State Champ Radio Movies
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Getty Images / Lena Waithe / Issa Rae
Will we be seated for this? Lena Waithe opened up about a new movie she is developing, and will star Issa Rae.
Waithe revealed that she is developing a film that will turn her “troubled friendship” with Issa Rae into a buddy comedy, and it will star both of them.
On a recent episode of Bustle’s One Nightstand podcast, Waithe described the movie as “funny and silly,” inspired by their “friendship breakup.”
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“I’m working on this movie for myself and Issa Rae,” Waithe said. “It’s a really cool idea about us being friends and having a bit of a friendship breakup, and it’s really funny and silly. I was supposed to be writing beats for her, but I ultimately just started writing the script.”
She also revealed the she and Rae have been discussing plans for the movie over Zoom adding the characters in the film will be “thinly-veiled versions” of themselves while also adding “The characters’ names [are] Lena and Issa, I’m not even being that imaginative about it.”
Waithe added, they “want to” play themselves in the film. “Issa’s going to be like, ‘Oh s***, well now we got to do it.”
This Will Mark Lena Waithe’s First Film Since 2019’s Queen & Slim
This latest news comes on the heels of Waite wrapping up her Showtime drama, The Chi, which will finally end after eight seasons, putting it in the same category as other Showtime series Dexter, Homeland and Weeds as the network’s second-longest running series.
Whenever this film begins production, it will be the first project since the controversial 2019 film, Queen & Slim that starred Daniel Kaluuyah and Jodie Turner-Smith which sparked alot of dicussions about its plot revolving around a Black couple on the run after shooting a cop accidentally following a blind date.
Despite the fallout, speaking with Deadline, Waithe said she is still making films telling the website in an interview “As for what the future holds, I still plan on telling stories, continuing to build community, and making space for us all to be seen.”
For Rae, she is coming off 2023’s box office hit Barbie and the critically acclaimed American Fiction.
Getty Images / Miami Vice / Michael B. Jordan
Joseph Kosinski and Universal’s new Miami Vice movie is picking up momentum and may have found one of its stars in Michael B. Jordan.
Remember that Miami Vice flick starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx as the iconic detective duo, Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs?
We do, unfortunately, but thankfully, Kosinski and Universal are working hard to help us forget about that flick and bring us a worthy movie based on the iconic television show.
According to Deadline, Michael B. Jordan is in early talks to play Ricardo Tubbs, the role originally played by Philip Michael Thomas in the Miami Vice television series.
The website reports that both parties are close to an agreement for Jordan to join the project after Universal shifted the dates, allowing him to complete filming on his latest directorial effort, The Thomas Crown Affair.
Per Deadline:
Joseph Kosinski and Universal’s anticipated Miami Vice movie looks to be heating up as Deadline is hearing Michael B. Jordan is in early talks to star as the iconic TV detective Ricardo Tubbs. Sources say it is still very early days and no deals are done, but after scheduling was worked out for this film to shoot later in 2026, Jordan is engaging and interested in starring in the project.
Miami Vice’s Rumored Plot
The film is slated for an August 6, 2027, release and, unlike the last movie, will keep things in the 80s and “explore the glamour and corruption of mid-1980s Miami, inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the NBC television series that ran from 1984-1089,” according to the website.
It’s still up in the air who will play opposite Jordan as the legendary Sonny Crockett, the character that turned Don Johnson into a pop culture icon.
The fans seem to be on board with Jordan joining the cast of Miami Vice. You can see those reactions below.
Murray Close / Will Smith
Will Smith’s legendary boneheaded decisions regarding choosing film roles early in his career will forever haunt him.
The rapper and actor has had numerous notable roles in his ongoing Hollywood career. Still, he will forever be remembered by movie fans for turning down the lead role of Neo in The Matrix franchise to star in one of the biggest flops of his career, Wild Wild West.
It turns out that he has been holding onto another epic failure, having turned down a role in the Christopher Nolan blockbuster Inception.
The Independence Day star shared during an interview with radio station KISS XTRA that Nolan pitched the 2010 mind-bending science fiction film to him, but he said nah because “didn’t get it.”
