By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Daniel Kaluuya has appeared in many notable projects as either a lead actor or key contributor, but he’s now making his debut in another area. The trailer for his directorial debut “The Kitchen” is now available online. He’s co-directing this project with Kibwe Tavares for Netflix, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Murtagh. A release about the project describes it in this manner: “In a dystopian London, the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. All forms of social housing have been eradicated and only The Kitchen remains.…
Author: Ron Wynn
Things didn’t go well for Middle Tennessee State University’s football program this past season. Coming off an 8-5 mark from last year, expectations were high. But instead the Blue Raiders finished 4-8, and more importantly to the athletic administration, attendance at home was dismal. Still, few anticipated what happened on December 5. Longtime head coach Rick Stockstilll, an 18-year fixture, was fired. Even fewer expected what came next. His replacement was former Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason. Mason had spent the season as an analyst for the SEC network, but had previously indicated he wanted to return to coaching. Mason…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — The Golden Globe Awards have been trying to revive interest and reshape their image in the wake of controversy over a lack of diversity in the voting base that awarded them. Another part of that process was announced this week as they unveiled the first Golden Globe nominations for Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. Nominations on Monday were given to several recently Grammy-nominated comedians, among them Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Trevor Noah and Sarah Silverman. Netflix led nominations in the category with five out of six. Rock’s “Selective Outrage,” seeing Sykes “I’m an…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Will Smith made headlines in many ways during a recent appearance at the third Red Sea International Film Festival. Among many other things he validated that news about an “I Am Legend” sequel is accurate, at least to a degree, and also acknowledged some past behavioral mistakes. “I have made tons of mistakes,” Smith admitted in an interview with Variety.. “We love your mistakes,” a woman in the audience screamed in return. And the star shared that he has Quincy Jones as a trusted adviser and mentor. “Quincy has always made himself available,” Smith…
If anyone has any doubts that major college football is first and foremost a big money enterprise driven by television dollars, they should be forever convinced by what the college football playoff committee did this past Sunday. For the first time in the history of the playoff system, an unbeaten Power 5 conference champion got excluded. Florida State, the ACC champion, was excluded despite posting a 13-0 record. Their sin was having their number one QB Jordan Travis injured and out for the season with two games remaining. Florida State still won those games, but the offense struggled to score.…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” has previously been released as a film and also in a theatrical version. But there’s a new, updated film adaptation coming to theaters for Christmas. This week viewers can get an inside look into the making of the film courtesy of The Oprah Winfrey Network. It will present an hour-long special “OWN Celebrates The New Color Purple” Friday at 9 p.m. Central. Winfrey, who also executive produced the new adaptation, hosts the behind-the-scenes special. She will conduct interviews with the film’s cast and offer an intimate look at…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — Concert films are proving a big draw this season as theatrical releases. Over the weekend the biggest high profile and most successful film released was “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” It was the followup to “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” though it opened in over 1,000 fewer theaters than “Eras” did. “Renaissance” opened in 2,539 theaters on Friday, the movie brought in an estimated $21 million to lead the weekend. Audiences gave it an “A+” on CinemaScore, same as “The Eras Tour.” “Renaissance” made another $6.4 million overseas for a global opening of $27.4…
With Sunday’s 119-97 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Memphis Grizzlies early season record fell to 3-13. They have yet to win a game at home in the new season. Their roster is so depleted the league recently granted them two hardship exemptions to sign players. Their situation shows just how quickly a team’s status can change, and how the combination of injuries and personnel issues can torpedo a team many once thought was on the edge of being a great one. Last year it seemed the Grizzlies had arrived. They finished the regular season with the second best record…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — One way to tell if a film has been successful is when there’s talk about a sequel. That’s the case with the horror film “The Blackening,” which was made on a shoestring budget. It did so well that MRC and Lionsgate are developing a sequel. The production, which neatly blended gore, comedy and pop culture references, was created by the duo of Dewayne Perkins and Tracy Oliver. It had a sparse budget of five million dollars. Thus far it has earned more than than $18 million at the box office. So it’s not a…
By Ron Wynn NASHVILLE, TN — What once looked like it might be a special season ended in disappointing fashion Saturday for the Tennessee State University Tigers. On Senior Day the Tigers delivered their worse performance since the opener at Notre Dame. They fell behind by 14 in the first five minutes and things went downhill from there. The final result was a 35-0 defeat to Tennessee Tech. The loss was the first at Nissan Stadium for the Tigers. They ended the season 6-5, their first winning mark since 2017 and first under Eddie George. But they closed the year…