), the son of the deceased drug kingpin James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick), watching as he struggles to balance his education at Stansfield University with his involvement in the drug trade, all while trying to stay out of trouble and provide for his family.

Adams-Gray portrays Dru Tejada, another young man torn between his family’s criminal legacy and his personal aspirations.

Previously, the actor has also been seen in the award-winning TIFF drama Brother, an adaptation of David Chariandy’s novel from director Clement Virgo, as well as unscEne piKtures’ award-winning indie Sway.

Exclusive: Apple TV+’s The Morning Show has added Aaron Pierre to its Season 4 cast in a major recurring role. Production on the drama is currently underway.

Pierre will play ‘Miles,’ an acclaimed visual artist who moves through the circles of the New York elite.

The Morning Show explores the cutthroat world of morning news and the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning. Season 3 left the fate of Uba once again up in the air after Alex (Jennifer Aniston) manages to take down Paul Marks (Jon Hamm) by logjamming the sale of Uba to his tech company, Hyperion. But now, it appears Uba will be merging with another media company to keep the network afloat, which could spell layoffs and restructuring in Season 4.

Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Greta Lee and Nicole Beharie also star.

Canadian actor-brothers Shamier Anderson (John Wick 4) and Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk) had their stars unveiled on Scarborough’s Walk of Fame. The men were raised in the marginalized Toronto community by a single mother who emigrated to Canada from Jamaica.

“It’s really humbling and flattering to receive something like this in my hometown, at a mall where I grew up, where I shopped, it’s pretty cool,” Anderson told The Hollywood Reporter.

The local Walk of Fame honor for the fast-rising Hollywood stars is more than an exercise in collective positive thinking for an inner-city neighborhood that earlier brought to the world celebrities like Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and The Weeknd.

The brothers are at work via their Bay Mills Studios production banner — named after the community housing project they grew up in Scarborough — on a landmark TV drama set in the inner-city community that is their home away from Hollywood.

Canadian drama Brother won the 55th NAACP Image Award prize for outstanding international motion picture on Thursday night (March 14) as the advocacy group for Black America handed out its latest round of honours.

The film, directed and written by Clement Virgo and winner last year of 12 Canadian Screen Awards, had already been named outstanding independent film by the group, whose awards are being presented over five nights culminating in a televised ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday (March 15).

Ava DuVernay was revealed as winner of the group’s outstanding directing in a motion picture award for Origin and Cord Jefferson,...

Exclusive: XYZ Films has taken global distribution rights, excluding Canada, on the eco-thriller The Well, the first narrative feature by Academy Award-nominated documentary director Hubert Davis.

Recently filmed in Hamilton, Canada, The Well features a Canadian cast, including veterans such as Sheila McCarthy (Women Talking) and Arnold Pinnock (The Porter), who also executive produce. Shailyn Pierre-Dixon (Book of Negros) and Idrissa Sanogo (Robin Hood) also star. The ensemble, working outside of SAG jurisdiction, is rounded out by Joanne Boland (Handmaid’s Tale), Noah Lamanna (Dream Scenario), Natasha Mumba (The Last of Us), and Steven McCarthy (Mary Kills People).

Film’s synopsis reads: In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight for the precious resources needed to survive, a young woman’s (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man. When he discovers her family has a secret supply of fresh water it puts...

Kiana Madeira, best known for her role in Netflix’s hit trilogy Fear Street, has signed with Luber Roklin Entertainment for management.

In the horror-mystery series inspired by R.L. Stine’s beloved novels directed by Leigh Janiak, Madeira played the lead character, Deena, who bravely tackled the chaos throughout each film and quickly became a fan favorite.

In the award-winning indie film Brother, directed by Clement Virgo and based on David Chariandy’s novel, Madeira portrayed Aisha. The role earned her a nomination for Outstanding Performance at the 2023 Actra Toronto Awards. Additionally, she starred in Constantin Film’s Perfect Addiction and the popular Netflix films After We Fell, After Ever Happy, and After Everything.

