April 2021 Newsletter: Let’s Gist, March Review, April Movies & TV Shows Preview, and More News

Dear reader,

You must be tired of hearing this, but our comments feature has been fixed and ran without hiccups within the last month. Once again, you do not need to fill in your email address to leave a comment. You don’t have to be nice, let’s discuss movies! I would really like to know your thoughts on the Justice League event known as the #SnyderCut, how tired you are of family comedies like Jennifer Garner’s Yes Day, is Coming to America even still the same to you? It might even be Nollywood movies doing it for you these days, not bad. We got strong performances from Rita Dominic in two different roles in March.
And we could also chit chat about awards and how shitty  chitty they are, I can be sure that your favourite(s) didn’t pick up anything at the Golden Globes. Just drag your fingers in here and vent as you like, it is a safe space. Being a safe space to air our strong opinions and thoughts, we published our most important piece yet which covers the EndSARS protests from last October while referencing Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 in the same informative essay. You might want to check that one out, I will give you some minutes. And a minute of silence for the lost souls…✊🏾

Don’t forget that you can access older content by navigating through the menu divided in categories like TV shows, movies, news, Nollywood, etc. Most especially, reviews you promised to read after watching that movie or TV show. We won’t judge you if you have not completed the #SnyderCut, but it might just be the last four hour saving grace we will ever grant the Bros. 

Moving to news content, we hope you enjoyed our News Roundup of 2-3 news items in a single post. Let us know if they were messy, informative or you just need us to shut the hell up and feed you more. Anyways, gladly! 

March Film News Film News a.k.a ICYMI cos We Damn Well Reported it

• The 78th Golden Globe Awards: The Complete List of Nominees and Winners.
• News Roundup #1 | Eddie Murphy Forced to Cast a White Man in Coming to America; Superman and Lois Get New Season Boost; New Trailer Release for Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse; Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Cynthia Erivo Cast in the New Live-Action Pinocchio Movie
• News Roundup #2 | Nickelodeon Gives the Go Ahead for a SpongeBob Spin-off “The Patrick Star Show”; Kevin Hart’s “Fatherhood” is Set to be Released on Netflix…
• Netflix Partners With Kunle Afolayan for Three More Titles [Photos]
• News Roundup #3 | Casting: Steven Spielberg’s New Movie; New ABC series, ‘Queens’, starring Brandy & Eve; ‘Powerpuff Girls’ Live Action Series
• News Roundup #4 | First Look Images: Macaulay Culkin in ‘American Horror Story’ ; Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig in New Wrestling Drama Series
• News Roundup #5: Natalie Portman & Lupita Nyong’o Cast for Roles in ‘Lady In The Lake’ Series At Apple; Elizabeth Banks Set To Direct ‘Cocaine Bear’ for Universal; ‘The Equalizer’ Has Been Renewed For a Second Season
• News Roundup #6 | Lucifer’s Tom Ellis to Star in Netflix Rom-com, ‘Players’, with Gina Rodriguez and Damon Wayans Jr.; ‘The Boys’ Untitled  Spinoff Adds Jaz Sinclair and Lizzie Broadway
• News Roundup #7: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton Head Ensemble Of Ron Howard-Directed MGM Thai Cave Rescue Pic ‘Thirteen Lives’; Ridley Scott Exec-featured film, ‘Panopticon’, stars Shailene Woodley, Anthony Mackie & Jacob Latimore
• News Roundup #8 | Netflix Reveals Cast and Plot for ‘Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness’; Dev Patel’s Directorial Debut, ‘Monkey Man’ Heads to Netflix; Chad Stahelski to Direct a “Die Hard Meets Indiana Jones” Movie Titled, ‘Classified’
• Complete Oscar Nominations 2021 List
• ‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021) Trailer Breakdown

