Forest Whitaker News

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation announced today its tributes to award-winning director/producer/writer Lee Daniels, award-winning producer Megan Ellison, and award-winning director/producer Rob Marshall with the first “Patron of the Artists Awards”

A+E has added Shannon Lucio to its four-night, eight-hour miniseries ROOTS. Based on Alex Haley's Pulitzer Prize winning book “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” A+E's “Roots” is a re-imagining of the epic ABC miniseries which was released in 1977.

Starz today announced it has signed STARZ Original series “Power” Executive Producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson to an exclusive overall deal.

A+E Networks announces new casting for its four-night, eight-hour scripted event miniseries 'Roots,' from A+E Studios, including Academy Award winner(R) Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels' The Butler, South Paw) as 'Fiddler,' a slave who tries to mentor Kunta Kinte and risks his life to help him escape; Academy Award winner Anna Paquin (True Blood) as 'Nancy Holt,' the wife of a Confederate officer who has her own agenda when it comes to the handling of slaves; Golden Globe(R) Award winning and Emmy(R) Award nominated actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) as 'Tom Lea,' an uneducated slave owner desperate to claw his way into the elite company of Southern gentility; Tony Award(R) winner Anika Noni Rose (Dream Girls, The Good Wife, The Princess and the Frog) as 'Kizzy,' the cherished, smart daughter of Kunta Kinte who maintains her family pride and warrior spirit; Chad L. Coleman (The Walking Dead, The Wire) as 'Mingo,' a stern no-nonsense slave who keeps the Lea plantation afloat; Erica Tazel (Justified) as 'Matilda,' a preacher's daughter and love interest to 'Chicken George'; and Derek Luke (Captain America: The First Avenger, Antwone Fisher) as 'Silla Ba Dibba,' the military trainer of Juffure, charged with transforming teen boys into powerful Mandinka Warriors.

This just in! BroadwayWorld.com has learned that the Academy Award, Golden Globe & BAFTA winning actor Forest Whitaker will make his highly anticipated Broadway debut in HUGHIE, by four- time Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Prize Laureate Eugene O'Neill. Directed by Tony and Olivier Award winner winner Michael Grandage, HUGHIE will play a strictly limited engagement in the spring of 2016 on Broadway at a Shubert Theatre to be announced.

Lucasfilm announced today that their first film in the new standalone Star Wars stories series, "Rogue One," has begun principal photography. Gareth Edwards ("Godzilla," "Monsters") is directing "Rogue One," which tells the story of resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. The film is produced by Kathleen Kennedy and is slated for a December 16, 2016 release.

Disney's annual D23 Expo is underway this weekend with exciting announcement after announcement!

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis welcomes the Regional Premiere of Silence! The Musical opening tonight, August 13, 2015 on the Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. This production runs through September 13, 2015, with Bryan Fonseca serving as director.

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis announces the Regional Premiere of Silence! The Musical opening August 13, 2015 on the Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. This production runs through September 13, 2015, with Bryan Fonseca serving as director.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays boxer Billy Hope in the new action-drama, SOUTHPAW.

SOUTHPAW stars Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Broadway's CONSTELLATIONS), Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Rita Ora, Naomie Harris and Victor Ortiz. Click below to watch a trailer for the film!

Love Out Loud, the first feature film from New York-based filmmaker John Sylva, will have its first live reading headlined by a cast of celebrated actors from the worlds of theater, television, and film on Monday, July 13 at The Creative Center at MTC Studios at 7:30pm EST in Manhattan.

July ushers in endless streaming options for TV binging this summer with Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Video.

Starz today announced the highly anticipated return of original series “Power” tonight, June 6th at 9pm ET/PT. The second season of “Power” features ten hour-long episodes, a bump from the first season's order of eight episodes.

SOUTHPAW stars Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Broadway's CONSTELLATIONS), Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Rita Ora, Naomie Harris and Victor Ortiz. Click below to watch a brand-new trailer for the film!

Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was "a genius who lived fast and died young, revolutionizing an art form in a few short years" (NPR). The Grammy Award-winning bebop legend is the subject of Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD, the first world premiere in almost four decades for Opera Philadelphia, recognized by Opera News as "one of the leading instigators of new work in the country." The new chamber opera was created for American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a nominee for the 2015 International Opera Male Singer of the Year Award, by composer Daniel Schnyder, whose "thrilling classical-tinged jazz blend…constantly pushes the envelope" (Jazz Times), to a libretto by award-winning poet and playwright Bridgette Wimberly. Directed by Ron Daniels under the leadership of Music Director Corrado Rovaris, Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD premieres in Opera Philadelphia's Aurora Series for Chamber Opera, crowning the company's 40th Anniversary Season with a five-performance run in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater (June 5-14). Tickets are available from Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1018 or operaphila.org.

Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was “a genius who lived fast and died young, revolutionizing an art form in a few short years” (NPR). The Grammy Award-winning bebop legend is the subject of Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD, the first world premiere in almost four decades for Opera Philadelphia, recognized by Opera News as “one of the leading instigators of new work in the country.” The new chamber opera was created for American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a nominee for the 2015 International Opera Male Singer of the Year Award, by composer Daniel Schnyder, whose “thrilling classical-tinged jazz blend…constantly pushes the envelope” (Jazz Times), to a libretto by award-winning poet and playwright Bridgette Wimberly. Directed by Ron Daniels under the leadership of Music Director Corrado Rovaris, Charlie Parker's YARDBIRD premieres in Opera Philadelphia's Aurora Series for Chamber Opera, crowning the company's 40th Anniversary Season with a five-performance run in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater (June 5–14). Tickets are available from Ticket Philadelphia at 215.893.1018 or operaphila.org.

Below, get a first listen to Eminem's 'Phenomenal' from the orignal motion picture soundtrack to SOUTHPAW.

SOUTHPAW stars Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker, Rachel McAdams, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Rita Ora, Naomie Harris and Victor Ortiz.