Madeira’s television credits include Trinkets for Netflix, Facebook Watch’s Sacred Lies, and CW’s The Flash and Coroner. She is also set to appear in Adult Swim’s My Adventures with Superman Season 2, scheduled...

It's the Circle of Life: Disney keeps returning to the same well over and over until it runs dry, at which point the studio is forced to innovate again. After a decade of raking in billions of dollars by remaking its beloved animated features as either live-action/CGI hybrid films or animated films with photorealistic CGI, the House of Mouse has finally started to see a slowdown on that front, with the 2023 version of "The Little Mermaid" falling well short of the box office heights scaled by the previous re-imaginings of Disney Renaissance classics. Of course, this particular money-printing machine isn't about to break down overnight, as several more re-tellings are making their way down the assembly line as we speak.

Along with live-action takes on "Snow White," "Lilo & Stitch, and "Moana," Disney is also working on "Mufasa: The Lion King," an extension of its 2019 computer-animated (I said what I...

Clockwise from top left: Fair Play (Netflix), Pain Hustlers (Netflix), Us (Universal), Get Out (Universal)Image: The A.V. Club

Jordan Peele fans rejoice—Netflix brings the horror hits Get Out and Us to its library just in time for Halloween movie marathons. Also on deck is the David Yates crime...

A single mother struggles to protect her two very different sons, growing up in Toronto, in Clement Virgo’s deeply moving film

This critically feted and broodingly touching Canadian drama from writer-director Clement Virgo focuses on two siblings, Francis and Michael, brilliantly played by Aaron Pierre and Lamar Johnson. Yet despite the title and the poster that both foreground the two male leads, the film could equally have been called Mother (as opposed to mother!), with Marsha Stephanie Blake dominating the screen as the Jamaican-Canadian matriarch Ruth, struggling to hold and protect her sons. Indeed, all of Brother’s most powerfully affecting moments centre on Ruth’s love and loss, with her children the source of her joy and sadness.

We first meet Francis and Michael as teenagers at the foot of a gigantic power pylon, an electrical crackle buzzing in the bright rural air. The older, more adventurous Francis...

‘Rise Of The Footsoldier: Veagence’, ‘Rally Road Racers’ and ‘Bolan’s Shoes’ among other releases

Disney’s A Haunting In Venice leads a busy weekend at the UK-Ireland box office as the crime horror opens in 715 cinemas.

Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation follows the now-retired detective as he attends a séance where one of the guests ends up dead and he must solve the murder.

The director stars in the film once again as Hercule Poirot while the A-list cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey and Kelly Reilly.

It is a similar number of sites...

‘Rise Of The Footsoldier: Veagence’, ‘Rally Road Racers’ and ‘Bolan’s Shoes’ among other releases

Disney’s A Haunting In Venice leads a busy weekend at the UK-Ireland box office as the crime horror opens in 715 cinemas.

Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation follows the now-retired detective as he attends a séance where one of the guests ends up dead and he must solve the murder.

The director stars in the film once again as Hercule Poirot while the A-list cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey and Kelly Reilly.

It is a similar number of sites...

A sumptuously filmed adaptation of David Chariandy’s novel tackles heavy-duty issues such as police brutality, racism and closeted desire with a relatively light touch

“Danger: High Voltage” are among the first words seen on screen in writer-director Clement Virgo’s adaptation of David Chariandy’s 2017 novel. It begins with wannabe DJ/producer Francis (Aaron Pierre) pressuring his younger sibling Michael (Lamar Johnson) to join him in scaling a sinisterly buzzing pylon in their home town of Scarborough, Ontario. The voltage stays at that level throughout much of Brother, which ticks off several films’ worth of heavy-duty subjects – police brutality, racism, the immigrant experience, gang violence, closeted desire, dementia, cancer – and only occasionally verges on the ponderous.

