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Get ready for 'Genera+tion', HBO Max's newest buzzy teen drama

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Warrick Page / HBO Max(LOS ANGELES) — The “dark, yet playful” coming-of-age series, Genera+tion, premiers today on HBO Max.

The series, created by 19-year-old Zelda Barnz and her fathers Daniel and Ben, and produced by Lena Dunham, has been compared to HBO’s other buzzy teen drama Euphoria.

Zelda tells ABC Audio the show “is about a group of queer youth in Anaheim who are kind of searching for connectedness, both on social media and in person, in their kind of conservative community, and they sort of just… find each other.”

While not her life story, Zelda says there’s “definitely a lot” of her in the show.

“I did want to see myself and my friends represented authentically on screen, but I definitely would say that the show isn’t necessarily based on my life or my experiences,” she explains.

Adds Zelda, “It’s definitely fiction, but I would say the essence of the high school experience is definitely something that inspired it.

Gener+ation is a family affair, and Daniel tells ABC Audio the stories, many of which involve sex and drugs, made for interesting family dinners

“I could never have imagined having this kind of conversation with my parents,” he says.

“It’s been amazing, obviously, to work in creating the show together,” he continues. “But there has been a whole other level, too, which is just us as a family being able to be more honest and open and communicative with each other as a result of talking about the things that are connected to the show. 

Gener+ation stars Chase Sui Wonders, Chloe East, Haley Sanchez, Lukita Maxwell, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Nathanya Alexander, Nava Mau and Uly Schlesinger with Justice Smith and Martha Plimpton.

By George Costantino and Jason Nathanson
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Oscar winners Natalie Portman, Lupita Nyong’o to star in, produce AppleTV+ series 'Lady in the Lake'

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Photos: Nick Barose/Frederic Auerbach — Courtesy AppleTV+(LOS ANGELES) — Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o will produce and star in a series adaptation of Laura Lippman’s New York Times best-selling mystery novel Lady in the Lake. 

Set in 1960s Baltimore, the movie will have Portman playing a housewife and mother who becomes an investigative journalist to solve a cold case murder.

According to AppleTV, this puts Maddie Schwartz on a “collision course” with Nyong’o’s character Cleo Sherwood, “a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.”

The series for the streaming network will be directed and co-produced by Alma Har’el, the award-winning filmmaker behind the Shia LaBeouf’s drama Honey Boy.

The series marks Black Swan Oscar winner Portman’s first foray into television.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tracy Morgan wants to get serious in Louis Armstrong biopic, says 'Coming 2 America' co-star Jermaine Fowler

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Amazon Studios/Quantrell D. Colbert(LOS ANGELES) — Although he’s already known as one of the funniest people on the planet, those close to Tracy Morgan say he’s ready to get serious onscreen — by playing groundbreaking jazz legend Louis Armstrong.

That’s the word from his Coming 2 America co-star Jermaine Fowler. “I would love to see him do something dramatic,” the stand-up and actor tells NME. “He wants to play Louis Armstrong in a biopic and I believe he can do it.”

Fowler, who plays Lavelle, the illegitimate son of Eddie Murphy’s Prince Akeem, in the comedy, explains, “In fact, he showed us a clip of a movie he’s financing that’s really, really dope.” 

Fowler says of Morgan playing Armstrong, who died in 1971, “He sounds exactly like him and looks exactly like him, and I was blown away by it. If he can truly pull that off, I think it’ll put Tracy on another level altogether.”

Fowler also admits he fanned out over having Morgan and Murphy — two of his stand-up idols — as co-stars in Coming 2 America.

“I’ve been a fan of everything Tracy’s done since Martin,” he said, and admitted that he even quoted one of the lines Tracy said in the comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back back to the former SNL and 30 Rock star.

Jermaine recalled that Morgan’s reaction was, “I don’t really remember none of that, man” — which he calls “the perfect response.”

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Don Cheadle talks working with "the latest GOAT" LeBron James on 'Space Jam: A New Legacy'

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TM & © 2021 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — Don Cheadle says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to star in the upcoming film Space Jam: A New Legacy. The 56-year-old actor plays Al-G Rhythm in the sequel to the animated 1996 classic, opposite LeBron James.

Cheadle told Entertainment Weekly that he was immediately drawn to his “character, what was going to happen with LeBron, the [concept] of the film and the opportunity to take a classic title like that and do another spin on it with the latest GOAT, being LeBron.”

“I just thought, “Hey, this is cool. To get to play this really innovative character,” Cheadle said. “I just thought it was going to be a cool family story with LeBron and a cool character to play opposite him.”

Cheadle said in some ways his character Al-G “is LeBron’s nemesis, but I don’t think he sees himself in that way.”

“A lot of what is happening inside the movie is about what it means to be in a family, what it means to be yourself, and what identity is about,” he continued. “A lot of people can connect to all of those things, not just kids that are trying to figure that out for themselves.”

After working closely with the NBA star, Cheadle believes LeBron has what it takes to pursue a career as an actor. 

“I think he’s absolutely down for it and wants to work hard at it. I would tell him if he got too good at it, he needs to stay in his own lane,” Cheadle joked. “He’s got enough shine.”

Space Jam: A New Legacy premieres July 16 in theaters and on HBO Max.

By Rachel George
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Suits' star Wendell Pierce says his Meghan Markle comments were not an attack on his good "friend"

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Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Wendell Pierce is clarifying his recent comments about his former Suits co-star Meghan Markle after he says they were taken out of context by the U.K. press.

Earlier this week, Pierce made an appearance on Britain’s LBC radio station, where he was asked about Markle’s Oprah Winfrey interview. In response, Pierce brought up the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 2.6 million lives worldwide, by way of contrast.

“Today, 3,000 people are going to die in America from COVID,” said Pierce. “A couple of hundred people are going to die, even this hour, in the U.K.” Pierce also described Oprah’s special with Meghan and Harry as “insignificant,” and that being asked about his former co-star’s interview was “quite insensitive and offensive… in the midst of so much death.”

However, in a series of tweets on Tuesday night, Pierce says his comments about Markle’s interview were not intended as an attack.

“I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best. Predicting this hellacious maelstrom, I also told her she would always have a friend in me,” Pierce wrote. “Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that.

He also added that he was not “insensitive to suicide,” revealing, “Unfortunately my family has suffered the pain of losing someone to suicide.”

“I never was interviewed by the Daily Mail and their story manipulated my words in a radio interview,” Pierce declared. “As I told Meghan, I support her and wish her all the best.”

Instead, Pierce criticized the royal family, suggesting that the horrors his friend detailed were not a surprise.

“The British monarchy is archaic in my American eyes. If slavery, colonialism and apartheid didn’t educate you that they are racist, you failed history,” he wrote.

By Candice Williams
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.