“I’ve never said that out loud,” Smith said in the interview. “And now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into those alternate realities, they don’t pitch well.”
Bruh.
He didn’t reveal which role Nolan was pitching to him, but the lead role ultimately went to Leonardo DiCaprio, and we honestly couldn’t see anyone else in it now.
Smith Is Still Hurt About Turning Down The Matrix
Smith also revisited his decision to turn down the starring role in The Matrix, calling it one of his “beautiful scars.”
Instead of being the one, a role that eventually went to Keanu Reeves, catapulting his movie career, Smith decided to star as Jim West in Wild Wild West.
Smith was banking on his newly minted status as a summer blockbuster king following the success of his previous films, Independence Day and Men in Black, but that turned out not to be the case.
The Matrix went on to be a critical success in 1999, spawning two successful sequels and a reboot, while Wild Wild West went on to win several Razzies and was panned by critics.
We are sure Smith has learned some valuable lessons from his box office misses.
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Fans will have to wait until Oct. 24 to see the eagerly anticipated Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere. But they got a teaser on Wednesday morning (June 18) when the first trailer for the film starring The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White as the Boss dropped, revealing the shape and mood of the film that will follow the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s introspective sessions for his stark, 1982 acoustic album Nebraska.
The two-and-a-half minute preview opens with White as Springsteen sitting in a Camaro on a car lot as he tells the salesman that he’s never owned a new vehicle before. “It’s awfully fitting for a handsome devil rock star,” the salesman says, tipping his hat that he knows exactly who his low-key, famous client is. “Well that makes one of us,” White replies.
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We next see Springsteen in his New Jersey bedroom with his guitar tech Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) as he works out the stripped-down sound of the Nebraska title track. “Don’t need to be perfect,” he tells Batlan, “I want it to feel like I’m in the room by myself.”
Director Scott Cooper’s movie also features Emmy and Golden Globe winner Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s longtime manager and confidant Jon Landau, who is seen telling a record exec that his client’s deeply personal album is “not about the charts. This is about Bruce Springsteen and these are the songs that he wants to work on right now,” as White moans out the lyrics to the album’s haunting title song.
Over images of White looking at old pictures, Strong tells a story about the singer’s childhood bedroom, which had a hole in its floor. That hole becomes a metaphor for Springsteen’s complicated relationship with his withholding father (played by Adolescence‘s Stephen Graham). “Bruce is a repairman,” Strong says. “And what he’s doing with this album is he’s repairing that hole in his floor. He’s repairing that hole in himself… and once he’s done that, he’s going to repair the entire world.”
The two-and-a-half-minute trailer ends with triumphant footage of a sweat-drenched White howling “Born to Run” on stage with the E Street Band, the veins in his neck strained to the extreme as he pulls off one of the rocker’s signature stage hops. Springsteen spent time on the set of the film earlier this year and he professed to be very impressed with White’s work.
In a chat on SiriusXM’s E Street Radio in January, the 75-year-old rocker was asked if it felt weird to see White play him on screen. “A little bit at first, but you get over that pretty quick and Jeremy is such a terrific actor that you just fall right into it,” Springsteen said. “He’s got an interpretation of me that I think the fans will deeply recognize and he’s just done a great job, so I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of fun being on the set when I can get there.”
In high praise from the singer known for his signature raspy, emotive voice, Springsteen said White was nailing it. “He sings well,” he said. “He sings very well.” Springsteen gave his full blessing for the adaptation of Warren Zanes’ book of the same name and in an interview earlier this year White said he’d studied hours and hours of video and worked with a vocal coach to nail Bruce’s vocal tone and speaking cadence.
The film also features Odessa Young (A Million Little Pieces) as Springsteen’s girlfriend, Gaby Hoffman (Transparent) as his mom, Adele, Marc Maron (Sticks) as record producer Chuck Plotkin and David Krumholtz (Oppenheimer) as a Columbia Records executive.
Check out the Deliver Me From Nowhere trailer below.