On News That We Couldn’t Cover…

• Superman and Lois nabbed a season 2 renewal.
• A film titled Greek Freak on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s life growing up in Greece to becoming an NBA superstar is in the works. It will be directed by Akin Omotoso for Disney+, starring Yetide Badaki (American Gods) and Dayo Okeniyi (Shades of Blue).
• Rian Johnson enlists Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll), to star in his upcoming mystery “case-of-the-week” TV project, Poker Face, for Peacock
• Jamie Foxx to play Mike Tyson in an upcoming limited series With Antoine Fuqua as director, and Martin Scorsese onboard to produce. No network or streaming service is attached to the project yet, but we can imagine the tussle, with such big names already attached.
• Y’lan Noel (known as Daniel in Insecure) to star in FX Pilot “The Spook Who Sat By the Door”, an adaptation of a spy novel about a fictional first Black CIA officer hired by the agency in the late 1960s, who has trained in high-level combat and espionage.
• Promising Young Woman director, Emerald Fennell, is set to write a Zatanna superhero movie for DCEU. This would mark the second female superhero movie in the universe, joining Wonder Woman in the fold.
• Helen Mirren joins Shazam 2 as a villain. Need I say more?
• Beef, a movie starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong about two people who let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and consume their every thought and action is in development for Netflix.
• Amanda Seyfried is replacing Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Holmes in the Hulu movie about the disgraced Theranos founder. Neither is a good fit for me. I wouldn’t mind the starring lady in Promising Young Woman or Rosamund Pike in this devious role.
• Russell Crowe has joined the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder. At this point, every actor in this generation has to play Marvel at least once in their career.
• Donald Faison is set to play Prof. Drake Utonium in the live-action reboot of Powerpuff Girls, titled Powerpuff. Prof. Utonium is the father of the three titular characters.
• Rick and Morty season 5 premieres on June 20th. Wubba lubba dub dub!
• An untitled half-hour romantic comedy series project from the To All the Boys franchise is in early development. It would follow Kitty, the youngest of the Covey sisters as she navigates finding true love.
• A double Knives Out sequel is set for Netflix in a 400 million dollar deal, albeit all unconfirmed by the streamer. Woohoo!
• Last but not the least, We lost Nollywood veteran, Sadiq Dabar in March. He gained critical acclaim for his role as Inspector Waziri in Kunle Afolayan’s crime thriller, October 1.

Non-Review Essays in March

We promised y’all depth and not just reviews. So, here you go:

• We brought the Gen Z vs Millenial war to our film corner. We hope you don’t agree with our choices!
• The powerful “The Question of Memory”, written by AdioOfIbadan…Lagos. Ultimately, we hope that you realise that it is not enough to just post pictures every 20th.
• We gave you five super-reasons to hop on the Superman and Lois train.
• A recap of Bucky and Sam Wilson’s Avengers journey before heading into the new Disney+ MCU series.

Episode Recaps of Some TV series

• Ndani’s web series, Ratings
• Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Head over to the post’s respective comments section, let’s discuss and analyse these TV shows together. We might just have drinks and snacks for you.

We reviewed the following movies:

• Live-action Tom and Jerry (5/10)
• The elegant Coming 2 America (5.5/10)
• Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon (8/10)
• Oscar nominee for writing, directing and editing, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland (8/10)
• Jennifer Garner’s family comedy, Yes Day (4.5/10)
• The four-hour #SnyderCut (7/10)
• Lasisi Elenu’s first leading role in The Razz Guy (5/10)
• Rita Dominic in a proverbial movie, La Femme Anjola (6/10)
• Independent film by Taiwo Egunjobi, In Ibadan
• In what Olamide calls a calm writing, Dacryphilia + Hematolagnia (indie short film)
• Rita Dominic’s second hot cake, The Therapist (7/10)