The question that haunts the film is: what made Francis climb that day? After the opening scene, the action shifts forward a decade to find Michael, his old flame Aisha (Kiana Madeira...

It’s just another day in the life of Jessica Chastain. The above photo suggests that the Oscar-winning actress is calm, cool and collected, safe in the eye of the storm that is the Toronto International Film Festival. A shot painstakingly orchestrated by a veteran photographer, the photo looks effortless and Chastain flawless, bringing Old Hollywood glamour to clamoring Canadian streets.

“I love photographing a woman with great fashion,” said George Pimentel, celebrity photographer. “There’s nothing wrong with photographing men, but a woman who has a great outfit is special. Jessica Chastain came out of her car and I let security know I wanted the streets to be cleared. I wanted her in the middle of the street with Toronto in the back.”

In reality, this is just another day in the life of the Pimentel. This year’s TIFF marks the Toronto native’s 30th year in the industry,...

Despite the first simultaneous strikes of actors and writers since 1960 — 16 years before the first edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, or, as it was known then, the Festival of Festivals — a host of big names came out to present and receive honors Sunday evening at the fifth annual TIFF Tribute Awards.The gala dinner fundraiser for the fest’s philanthropic efforts — and an occasional harbinger of Oscar recognition — is held each year at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

This year’s highest-profile Tribute Award honoree, Spike Lee, has no ties to the ongoing awards season. Lee was presented with the Ebert Director Award by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, filmmaker Barry Jenkins (who called Lee “one of the best filmmakers of our time” and thanked him for carrying “so much weight for so many of us [Black filmmakers] for so damn long”) and the late film critic Roger Ebert‘s widow Chaz Ebert...

(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: Lamar Johnson and Aaron Pierre are the standouts in Clement Virgo's bracing "Brother," "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" is an unforgettably taut environmental thriller, and "You Hurt My Feelings" keeps writer/director Nicole Holofcener's winning streak going.)

If there's one thing that movie fans should recognize in the midst of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA's dual strikes, it's this: Films don't disappear the minute they end their original theatrical runs. Despite what studios would have you believe, the home release side of the equation involves several crucial factors such as residuals (which remain a top priority among writers and actors), transparency in streaming views, and more. But more to the point, ask any writer,...

We have seen many films dealing with the trials and tribulations of families dealing with gang warfare and talent going to waste due to it. Clement Virgo’s Brother may remind one of Boyz n the Hood, but the way it unfolds makes it a broader study on grief and how violence and prejudice fuse themselves with a person’s cultural identity, even if they try to fight hard against it. 2023 film, Brother also functions as a coming-of-age drama, where the younger brother grew up in the shadow of the elder one, and once he departed, he had to find his own way into an unjust world.

Brother is a gut-wrenching film, and editor Kye Meechan has to be mentioned because of how he has chronicled the entire film, moving back and forth in the timeline, bringing to the forefront the stark contrast between how somebody is before and how...

The spirit of Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” weighs heavily, both thematically and stylistically, on “Brother,” a drama about two brothers growing up in a low-income Toronto suburb that lacks the grace and eloquence of the 2016 Best Picture Oscar winner. But even if writer-director Clement Virgo, adapting David Chariandy’s 2017 novel, can’t achieve the sustained aura of ineffable melancholy he’s striving for, the film still hits some lovely notes of grace and poignance that rise above the script’s manipulative nature.

“Brother” also benefits from sterling performances by its two leads: Lamar Johnson as the reserved teenager Michael and Aaron Pierre as his hulking older brother Francis. The two live with their overworked single mother (Marsha Stephanie Blake) in a cramped apartment in the low-income Toronto suburb of Scarborough, which is populated primarily by immigrants.

Alternating between three timelines, the bulk of the story is set in the early 1990s,...

