Latest in Kasi Lemmons

EXCLUSIVE: ABC’s Women of the Movement has assembled a team of four accomplished Black female directors for the first installment of the potential anthology that celebrates the women of the civil rights movement. Tina Mabry (Mississippi Damned), Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust) and Kasi Lemmons (Harriet) will join Gi…

Skydance Television has acquired the rights to P. Djéli Clark's novella Ring Shout in a competitive situation. Kasi Lemmons (Harriet, Eve's Bayou) is set to serve as showrunner and will write and direct the television series based on the historical fantasy while Kiki Layne (The Old Guard, If Beale Street Could Talk)…

After a staggering 1,500 applications (the largest number of the submissions for the program ever), Universal's Global Talent Development & Inclusion has selected Jennifer Coates, Angela Delgado, Satinder Kaur and Larry Santana as the participants in this year’s Universal Writers Program.  In addition, 2019 program…

Kasi Lemmons will adapt and direct Maaza Mengiste's historical fiction novel The Shadow King about the Ethiopian women soldiers, left out of the historical record, who went to battle against Mussolini's invading army in 1935 Ethiopia. Atlas Entertainment is producing. The novel follows, Aster, the wife of a commander…

It is no secret that the Hollywood Foreign Press was put under fire for shutting out women in the Best Director category at this year’s Golden Globes. In fact, the amount of women, people of color and underrepresented voices were fairly thin across all categories. Deadline talked to female filmmakers, producers and…

The Broadway revival of The Color Purple netted Cynthia Erivo a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. It also led, by chance, to her movie breakthrough: the opportunity to play famed 19th century abolitionist and escaped slave Harriet Tubman in Harriet. "I went to go see The Color Purple…on Broadway and sat…

The determined struggles of true-life heroes, whose tales look to resonate loudly this awards season, were at the heart of Focus Features' Contenders NY presentation Saturday at the DGA Theater in New York City. For Harriet writer/director Kasi Lemmons (who helmed both Eve's Bayou and Talk To Me) the task was to offer…

"I had known about her since I was little," Harriet star Cynthia Erivo said of the iconic Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman. "I felt like she was a superhero to me and I wanted to make sure the world saw her as a human being and a woman," added the British-born Tony and Grammy winner. In our discussion about…

There is absolutely no denying Harriet Tubman’s significance in American history: a famous conductor of the Underground Railroad who freed many enslaved people, a Union Army spy and an activist for women’s suffrage. But the story of the much-lauded perennial figure of the Civil Rights movement never had been…

The Oscar show this year will be led by two women with strong producing credentials, sending us this message: There's a new generation of self-styled “badass” women filmmakers out there, ready to leave their mark on the film culture. The arrival of awards season, however, may carry a different portent: The possibility…

Eddie Murphy will receive the Career Achievement Award, and Nia Long, Chiwetel Ejiofor and director Kasi Lemmons will also be honored December 2 at the Celebration of Black Cinema presented by the Critics Choice Association (formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association). The event at the new Landmark…

Harsh reality takes center stage in Focus Features' Harriet, the harrowing story of abolitionist Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo), and Dark Waters, the tale of attorney Rob Bilott (portrayed by producer and star Mark Ruffalo) ,the Cincinnati lawyer who took on DuPont, which was dumping toxic materials into the water in…