When Atlantic Records’ Kevin Weaver was approached about the soundtrack to F1, he says the label didn’t face much competition. “The successes that we’ve had speak for themselves,” he notes, which include recent smash soundtracks to films including Barbie and Twisters. Both boasted chart-topping superstars and spawned multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100 — and, in the case of Barbie: The Album, even landed three Grammys and an Academy Award. Which is partly why, Weaver adds, “We do get a lot of opportunities to see things early and first.”
Weaver, Atlantic’s president of the West Coast, was first approached about F1 last fall by David Taylor, head of music at Apple TV+ and Apple Original Films. He was then introduced to director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who showed him several scenes from the Brad Pitt-starring Formula 1 racing drama and discussed opportunities for music. “At that point, it felt undeniable to me,” Weaver recalls. “We knocked the deal out in less than a week — that is unheard of.”
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Weaver oversaw and produced F1: The Album — which received a kickoff at the Miami Grand Prix in April and will arrive June 27 alongside the film — with Atlantic executive vp/co-head of pop/rock A&R Brandon Davis and senior vp of A&R and marketing Joseph Khoury. This will be Atlantic’s first soundtrack release since restructuring as Atlantic Music Group, with Weaver sharing his gratitude for the “trust and support” from the new leadership team, including CEO Elliot Grainge, GM Tony Talamo and COO Zach Friedman. “From the very start with our launch at the Miami Grand Prix through each weekly single release, we’re lucky to have a team that is so dialed in,” he says.
Still, Weaver believes securing the deal might have been the easiest part of a process that has yielded one of the more genre-diverse soundtracks in recent memory, with contributions from Ed Sheeran, Rosé, Chris Stapleton, Myke Towers, Tate McRae, Burna Boy and more. “We try to look into a crystal ball,” he says. “And so as much as we go with the staples like the Ed Sheerans, trying to forecast artists that are going to be having the biggest moments around when we’re releasing the project and when the film comes out is always of critical importance, too.”
Plus, as Weaver says, Formula 1 is a “very global” brand, with the average F1 fan having music taste that is equally wide-ranging. “I went to a bunch of races. I got to spend time with drivers and team principals and immerse myself into the sport. A big part of general strategy was, ‘What are we doing that has a global feel?’ A big part of it was, ‘What kind of music would you hear when you’re in the paddock at an F1 race?’ ”
Kevin Weaver (second from left) and Rosé.
Evan Hammerman
The A&R experience, as a result, was much different compared with last year’s soundtrack to Twisters, which primarily featured country stars — fitting for a film about chasing tornadoes in central Oklahoma. (Twisters: The Album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.)
Only one artist appears on both projects: Stapleton had an existing song in Twisters and contributed the original track “Bad as I Used To Be” to F1: The Album. “Part of what was exciting was [it would] put Chris on an album and a platform that played in a much broader way than the lane and genre of country music,” Weaver says. “Same thing when I went to Dom Dolla and Tiësto and Peggy Gou: These seminal dance artists saw an opportunity to sit on an album with other global superstars across a lot of different genres, and I think that was part of the coveted nature of why artists really wanted to be a part of this thing.”
For Sheeran in particular, his aptly titled track, “Drive,” came together quickly while he was in the studio with John Mayer and producer Blake Slatkin, saying that “the song fell out of us” after he had seen some of the film. (Dave Grohl is also on the track.) Sheeran recalls how Mayer “just whacked an octave pedal on and went wild” to come up with the song’s riff.
“Movies are my hobby and probably the only thing other than sport that I get, like, starstruck to be part of,” Sheeran adds. “Not just directors or actors or whatever, but being a part of the journey of a movie is so exciting for me.”
Of the album’s 17 tracks, seven singles are already out. McRae’s “Just Keep Watching” has become the first to enter the Hot 100, at No. 33. The song also scored her another No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart.
“We set out to have multiple hits and to move culture. We always have our own odds of what we think are going to be the records, but then other records come out of nowhere,” Weaver says. “We always felt like the Tate song was going to be big. We always knew the Rosé song [“Messy”] was going to be special and really important. I feel really bullish about the Ed Sheeran song, the Burna Boy song [“Don’t Let Me Drown”], Tiësto and Sexyy Red [“OMG!”]. We have a lot of really strong records here. It boils down to which raise their hand.”