Clement Virgo’s “Brother” is the kind of movie whose opening scene is obviously meant to serve as a skeleton key for the rest of the story to come, but this decades-spanning drama — a lyrical and probing adaptation of David Chariandy’s novel about two siblings coming of age under the care of their Trinadadian single mother in the suburbs of Toronto — is so unstuck in time and shot through with raw emotion that its clunkier moments tend to function like tender maps back to the heart of the matter.

It starts with a formative memory that feels like a legend, as scrawny teenage Michael (“The Last of Us” actor Lamar Johnson) and his very big bro Francis (“The Underground Railroad” star Aaron Pierre) stand beneath the power lines that run along the Scarborough bluffs and listen for secrets amid the electric hum. “The buzz gets louder the higher you get,...

“Follow my every move:” Based on the award-winning novel of the same name by David Chariandy, “Brother,” the latest film from Clement Virgo, is a sweeping and mesmerizing story about familial bonds, the power of music, and the resilience of community. Set against the backdrop of the early days of the Toronto hip-hop scene, a movement fueled by the children of Caribbean immigrants, brothers Francis and Michael find themselves amidst sweltering temperatures and rising tensions, setting off a series of events that change their lives forever.

Continue reading ‘Brother’ Trailer: Clement Virgo’s New Directorial Effort Promises A Pulsing & Prescient Tale About The Bond Between Siblings at The Playlist.

Vertical has nabbed U.S. rights to Clement Virgo’s feature film, “Brother,” following its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Virgo wrote the screenplay and adapted the story of two brothers facing questions of masculinity, family, race and identity from David Chariandy’s novel of the same name. The film stars Lamar Johnson, Aaron Pierre, Kiana Madeira (“Fear Street” franchise) and Marsha Stephanie Blake (“When They See Us”).

The film is slated for a day-and-date release this summer.

Here’s the official description: “Propelled by the pulsing beats of Toronto’s early hip-hop scene, ‘Brother’ is the story of Francis (Pierre) and Michael (Johnson), sons of Caribbean immigrants maturing into young men. A mystery unfolds during the sweltering summer of 1991, and escalating tensions set off a series of events that change the course of the brothers’ lives forever. ‘Brother’ crafts a timely story about the profound bond between siblings,...

Chicago – The 10th Chicago Critics Film Festival (Ccff) continues through May 11th, with many screenings to come. On Wednesday, May 10th, a searing drama of sibling youth set in early 1990s Toronto is “Brother.” Click on Brother for tickets and more information.

Brother

Photo credit: ChicagoCriticsFilmFestival.com

Rating: 4.0/5.0

“Brother” is the story of Francis (Aaron Pierre) and Michael (Lamar Johnson), sons of Caribbean immigrants maturing into young men. Exploring themes of masculinity, identity and family, a mystery unfolds during the sweltering summer of 1991, and escalating tensions set off a series of events that change the course of the brothers’ lives forever. It’s a timely story about the profound bonding, the resilience of a community and the irrepressible power of music. Directed by Clement Virgo, who will appear on behalf of the film and participate in a Q&a after the screening.

Capsule Review: Although the themes of immigrant difficulties...

On Friday, April 14, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television celebrated the final presentation of the 2023 edition Canadian Screen Week, wrapping up four days of in-person events honouring the year’s best Canadian film, TV and digital media.

Friday featured the Comedic and Dramatic Arts Awards, which recognized the best of television performance and craft categories.

CBC drama “The Porter” took the lead, winning a record-setting 12 Canadian Screen Awards, including wins for: Best Drama Series; Best Direction, Drama Series; Best Writing, Drama Series; and Best Guest Performance, Drama Series for Alfre Woodward.

Read More: Et Canada Wins 3 Canadian Screen Awards For 2023

Hamza Haq of CTV medical drama “Transplant” won this year’s award for Best Lead Performer, Drama Series, making his third third consecutive win in that category.

The second season of CBC’s “Sort Of” commanded the comedy categories with seven wins, including: Best Comedy Series; Best Lead Performer,...