Highlight of New Films and TV Series in April

• Prophetess: It follows the story of Ajoke (Toyin Aimakhu), a local Prophetess who makes a bogus prediction about a football match which sets off a chain of events beyond her control. The movie stars Kehinde Bankole, Kunle Remi, Ronke Ojo, Tina Mba, Stan Nze, Uzor Arukwe, Deyemi Okanlawon, Seyi Awolowo, Blessing Jessica Obasi, Adedimeji Lateef, and premieres on April 2 in Nigerian cinemas.
• Concrete Cowboy: While spending the summer in North Philadelphia, a troubled teen (Caleb McLaughlin) is caught between a life of crime and his estranged father’s (Idris Elba) vibrant urban-cowboy subculture. Based on the novel ‘Ghetto Cowboy’ by G.Neri, Concrete Cowboy is directed by Ricky Staub and co-stars Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint and Clifford “Method Man” Smith. On Netflix April 2.
• The Fisherman’s Diary: A 12-year old girl – Ekah (Faith Fidel) is inspired by the story of the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Winner – Malala Yousafzai. She is determined to go to school in a village of fisherman where the education of a girl child is considered to be a taboo. Her burning drive and determination to break this old adage gets her embroiled with her father’s – Solomon (Kang Quintus) past experience with girl child education. I saw Ramsey Nouah in the trailer, but I will be watching because it was Cameroon’s entry at the 2021 Academy Awards preliminary stage. You can enjoy it on Netflix from April 4.
• THEM: THEM is a limited anthology series that explores terror in America. The first season, 1950s-set COVENANT centers around a Black family who move from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood during the period known as The Great Migration. The family’s idyllic home becomes ground zero where malevolent forces, next door and otherworldly, threaten to taunt, ravage and destroy them.  It is set to be co-produced by Lena Waithe (Master of None, The Chi). Available on Prime Video on April 9.
• Thunder Force: In a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to protect their city. Wild guess that Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are set to play the best friends. Showing on Netflix from April 9.
• The Nevers: Victorian London is rocked to its foundations by a supernatural event that gives certain people — mostly women — abnormal abilities, from the wondrous to the disturbing. But no matter their particular “turns,” all who belong to this new underclass are in grave danger. It falls to mysterious, quick-fisted widow Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and brilliant young inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) to protect and shelter these gifted “orphans.” To do so, they will have to face the brutal forces determined to annihilate their kind. Originally developed by Joss Whedon who has since left the show, I wonder how much of his input remains on the new series. Streams on HBO Max on April 11.
• Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!: Yes, that’s genuinely the title, and only Jamie Foxx can pull that off. A single dad and cosmetics brand owner figures out fatherhood on the fly when his strong-minded teen daughter moves in with him. It should make a decent mindless watch on a cleaning Saturday. It premieres on April 14 on Netflix.
• Mortal Kombat: MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth’s greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. This movie will be quite a heavy one as the characters are drawn from the popular game franchise. It premieres in cinemas and HBO Max on April 23.
• Shadow and Bones: We published a first-look images post here. Dark forces conspire against orphan mapmaker Alina Starkov when she unleashes an extraordinary power that could change the fate of her war-torn world. Get ready to be immersed in the Grishaverse. The series premieres April 23 on Netflix.
• Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse: this is an upcoming American action thriller film starring Michael B. Jordan. It is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Tom Clancy and a spin-off of the Jack Ryan film series. The film tells the origin story of John Kelly (aka John Clark), a U.S. Navy SEAL, who uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife by Russian soldiers. When Kelly joins forces with fellow SEAL Karen Greer and shadowy CIA agent Robert Ritter, the mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war. Same old ”you killed my wife and now I have lost my life” revenge tale? We will know on April 30, streaming on Prime Video.
• The Mitchells vs The Machines: one of the final projects moving from cinema to Netflix due to the pandemic. From the makers of Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse. Are you not hyped? Don’t you need water, you must be choked. A quirky, dysfunctional family’s road trip is upended when they find themselves in the middle of the robot apocalypse and suddenly become humanity’s unlikeliest last hope! You can watch on Netflix on April 30.

Special mentions: Run (a Netflix psychothriller starring Sarah Paulson), Big Shot (Disney+ female basketball coach comedy starring John Stamos) and maybe a big birthday party.

The following TV shows premiere or return in April: Manifest (April 1), Worn Stories (April 1), Law and Order: Organized Crime (April 1), United States of AI (April 1), The Serpent (April 2), Family Reunion (Season 3) Kung Fu (April 7) Queen of the South (April 7), Fear the Walking Dead (April 11), The Circle (April 14), Van Helsing (April 16), Godfather of Harlem (April 18), Mare of Easttown (April 18) American Dad (April 19), A Black Lady Sketch Show (April 23), The Handmaid’s Tale (April 28), and The Innocent/El Inocente (April 30).

Return to read the reviews of most of the mentioned films and TV series in April. Keep an eye out. You can subscribe to email notifications and follow us on our social media pages.

Which of the film(s) and TV show(s) are you looking forward to the most?  Or did we forget a certain one? Let us know in the comments below.

Bis bald,
Ikeade Oriade
(Managing Editor)