Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Atlanta Hostage Crisis Captured in New Movie Starring Selma’s David Oyelowo!

Hello World,

This just in:

Paramount Pictures announced today that it has secured the worldwide distribution rights to “CAPTIVE,” starring David Oyelowo (“SELMA”) and Kate Mara (“FANTASTIC FOUR,” “House of Cards”). The studio will release the film on September 18, 2015.

Directed by veteran filmmaker Jerry Jameson, the film is based on the book Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero by Ashley Smith with Stacy Mattingly. The film’s screenplay is by Brian Bird.

“I was drawn to this story because it beautifully illustrates how a broken spirit can be healed by an unexpected source of hope. I feel blessed to be continuing my very fruitful relationship with Paramount,” said David Oyelowo.

Also starring Michael K Williams, Mimi Rogers, Jessica Oyelowo and Leonor Varela, the film was produced by Terry Botwick, Jerry Jameson, David Oyelowo and Ken Wales in addition to BN Films’ Alex Garcia, Lucas Akoskin and Katrina Wolfe. The executive producers are Santiago Garcia Galvan, BN’s Jonathan Gray, Elliott Lester, Ralph Winter and Bird. BN fully financed the picture.

Terry Botwick said, “In March of 2005 Ashley’s story captivated the nation on news outlets everywhere. Her story is thrilling and redemptive as God intersected the lives of two very broken people in the most dramatic way. It has been amazing getting to know Ashley and to be working with such fine actors. I’m so pleased to also be partnering with Paramount to bring this authentic encounter to a worldwide audience.”

“Jerry Jameson has done a fantastic job bringing to life Ashley Smith’s harrowing ordeal and miraculous redemption, and Kate Mara portrays her with phenomenal sensitivity and poignancy. Along with “Nightingale,” “Captive” also represents our second collaboration with the brilliantly talented David Oyelowo. We look forward to continuing this special relationship with David and believe that the film has found the perfect home at Paramount,” said Alex Garcia, President of AG Studios, the holding company of BN Films.

The film tells the dramatic, thrilling and spiritual true story of Ashley Smith (Mara), a single mother and recovering drug addict who was taken hostage in her own apartment by fugitive, murderer and accused rapist Brian Nichols (Oyelowo). With her back against the wall, Smith turned to the personal spiritual journey of Rick Warren’s best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life in an attempt to survive and help Brian find a better way out.

Any thoughts?

Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Do Women Write Better Than Men?

Hello World,

I admit it. I’m a female chauvinist when it comes to fiction. As women are the primary consumers of novels, I tend to believe that women can best write for women. However, I must say that I’m really quite impressed with Curtis Bunn’s novel “Homecoming Weekend: A Novel (Zane Presents)” which I am reading right now. He does an excellent job of characterizing the women in the book. I’m also a fan of Eric Jerome Dickey’s work. And we all know that Nicholas Sparks is a master at writing women’s fiction so there are some male authors that do write masterfully for female readers, but since this is National Women’s History Month, I thought I would pose the question, “Do Women Write Better Than Men?” The Grammarly infographic — which includes statistics based on a poll of more than 3,000 men and women about plot development, pronouns & determiners, characters and sentences — below answers this question…

This post was sponsored by Grammarly…Be sure to check out Grammarly out here!

Any thoughts?

Posted on Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Where Was Issa Rae When I Was an ‘Awkward Black Girl?’ Check Out Her New Book!!!

Issa Rae and Me 🙂

Hello World,

On Monday, awkward black girls from around the A as well as people that appreciate Issa Rae’s special brand of quirky, self-deprecating and smart humor swarmed the Alliance Theatre to attend a book signing for debut author Issa Rae. Her recently released book The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, now a New York Times Best Seller, is a collection of heartfelt essays charting her love affair with the Internet and how she become a YouTube sensation with her comedy series Awkward Black Girl, her journey to loving her natural hair and weight, growing up with an African dad, connecting with other types of (not awkward) black people and more. Since she created her web series in 2011, she has secured more than 25 million views and over 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. And her astonishing success has led to other opportunities including being one of the co-hosts of ASPire’s popularly weekly talk series exhale which will have four new episodes in June. In addition, she developed a TV series with Shonda Rhimes for ABC and is currently developing a half-hour comedy for HBO.