The BET+/CBC drama The Porter and the HBO Max/CBC comedy Sort Of were the big winners at the Canadian Screen Awards on Friday night.

The Porter, a civil rights drama about 1920s Black train employees in Montreal and Chicago, won for best TV drama, best drama direction for Charles Officer, best drama writing for Marsha Greene and Alfre Woodard picked up the trophy for best guest drama performance.

The first Canadian drama to boast an all-Black creative team also picked up a host of other trophies for best photography, original music, picture editing, make-up and hair and costume and production design. The Porter led the film and TV field for the Canadian Screen Awards with 19 nominations in all, including for best small-screen drama.

Also dominating the TV categories at the non-telecast Canadian Screen Awards was the Peabody Award-winning comedy Sort Of. The series about a gender fluid young...

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has named its batch of 2023 film and TV winners ahead of Sunday night’s broadcast of the Canadian Screen Awards on CBC and CBC Gem. During the weeklong celebration, which was broken up over four days, “The Porter” and “Brother” emerged with the most victories in their respective TV and film categories.

“Brother” had 13 nominations heading into Thursday night’s film celebrations and triumphed in 12 categories — including best motion picture. Clement Virgo also picked up wins for directing and adapted screenplay, while Lamar Johnson won for performance in a leading role and Aaron Pierre won for performance in a supporting role.

The film is based on David Chariandy’s prize-winning novel of the same name and made its world debut this past September at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Brother” revolves around the sons of Caribbean immigrants as they come of age during Toronto’s 1990s hip-hop scene.

Et Canada is kicking off Canadian Screen Week with a bang! Our team is proud to be the recipient of three CSA awards, received today, on day one of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s annual week-long celebration of the best in Canadian film, TV and digital media.

During Thursday’s CSA’s Digital & Immersive Awards ceremony, Et Canada Live and Et Canada Pride were recognized among three of 145 categories being honoured over four days of live award shows at Toronto’s Meridian Hall.

Of our three awards, Et Canada Live won two, one for “Best Live Production, Social Media” and one for “Best Host, Web Program or Series”.

Read More: Here’s Who The 2023 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Will Be Rooting For This Year

Et Canada wins three 2023 CSA awards.

Meanwhile, Et Canada Pride was honoured in the “Best Web Program or Series, Non-Fiction” category.

Et Canada...

Canadian Screen Week is officially underway — it’s the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s annual week-long celebration of the best in Canadian film, TV and digital media. With in-person ceremonies returning for the first time since 2019, nominees across 145 categories are being honoured over four days of live award shows at Toronto’s Meridian Hall. It’s all leading up to a star-studded broadcast hosted by Samantha Bee on Sunday night, when the winner of the Cogeco Fund Audience Choice Award will be revealed.

The hour-long special, which airs at 8 p.m. Et on CBC and CBC Gem, will look back at the past year in Canadian film and TV. Also on tap? Interviews with this year’s slate of Special Award recipients — which includes Canadian icons like Catherine O’Hara, Ryan Reynolds and Simu Liu — along with special guests Amy Poehler, Lamar Johnson, “White Lotus” star Adam Dimarco and more.

The parade of stars and VIPs partying on April 4 at Netflix’s Canadian headquarters launch had good reason to show up.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos hosted a glitzy bash in his new home base in Toronto, having invited Hollywood talent — like Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp; Suits actor Patrick J. Adams; Never Have I Ever actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan; and Robbie Amell, star of Upload, the sci-fi afterlife comedy shot in Vancouver — to rub shoulders with local Netflix execs like Danielle Woodrow and Tara Woodbury, who steer the streamer’s local content strategy north of the border.

“We’re excited to have a new home here in Toronto and are looking forward to all of the great work to come with the talented people in this country,” Sarandos said while toasting his party guests, who included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau; U.S. ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen; U.

