Latest in John Ridley

A day after WarnerMedia's Sandra Dewey promised a virtual Cannes that Gone With the Wind would be back on HBO Max "very soon," the controversial 1939 film has indeed returned – with some poignant historical context "about the film's handling of the topic of slavery, and its treatment of Black characters." Pulled from…

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-director John Ridley has been writing and directing film and TV projects about racial conflict his whole career. And despite winning the Oscar for scripting 12 Years a Slave, he has always found it a tough sell, the idea of forcing people to confront their own feelings about race and prejudice. He is…

Less than two weeks after launch, HBO Max has removed Gone With the Wind from its streaming offering. It’s a significant move given the film’s popularity and status as the highest-grossing movie of all time when box office numbers are adjusted for inflation. From an HBO Max spokesperson: Gone With the Wind is a…

Black No More, a new musical by 12 Years a Slave screenwriter and American Crime creator John Ridley and The Roots’ Tarik Trotter (aka Black Thought), will launch The New Group’s 2020-2021 theater season at Off Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center. Directed by Scott Elliott, with choreography by Bill T. Jones…

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Guerrilla) has signed on to write, direct and executive produce an untitled musical drama for Showtime, which has received a straight-to-series order. On the project, originally announced in July with a series commitment, he joins executive producers Alicia Keys…

Writer/director/producer John Ridley has signed a new five-year overall deal with ABC Studios. This is the longest-term pact for Ridley at the studio where he has been since 2014 with a two-year overall deal, followed by a three-year one. The long-term agreement reflects the desire by TV studios to secure their talent…

A second group of filmmakers have petitioned WarnerMedia to reconsider its decision to shutter FilmStruck at month’s end. Here is . the second letter To whom it may concern at Turner and Warner Bros. Digital Networks: Roger Ebert once said "the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a…

Oscar-winning writer-director John Ridley (American Crime) has been tapped to direct the first episode of Godfather of Harlem, Epix’s straight-to-series crime drama, starring and executive produced by Forest Whitaker. The series hails from Narcos creator Chris Brancato and Paul Eckstein, and ABC Signature…

EXCLUSIVE: Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Cynthia Erivo, and Orlando Bloom have signed on to star in Needle In A Timestack, the latest film from John Ridley.  In addition, BRON Studios has boarded the project as a producer taking over after Miramax was originally attached. Oscar-winning Ridley is directing the pic…

EXCLUSIVE: John Ridley and Blumhouse Productions have teamed on a movie adaptation of his comic book series The American Way: Those Above And Those Below. The Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave writer and creator/exec producer of the ABC anthology series American Crime is writing to direct a film that uses superheroes to…

EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker John Ridley, who won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay 12 Years a Slave, is taking over a building in what is known as the Pabst Brewery Complex in Milwaukee to create a creative hub for artists in his hometown. No Studios, a 40,000 square foot building, was purchased by Ridley and his business…

In the seven months since John Ridley's documentary on the LA Riots first hit theaters and then ABC, the nation has taken a turn, the director says—and not for the better. "I ask this as a rhetorical question—why have we regressed that much between April and November? It certainly seems that way," he tells…