Film News Roundup: Les Twins, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall Join ‘Men In Black’ Spinoff
By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – In today’s film news roundup, the “Men In Black” spinoff rounds out its cast, “93Queen” gets distribution and a Moe Berg documentary is in the works.
CASTINGS
Les Twins, Kumail Nanjiani, and Rafe Spall have join the ensemble cast alongside Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Liam Neeson of Sony Pictures’ “” spinoff.
The movie has started shooting in London. F. Gary Gray is directing the movie from a screenplay by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing; Steven Spielberg is executive producing, David Beaubaire is overseeing for Sony.
The film is slated for release on June 14, 2019. Les Twins are Laurent Nicolas Bourgeois and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois, a self-taught duo who became well known when their street dancing videos where uploaded to YouTube. They went on to become the star dancers on the Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour by Cirque du Soleil. They then became the only male dancers to dance alongside Beyonce for The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and again, with Beyonce and Jay-Z for their On The Run Tour.
ACQUISITION
Abramorama has acquired the U.S. and Canadian theatrical rights to Paula Eiselt’s feature directorial debut, “93Queen.”
Set in the Hasidic enclave of Borough Park, Brooklyn, the movie follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are smashing the patriarchy in their community by creating Ezras Nashim, the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in the United States.
“93Queen” premiered at the 2018 Hot Docs International Film Festival. Abramorama will open the film theatrically at the IFC Center in NYC on July 25 and select cities thereafter.
The movie centers on Rachel “Ruchie” Freier, the founder of Ezras Nashim, a Hasidic lawyer and mother of six who is determined to provide dignified emergency medical care to the Hasidic women and girls of the neighborhood.
DOCUMENTARY LAUNCH
Aviva Kempner has is finishing production on “Moe Berg,” the first feature-length documentary about the enigmatic and brilliant baseball player who turned spy for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.
Berg not only played for the last Washington Senators team to play in a World Series (1933), but he also trained with the OSS not far from the team’s home — Griffith Stadium. Kempner is on schedule for entering the major film festivals before “Moe Berg” hits theaters nationwide by Opening Day of the 2019 MLB season. The film will feature rare historical footage as well as revealing interviews with an All-Star roster of celebrities and other individuals from the worlds of sports, spycraft, and history.
Berg played on five different baseball teams in the ’20s and ’30s, spoke a multitude of languages, earned degrees from Princeton University and Columbia University Law School, and attended the Sorbonne. IFC released “The Catcher Was a Spy,” starring Paul Rudd, on June 22.
Kempner said, “With the recent release of ‘The Catcher was a Spy,’ Moe Berg is finally achieving the notoriety he so deserves as a World War II hero.”