Exclusive: Marsha Stephanie Blake (When They See Us), Gabrielle Graham (Twenties), John Ortiz (Promised Land) and Tamsin Topolski (Slow Horses) have been cast opposite Colman Domingo in Netflix’s The Madness limited series. The conspiracy thriller hails from Chernin Entertainment via its first-look deal with Netflix, creator and co-showrunner Stephen Belber (O.G., The Laramie Project) and co-showrunner VJ Boyd (Justified, S.W.A.T.)

Related: 2023 Netflix Pilot & Series Orders

In The Madness, media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo) must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. As the walls close in, Muncie strives to reconnect with his estranged family – and his lost ideals – in order to survive.

Blake will play Elena Daniels, the mother of Muncie’s 15-year-old son.

Graham portrays Kallie, the adult daughter of Muncie.

Ortiz plays Franco Quinones, a longtime FBI field agent with strong convictions and a relentless approach to his work.

It’s the end of the line for “The Porter”.

Just a day after earning 19 nominations at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards for its first season, the CBC and BET+ series has been cancelled.

Read More: 2023 Canadian Screen Awards: Clement Virgo’s ‘Brother’, ‘The Porter’ Lead Nominations

The series, inspired by true events, followed the story of Black train porters in 1920s Montreal, Detroit and Chicago attempting to secure safer working conditions.

Through the eight-part series, the workers unite to form the first Black-led labour union in North America, battling racism and corporate greed along the way.

Executive producer Jennifer Kawaja told The Canadian Press that while CBC had been pushing for a second season “until the bitter end,” their American partner BET+ decided not to move forward.

Read More: Alfre Woodard Joins ‘The Porter’ As Cast Member, Executive Producer

There had also been attempts made for the CBC to partner...

The very first email Toronto filmmaker Clement Virgo received on Wednesday morning was from Scarborough author Catherine Hernandez.

“It said, ‘Congratulations. Well deserved’,” Virgo tells Et Canada. “At first I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.”

Then he checked the news and saw that his movie “Brother”, a coming-of-age story set in Scarborough that he wrote and directed, received 14 Canadian Screen Awards nominations, topping all nods in the film category.

Read More: Exclusive: Clement Virgo’s ‘Brother’ Explores Growing Up Amid Toronto’s Pulsing ’90s Hip-Hop Scene

Just as Hernandez’s book was turned into an acclaimed film (2021’s “Scarborough”), “Brother” is an adaptation of a 2017 novel by David Chariandy. It follows two sons of Caribbean immigrants as they grow into young men while traversing Toronto’s ’90s hip hop scene. Among the CSA nods it received were Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction.

“It feels heartening and overwhelming.

The 2023 Canadian Screen Awards nominations are in.

On Wednesday, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (the Canadian Academy) announced the nominees in 145 television, film, and digital media categories, which also include the inaugural nominations in gender-neutral performance categories for lead and supporting performers in film and television.

The first season of CBC’s “The Porter” leads both television and overall 2023 Canadian Screen Award nominations with 19 nods, including Best Drama Series and Best Lead Performer, Drama Series nominations for Aml Ameen, Ronnie Rowe Jr., and Mouna Traoré.

Read More: Canadian Screen Awards Moves To Gender-Neutral Acting Categories

Both CBC’s “Sort Of” and CBC Gem’s “Detention Adventure” received 15 nominations, followed by CBC’s “Pretty Hard Cases” with 11.

Over in the film category, Clement Virgo’s “Brother” tops nominations with 14, including Achievement in Direction and Performance in a Leading Role for Lamar Johnson. Stéphane Lafleur’s “Viking” follows with 13, while...

The Canadian Screen Awards has unveiled nominations for the national film and TV prize-giving, and the CBC civil rights drama The Porter leads the film and TV field with 19 mentions in all, including for best small-screen drama.

The first Canadian drama series from an all-Black creative team, which also streams on BET+, centers on the lives of Black train porters and their families as they launch North America’s first Black labor union in the 1920s.