“I ultimately want to be a super producer like a Shonda Rhimes meets Oprah meets Diddy meets Ellen,” Issa Rae said with a laugh after I asked what is her ultimate career goal.

So that ends my official journo recap of Issa Rae’s book signing…Up next, my personal connection with “Awkward Black Girl.”

Author and playwright Pearl Cleage interviewing Issa Rae….

I’m now at that age (41) where I’m still young enough to look up to people, but I’m just old enough to be inspired by people younger than me as well. It’s an awkward age, but I’m trying to embrace it a day at a time. While chatting with (interviewing) Issa Rae, watching her officially be interviewed by Pearl Cleage at the book signing and listening to her read from her book, I realized that knowing that someone like her would have gone a long way to encouraging the awkward black girl that I was…

So here is a picture of me when I was at my most awkward…that’s me in the pink sweater vest…so cool, lemme tell ya…I was one of three black people in my sixth grade class at Sandy Springs Middle School as you can see…That was awkward enough, but there is more…Although I was of one of three black people, I was the only one bussed to the school that was in a primarily white neighborhood from the south side of Fulton County as a part of the Minority to Majority Program. People assumed I came from the ghetto although I was in private school the year before…I remember one of the white boys in my class asked me if I could rap seeing I was from the hood and all…Did I look I could rap? Yeah, right…With my button-down shirt and clear school boy glasses…My best friends were Judy Blume books and chocolate bars…I think not…(Although Issa Rae can bus a rhyme) And this was around the time that my interest in boys was most painful (other than in my ’30s) because I liked black boys and there were very few of them at the school…And then I couldn’t figure out what to do with my hair…My hair was permed, but I didn’t know how to style it…And let’s just say my fashion sense was in transition…Did I mention I love/loved chocolate? (Yes, I did. See above…) So I was plump (not fat) on top of everything else that made me awkward…

So last night, all of this came back to me particularly as Issa Rae read from her book and later as I sped read through a few of her essays…(I will leisurely read and highlight over the weekend)…

Issa Rae read an excerpt of her first essay, A/S/L, of her book last night in which she described being drawn to the Internet at 11 years old and how her interest in boys burgeoned behind the safe or not-so-safe anonymity of a computer screen…(So glad the Internet wasn’t around when I was that age or I would have been in trooouble…)

Before my parents caught wind of frightening news reports of child predators, I spent my days and after-school evenings in chat rooms, learning to speed read, talking to kids my age who were also ahead of the curve. Or pedophiles, who were remarkably creative and persistent in their forbidden pursuit. Pedos actually had it made in the mid-nineties, before the media exposed them. Talk about the glory days.

My friends at school, other fifth graders, didn’t seem to relate when I mentioned “chat rooms” and “profiles” or when I sang along to the dial-up internet song I made up in my head. It seemed that, for a brief moment, only I was privy to this alternate American universe that lived online.By the time my family moved to Los Angeles to join my dad, a pediatrician, who had seized an opportunity to open his own family clinic there, my relationship with the computer had grown immensely, much to the dismay and irritation of my mother.“You’re always on the computer! Go do your homework.”“I already finished.”“Well then, go outside and play!”She just didn’t get it. Only recently, in my late twenties, did she come to realize that my excessive computer use is what led me to becoming the self-employed, almost-focused career woman I am today.

Just delicious, don’t you think?!!! And if you want to read more, you have to buy your own copy of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl!!!

But before you go, check out more pics from this fun book signing….Shout out to my soror and photographer extraordinaire Tiffany Powell for the awesome pics!!!…Check out her blog www.powell-pics.com.