Kenya Barris’ ‘Wizard of Oz’ Remake Will Embody LGBTQ Illustration

Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”

Someplace over the rainbow, certainly! Kenya Barris tells me that LGBTQ illustration might be featured in his “Wizard of Oz” remake. “The unique was an allegory and a mirrored image of the way in which the world was on the time with issues just like the Nice Despair and the Mud Bowl,” says Barris, who will write and direct the reimagining for Warner Bros. “Now we’re going to show a mirror on the place we’re at proper now and take disparate characters from the LGBTQ neighborhood, from completely different cultural communities and socioeconomic communities, and inform a narrative that displays the world. I feel that is one of the best time to do this.”

He understands a “Wizard of Oz” remake comes with large stress. “I’m nervous,” Barris tells me. “Hopefully, my film can final so long as the unique does.” He provides with amusing: “Hopefully my film comes out.”

One other “Wizard of Oz” remake is also in the works at New Line Cinema with Nicole Kassell (“Watchmen”) directing.

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Ismael Cruz Córdova is considering his subsequent step after his breakout function as an elf in Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The actor tells me he desires to play Marvel superhero Hector Ayala/White Tiger. “I like the story that’s set within the ’70s in East New York,” Córdova tells me. “It’s a stand-alone… It’s badass. He redeems himself. It’s bought every part.”

And Córdova already has the stunt work down. He says he skilled for about eight months for a three-minute motion sequence within the third “Rings of Energy” episode: “There’s a bunch of martial arts and all the wire work — every part you see on-screen is me.”

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Kelly Rowland wasn’t conscious that Beyoncé can be dropping her title in “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix).” “I had heard the report, however I didn’t know that was taking place, however how enjoyable!” she says. Rowland can be engaged on new music. “It’s coming,” she teases.

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Did you see my scoop yesterday about David Alan Grier being solid as a fan-favorite character in ABC’s upcoming “Magnificence and the Beast” tv particular? Read my exclusive here.
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I had the prospect to talk with Jerrod Carmichael on the Emmys, the place he opened up about turning into a job mannequin for LGBTQ youth after he came out as gay in April in his HBO Max special “Rothaniel.” “It provides me a way of goal,” the funnyman stated. “I do have a accountability that I hadn’t ever felt earlier than.” He stated earlier than publicly revealing his reality: “I let the worry blindside me. I used to be so afraid of all the results that the considered it being one thing stunning didn’t actually ever cross my thoughts.”

“I believed I’d die earlier than doing that,” he added, quipping, “There are a few international locations I can’t go to no extra, however aside from that it’s good.”

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Laverne Cox will star as a trans girl who returns dwelling to Alabama after 17 years and reunites together with her estranged father (George Wallace) in Norman Lear’s upcoming Amazon Freevee sitcom “Clean Slate.” “That is the primary scripted undertaking I’m producing. It is a dream realized,” Cox says. “It’s not solely about trans points. The present is about within the South. We want trans writers. We want Black writers. We want writers who grew up within the Southern church. There are plenty of experiences we want for this writers’ room.”

Wallace says of his character: “Each time I name her a ‘him,’ I’ve to place a greenback in a jar, however ultimately we turn into buddies and we transfer in collectively. When America sees this, they’re going to study and so they’re going to like it.”