The TV categories, voted on by around 3,000 Canadian industry insiders, also sees the CBC series Detention Adventure and Sort Of – a Peabody award-winning show about a gender fluid young Muslim in Toronto played by Bilal Baig — nab 15 nominations each in an awards show shaping up to be a major showcase for people of color.

That follows Canadian film, and TV industry efforts to ensure diversity and inclusivity in the country’s indie production sector and prize-giving process.

A new CBC show is set to be the first major-network primetime series in Canada to feature a leading cast with disabilities.

Et Canada is giving you an exclusive first look at “Push”, an unscripted series that takes audiences into the world of “Wheelie Peeps,” described as “an unlikely group of friends and wheelchair users, bonded by their shared experience of navigating life on wheels” in a statement. Watch the trailer above.

Read More: Exclusive: Clement Virgo’s ‘Brother’ Explores Growing Up Amid Toronto’s Pulsing ’90s Hip-Hop Scene

We follow the group — consisting of ex-exotic dancers, mothers, concert pianists, self-described “rednecks” and more — as they start families, battle stigmas, delve into the dating world, and fight to prove that “even though their mobility may be limited, their lives and dreams are most certainly not.”

Scene from “Push”. — Photo: CBC

“This show is what I needed when I was first paralyzed,...

Netflix is teaming up with Colman Domingo for the forthcoming limited series The Madness. The Emmy-winning actor known for Euphoria and Fear the Walking Dead will lead the conspiracy thriller from Chernin Entertainment’s first look deal. Domingo will take on the role of Muncie Daniels, a media pundit who must fight for his innocence and life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. As the walls begin to close in on him, Muncie strives to reconnect with his estranged family, as well as his lost ideals, in order to survive the road ahead. The Madness will follow an eight-episode limited series format with The Laramie Project‘s Stephen Belber serving as creator of the series as he co-showruns with Justified‘s VJ Boyd. (Credit: Netflix) The Madness is executive produced by Belber, Boyd, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kaitlin Dahill with Clément Virgo who directs...

Colman Domingo signs on to star in Netflix’s ‘The Madness’

Fear the Walking Dead‘s Colman Domingo will star in The Madness, a limited series just greenlit at Netflix. The conspiracy thriller was created by Stephen Belber (The Laramie Project) and is part of Chernin Entertainment’s first look deal with the streaming service.

Belber and VJ Boyd (Justified) are co-showrunners of the eight-episode series, and both serve as executive producers along with Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kaitlin Dahill.

“Stephen Belber and VJ Boyd thrive in creating suspense-driven emotional stories that connect with broad audiences. We look forward to seeing them bring this timely conspiracy thriller to life and to continue our partnership with Netflix,” stated Chernin Entertainment President Jenno Topping.

Executive producer Clément Virgo (Greenleaf) will direct the first two episodes as well as the last two episodes. Quyen Tran (Maid) and Jessica Lowrey (Perry Mason) will each direct two episodes each.

Colman Domingo has officially lined up his next project with Netflix’s just-announced conspiracy thriller The Madness.

In the eight-episode limited series from Stephen Belber (The Laramie Project), media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo) “must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods,” reads the streamer’s official description. “As the walls close in, Muncie strives to reconnect with his estranged family — and his lost ideals — in order to survive.”

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Netflix has ordered the limited series “The Madness” with Colman Domingo set to star, Variety has learned.

“The Madness,” which will consist of eight episodes, is described as a conspiracy thriller. It centers on “media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo), who must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. As the walls close in, Muncie strives to reconnect with his estranged family – and his lost ideals – in order to survive.”

“‘The Madness’ is a fresh take on the conspiracy thriller — turning the genre on its head with its multi-layered characters, propulsive action and swift pace,” said Peter Friedlander, vice president of scripted series at Netflix for the US and Canada. “We are proud to have such a powerhouse team assembled to bring this dynamic story to life for Netflix viewers around the world, and to continue producing great entertainment with team Chernin.