Somebody Please Make This Guy's Story

Legston Kayira wanted to go to America to study - but for a poor boy from Nyasaland Africa in 1958 - this was a seemingly impossible dream. He wanted to go to America, so he simply started walking - first 3000 miles to Cairo Egypt where he worked for awhile to earn money - then to Spain and finally to America where he eventually graduated college and became a professor at Columbia University. So....next time you complain about walking a mile to class from the dorm - think about this guy. His story needs to be a movie. More from Time Magazine...

Ice: A Memoir of Redemption – From South Central to Hollywood - Buy It!

From Publishers Weekly:

In this intriguing memoir, groundbreaking rapper and actor Ice-T chronicles his rise from nomadic criminal to hip-hop star. After losing both parents by the age of 12, Tracy Marrow was shipped to relatives in Los Angeles where he navigated the growing gang culture of the city and became a father at 18. A four-year tour in the army was followed by a lucrative interlude robbing jewelry and clothing stores. As his fellow thieves began to file off to prison, Ice-T turned to the nascent rap scene and scored immediate success. Continuing to reinvent himself, Ice-T went on to front a rock band and also was one of the first rap figures to work in film and television. There™s little focus on the music itself, but rather on his careers and his observations on the various subcultures he passes through. What lifts the book above the general run of entertainer memoirs is the quality of these observations—Ice-T is a canny businessman, and he charts clearly the decisions that brought him up each step of a very treacherous ladder.

Buy at Amazon

The Top 7 Black Directors

Black Hollywood: the ebony Shangri-la of showbiz. In tinsel town, behind the flash bulbs of paparazzi snapshots, behind the casting cattle calls and behind a storyteller’s script is the film director. These hot-bloodied visionaries are the eyes and ears of the camera’s aperture. Visionaries like Hype Williams, Robert Townsend and Kennen Ivory Wayans have leaped into the limelight, looking to expose the grit of the world, allowing us to experience (or rather re-experience) the magnitude of the ailments of mankind. It is because of this that these men are huge influences on pop culture. But, how influential? Here is the list of our 7 all-time favorite directors in black Hollywood. Read the rest at Giant.....

Denzel Getting a Little Old For Ya (never) - Try These Up and Coming Superstars

Most of you are already fans of critically acclaimed vets like Chandra Wilson ('Grey's Anatomy'), Anthony Anderson ('Law & Order') and Regina King ('Southland'), but there is a new wave of up-and-coming black stars ready to make their mark. Here are 12 of our favorites. Who are yours?February is Black History Month, and what better way to celebrate than to pay tribute to television's brightest young African-American actors.Read more at AOL....

Deon Taylor Enterprises, Producers Roxanne Avent and Deon Taylor Acquire Venom Viral Marketing

Deon Taylor Enterprises of Sacramento, California has acquired Venom Viral Marketing also of Sacramento, California in an all equity swap deal.

Said Deon Taylor, "this alliance will help us to leverage our core business of feature film and television production into short-format webisodes and viral content for the web." "The combination of the two companies will help DTE grow and respond to changes in the marketplace as the entertainment and digital worlds increasingly collide - new business opportunities will emerge and we want to be able to capitalize on them, " said Roxanne Avent, producer and co-founder of DTE.

Jason Pryor, the director of Venom provided some of the background logic behind the merger, said Pryor, "with the core demographic of 18-24 year old consumers spending more time on the Internet than any other medium, content producers like Deon Taylor Enterprises must go where the consumers are and provide relevant content for the new consumption patterns. Venom will work with DTE creatives to generate webisode/short format content for brands, general advertising as well as for DTE studio projects. DTE can re-purpose existing content for the web, to extend their brands and they can also test new concepts digitally before investing in a full feature film or television production."
 
Deon Taylor Enterprises is an international, cutting-edge entertainment studio adept at the development, production and marketing of a wide variety of innovative urban, music-driven film, television and home-entertainment programming. Films creating a buzz attached to Deon Taylor Enterprises include: The Hustle, Nite Tales, Chain Letter, Dead Tone, Terminated and the New Night Tales television series.

Targeting young, sophisticated audiences, the company is a driving force providing compelling, original content. To date, Deon Taylor Enterprises has four feature films and a television searies in release or post-production, with many more in the works. At the helm of productions are Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent, the dynamic creative and professional forces behind the studio. A prolific writer and idea generator, writer-director Deon Taylor has attributed that insiders say Hollywood needs much more of: passion, drive and endless creativity. With her expert skills in organizing each film's many pieces into a manageable project, Roxanne Avent is Deon Taylor Entertainment's producer extraordinaire.

Will Smith And Jay-Z Join Forces To Form Film Production Company

Overbrook Entertainment partners James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith have formed a joint venture with Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter to develop and produce major motion pictures. One of the projects being discussed is the re-imagination of the classic Broadway musical ANNIE as a vehicle for Willow Smith to star. The film will be developed with Sony Pictures Entertainment and produced by Overbrook Entertainment and Mr. Carter.

The partnership began over dinner with Jada, Will, James Lassiter and JAY-Z, where they decided to co-invest in the now successful beauty products line Carol’s Daughter. They continued this partnership as co-producers of the successful Broadway production Fela!, which earned a total of eleven Tony Award nominations in 2010.

“The time is right to bring back ANNIE to the big screen. Of course, we’re true believers in Willow’s talent and believe she will be perfect in this role,” said Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad. “Combining Willow with the Overbrook team that reimagined Karate Kid and the spectacular JAY-Z makes this a dream project. A decade ago, JAY-Z proved that the power of the underlying Broadway property remains, by showing how these songs could be reinterpreted for a new generation with Hard-Knock Life. We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with our friends at Overbrook as they launch this new venture.”

http://www.overbrookent.com/