Film News Roundup: Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson Join Eddie Murphy’s ‘Dolemite Is My Name’
By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) –
In today’s film news roundup, Eddie Murphy’s “Dolemite Is My Name” and DreamWorks Animimation’s “Abominable” have rounded out their casts and veteran exec Gary Glushon joins F. Gary Gray’s production company.
CASTINGS
Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Tituss Burgess and Da’Vine Joy Randolph have joined Eddie Murphy in the Netflix biopic “Dolemite Is My Name!”
Production started June 11 with Craig Brewer directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Murphy is also producing with John Davis and John Fox. Michael Buegg is executive producing.
The project centers on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, who recorded the Dolemite comedy albums in the early 1970s and used the proceeds to finance the 1975 film “Dolemite,” in which he starred as a pimp and ghetto hero. Moore also starred as Dolemite in “The Human Tornado,” “The Monkey Hustle,” and “Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil’s Son-in-Law.” He died in 2008.
Netflix will launch the film in 2019. Murphy has limited his movie performances in recent years, last starring in the 2016 drama “Mr. Church” and the 2012 comedy-drama “A Thousand Words.”
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DreamWorks Animation and Pearl Studio have hired Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, and Tsai Chin to join Chloe Bennett in the voice cast of animated adventure “Abominable.”
The film is set to be released by Universal Pictures on Sept. 27, 2019. The announcement was made at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The story revolves around teens who help to reunite a magical Yeti with his family. Chloe Bennet will play Yi as previously announced. Norgay Trainor will voice the role of Yi’s teenage neighbor Jin. Albert Tsai will star as Jin’s younger cousin Peng. Chin will voice the role of Yi’s grandmother, Nai Nai.
Jill Culton is directing “Abominable” and Todd Wilderman is co-director, Suzanne Buirgy serves as producer with Tim Johnson as executive producer.
Norgay Trainor is best known for his role of Parker Rooney on “Liv and Maddie.” He is the grandson of Tenzing Norgay, the first Sherpa to reach the summit of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953.
EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENT
F. Gary Gray’s Fenix Studios has hired veteran executive Gary Glushon as executive vice president to oversee the company’s film and television slate.
Glushon previously worked at China-based Fundamental Films and executive produced “24 Hours to Live” and oversaw Keanu Reeve’s upcoming “Replicas” and “Hummingbird,” with Milla Jovovich attached. Prior to Fundamental Films, Glushon was a vice president at Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, where he worked on “The Karate Kid,” “Seven Pounds” and “Hancock.”
Gray directed and produced “Straight Outta Compton” and directed “The Fate of the Furious.” He’s directing Sony’s untitled “Men In Black” spinoff, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson and Liam Neeson, which opens on June 14, 2019.
