First-time filmmaker Nicol Paone has a comedy feature in development called Friendsgiving, due in 2020 (we assume a rough year-from-now release to coincide with Thanksgiving, but who knows), and it’s about an eclectic group of close friends who gather together for what turns out to be a chaotic Thanksgiving dinner at the home of two women, Molly (Malin Akerman) and Abbey (Kat Dennings). The project co-stars Aisha Tyler, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Chelsea Peretti, Christine Taylor (The Brady Bunch Movie), glamour veteran Jane Seymour and – in an unusual thematic twist – a trio of “Fairy Gay Mothers” played by the queer power team of Wanda Sykes, Fortune Feimster, and Margaret Cho. We don’t know what this infusion of the supernatural will mean for a Thanksgiving-themed enterprise, but we’ll happily watch with a mouthful of pie because we love those three woman and, more to the point, there just aren’t enough Thanksgiving movies and we’re tired of watching that Jodie Foster one over and over.
Janelle Monae plays “Veronica” in an upcoming… something. Yes, that’s not a lot to go on, but this is early days on an endeavor that is currently known only as Untitled Bush + Renz Project. We know that whatever it is, she’s in it and that it’s a drama written by the team of Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, who’ll also direct. We know that Bush and Renz are respected music video directors who’ve worked alongside Jay-Z, Khalid and Normani, so whatever develops is going to have that visual pop. And we know that there are other people in the cast besides Monae: Jena Malone (The Hunger Games), Jack Huston (Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman), Gabourey Sidibe, Dear White People’s Marque Richardson, and up-and-coming queer presence Kiersey Clemons (Disney’s remake of Lady and the Tramp). Now if we only knew what it was about. We’ll wait.
Romeo San Vicente is pro-marshmallow on top of sweet potatoes because it’s the law.