Until then, Weaver is already on to his next project — in fact, his next three are locked in. “I have one I can’t talk about specifically, but all I can say is we are doing the soundtrack for probably the most highly anticipated relevant global media [intellectual property] of our generation,” he teases. “And I think that is going to be a monster.”
This story appears in the June 21, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Source: YouTube / Amazon MGM Studios
It’s official, Spaceballs 2 is going into full production. And luckily for us, most of the original cast is still alive and acting (RIP John Candy) and will be returning to the Star Wars parody when principal photography gets underway.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 1987 cult classic comedy will finally be getting the sequel that fans have been clamoring for since the late ’80s. With the likes of Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis, and Bill Pullman, the film will surely give us older heads all the nostalgic feelings we can handle. With that being the case, the franchise will introduce new yet familiar actors to the franchise including Josh Gad (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Keke Palmer (NOPE), and Pullman’s real-life son, Lewis Pullman (Thunderbolts).
The Hollywood Reporter reports:
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Lewis Pullman will play a character named Starburst, the sun of Queen Vespa (Zuniga) and Lone Starr (Bill Pullman). Franchise newcomer Palmer will play a role by the name of Destiny. The two, along with Gad, are the leads.
One has to comb the desert to find plot details, but Amazon amiably describes the new project this way: “While the title, plot details, and rest of cast are being kept under wraps, the film has been described by those who have not yet read the script as ‘A Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two’ but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.”
Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Jeb Brody are producing alongside Gad, Brooks and Greenbaum. Kevin Slater, Adam Merims, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez will executive produce.
Check out the teaser trailer for Spaceballs 2 below, and let us know if you’ll be checking it out when it hits theaters in 2027.
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WWE / Jade Cargill
Jade Cargill, who is the plot of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, for very obvious reasons, will make her acting debut in the upcoming film True Threat, opposite Jonathan Majors.
Cargill is no stranger to acting, as she does so every week when she laces up her wrestling boots and takes out her opponents with her “Jaded” finisher on SmackDown, but in the upcoming film True Threat, she will flex her acting muscles on the big screen.
Deadline exclusively reports that Cargill is the second big name announced for the Harlem-set action thriller directed by Gerard McMurray (The First Purge, Burning Sands) and produced by Alexis Garcia’s CAT5 with Charlamagne Tha God, Basil Iwanyk (John Wick, Nobody), and Karen Kinney’s under her new banner, Southland Stories.
The Film’s Plot Describes A Movie All About Vengeance
According to the website, True Threat follows Special Forces operative Vernon Threat (Majors), who returns home and wants justice for his murdered son at the hands of Harlem’s Apollo Kids gang. Threat infiltrates The Carter (yes, the same Carter from New Jack City) that is controlled by the gang and fights his way floor by floor, taking out boss after boss until he confronts the gang’s leader, who also happens to be his former mentor, Shadow.
In the film, Cargill will play Meeka, a key lieutenant in the Apollo Kids and one of the film’s main villains. She will control the red light district in The Carter and also operates as a “power broker” in the building.
Per Deadline, the role will see Cargill “in an intense, physical and highly stylized performance space that builds on her athletic background.”
We can’t wait to see Cargill in action.
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The producers of a horror movie starring 50 Cent are blasting the rapper’s “baseless” lawsuit aimed at blocking its release, calling it a “last-minute shakedown.”
Fifty (Curtis Jackson) sued earlier this year to stop the premiere of SkillHouse, an upcoming horror movie in which he plays a big role, over claims that he never signed off. He claimed producer Ryan Kavanaugh had not paid him “a dime” and he had “no creative input.”
But in a scathing response on Thursday, Kavanaugh’s attorneys say the rap star “time and time again” gave his clear approval for the project – and that he cannot now “kneecap the film on the eve of its release.”
