News

Jurnee Smollett (“Lovecraft Country”) has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s “Firebug,” in which she’ll star opposite Taron Egerton. Smollett will play Michelle, a “rising star detective.”

“Firebug,” loosely based on true events and inspired by a podcast of the same name, stars Egerton as an “enigmatic arson investigator.” The two characters pursue two serial arsonists. Egerton is also an exec producer on the Apple original series (from Apple Studios), from creator Dennis Lehane.

Lehane also developed and executive produces “Firebug,” which reps a reunion of the team behind Apple TV+’s “Black Bird.” Other exec producers include Richard Plepler (via Eden Productions), Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas (through Imperative Entertainment), and Kary Antholis.

Apple points out that the series, set in the contemporary Pacific Northwest, is fictional — although it does take some of the events included in in truth.media’s “Firebug” podcast, which was hosted by Antholis,...

Jurnee Smollett-Bell has been cast in one of the lead roles in the upcoming HBO drama series “Lovecraft Country,” Variety has learned.

The role reunites Smollett-Bell with Misha Green, the writer and executive producer of “Lovecraft Country.” Green was the co-creator and showrunner of the Wgn America series “Underground,” on which Smollett-Bell starred as escaped slave Rosalee.

“Lovecraft Country,” based on the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, follows 25-year-old Atticus Black, who joins up with his friend Letitia “Leti” Dandridge (Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his missing father. They must survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

Letitia is described as having hustled her way across the country as an artist protesting for civil rights and now finds herself...

Warner Independent Pictures is in for Fifty Percent. Warners' specialty film arm is developing the dark comedy with producers Steven Haft and Odd Lot Entertainment's Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker. Writer Darin Mark is on board to pen the script, which follows three waitresses who agree to marry for money, get divorced and take 50% of each man's net worth so they can start their real lives on a tropical island. Five years later, one woman is ready to cash out whether the other girls are in or not. Michael Andreen and Tracey Bing are overseeing for WIP. Haft's recent credits include Eulogy, The Singing Detective, Tigerland and Beautiful Joe. Odd Lot Entertainment's other projects include The Reckoning and Hooligans. WIP's upcoming titles include A Scanner Darkly, One Thing Always, The Bielski Brothers and Brideshead Revisited, the feature film version of the British TV classic. Mark is repped by Endeavor, Benderspink and Gregg Gellman and Michael Fuller at Barnes, Morris, Klein, Mark, Yorn, Barnes and Levine.

Sharon Stone is making the most of her new clean bill of health by signing up for more movies. The actress, who hasn't made a film since Beautiful Joe in 2000, has been told the chronic headaches caused by bleeding at the base of her skull are a thing of the past. She says, "I got a clean bill of health at the weekend." And now she's adding to a busy schedule by signing up for new Disney thriller Cold Creek Manor with Dennis Quaid, where she'll play a tough wife fighting for her dream home with a released convict. Stone, who pulled out of a planned sequel to Basic Instinct last year, will also play Rupert Everett's wife in A Different Loyalty and will star in Liar's Club.

Sharon Stone has put her acting career on hold after learning that her father Joe has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The Basic Instinct star's rep confirmed that she will not be accepting any more acting jobs while her father receives outpatient treatment at an LA hospital. The rep was positive about Joe's response to treatment, saying, "His prognosis is very good." Sharon and her husband Phil Bronstein are taking care of Joe and his wife Dorothy while he attempts to get healthy. Stone hasn't made a major film since 2000's Beautiful Joe, and used her position as a juror at this year's Cannes Film Festival to let the world know she was ready to return to the big screen after her own health scare last year - a move which now seems indefinitely postponed.