ABC/Troy HarveyThe 2021 Tribeca Film Festival kicked off this week with a special announcement to honor comedian and actor Bernie Mac, who passed away in 2008. "We just partnered with Bernie Mac's estate to cover Bernie Mac's story," John Legend's producing partner, Mike Jackson, said during a panel discussion, according to BlackFilmandTV.com. Legend went on to recall memories of working with Bernie Mac in the film Soul Men, in which he also starred. "The Soul Men reunion you all wanted to see," he said. Soul Men was released weeks before Mac's passing at the age of 50 from pneumonia. In the film, Legend portrayed Marcus Hooks, the band member for whom Mac's character, Floyd Henderson, and Louis Hinds, played by Samuel L. Jackson, reunite to honor after his death. The Bernie Mac biopic will be released under John Legend's production company, Get Lifted. Their other production credits include Netflix's 2020 holiday film Jingle Jang
Macall Polay/Warner Bros EntertainmentIn the Heights may be the greatest movie musical in decades—so it is staggering to realize that it is actually adapted from the second-most famous thing Lin-Manuel Miranda created.The Hamilton multihyphenate (writer, star, Pulitzer Prize-winner, cultural ubique) first broke big on Broadway with his 2008 Tony-winning musical In the Heights. It heralded Miranda as a mold-shattering Broadway bard, a fresh talent who has helped usher in a mainstream boom in musi