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“After almost three years of acknowledging his agreement to appear in the film, Jackson seeks to enjoin SkillHouse from its impending theatrical release,” Kavanaugh’s lawyers write. “This is a baseless and last-minute shakedown.”
Set for release July 11, SkillHouse is billed as a “social media nightmare,” in which ten influencers are kidnapped and forced to compete in a “deadly showdown” where “every like, share, and follow is a fight for survival.” While 50 Cent has the top billing, the movie also stars actual creators (Bryce Hall and Hannah Stocking) with huge followings on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Fifty filed his lawsuit in April, claiming he filmed the movie back in 2022 without a formal contract because he trusted that one would be signed later. But he says it never was — and that the producers cannot use his name and likeness without one.
“Defendants have billed Jackson as the star and producer of the film [and] have shamelessly and deceptively marketed the film as a ‘50 Cent Movie’ and ‘produced by 50 Cent,’ when it is nothing of the sort,” his lawyers wrote at the time.
But in Thursday’s response, attorneys for Kavanaugh and the movie’s production company say they have “a mountain of documentary evidence” that he did, in fact, agree to appear in and promote SkillHouse – including a tweet in which he bragged that it would “elevate horror to another level.” And they say 50 cannot “come close” to showing the kind of permanent damage that would necessitate an injunction blocking the movie’s premiere.
“Jackson cannot show irreparable harm from being associated with a well-received film he repeatedly touted his involvement in,” write Kavanaugh’s lawyers. “Moreover, he certainly cannot show an urgent need for action by the court when he, for almost three years, has known about (and approved) what he now contends is misappropriation.”
An attorney for 50 Cent did not immediately return a request for comment.
Just days after it was reported that Ariana Grande has been cast in Meet the Parents 4, the comedy series’ co-star, Robert De Niro, confirmed that he’ll be sharing screen time with the singer and Oscar-nominated Wicked star.
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On Monday night’s (June 9) Tonight Show, De Niro, 81, passed the lie detector test and said “that’s true,” when host Jimmy Fallon asked if the rumors about Grande’s casting were accurate. Asked if he knows Grande, De Niro said no, but recalled that they met seven or eight years ago when he dropped in to Saturday Night Live with one of his kids, who wanted to meet the singer.
“I didn’t do something with her, but she was on the same show,” De Niro recalled. “And we talked and I introduced her and one of my kids wanted to meet her.” At press time it was unknown what role Grande, 31, will play in the series about a taciturn retired CIA agent (De Niro) coming to grips with his bumbling, nebbish nurse son-in-law (Ben Stiller), though The Hollywood Reporter reported that the singer will play a “ball-busting” woman engaged to marry the now-adult son of Stiller and co-star Teri Polo’s Greg and Pam Focker.
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The cast has been talking up the latest edition to the franchise, with De Niro, Stiller, Polo and director Jay Roach celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original Meet the Parents while taking the stage at De Niro’s Tribeca Festival this week to talk about the sequel. Stiller, 59, called Grande “so talented… so great with comedy,” during a Q&A at the festival. And while Stiller said he couldn’t say too much about Grande’s character, he revealed that the role is “really, really funny and kind of the engine of the whole movie.”
When the interviewer joked that because of Grande’s inclusion the fourth go-round should, naturally, be a musical, De Niro quipped, “half the scenes that I have with her will be singing scenes.” John Hamburg, who co-wrote the first three movies, will direct the fourth one, the follow-up to Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010).
Grande got her start on the Nickelodeon series Victorious and iCarly before becoming a breakout pop superstar and earning Oscar and Golden Globe best supporting actress nominations for her role as Glinda in the first part of the double-up big screen adaptation of the musical Wicked. It will be Grande’s first new film role following her acclaimed turn in Wicked, whose second installment, Wicked: For Good, is due out on Nov. 21.
Watch De Niro talk Grande on Tonight Show below.
Outer Banks star Jonathan Daviss has been tapped to play Snoop Dogg in an upcoming biopic from director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Coming 2 America). According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brewer is currently working on revising the script previously written by Joe Robert Cole (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) that tells the story of Calvin […]
