Culture: "Jamerican Marshals Miami Carnival

A Jamaican-born actress who is currently on the HBO hit series “Ballers,” is set to help lead off this year’s Miami Broward Caribbean Carnival – that is if Hurricane Matthew does not force the event to the canned.

Stacy-Ann Rose(left), who plays Dr. Robbins, a neurologist turned therapist and close friend of lead star of ‘Ballers’ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is set to join thousands of masqueraders at the Miami Broward Carnival on October 9, 2016 at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds as this year’s Celebrity Grand Marshall.

“Although I’ve never been to a Caribbean carnival, just knowing how exciting and inviting the Caribbean culture is, I know it will be a life-changing experience,” Rose recently commented.

Rose was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to South Florida at age of 15 to join her parents who had gone ahead years prior to pave the way for her and her younger brother Andrew to have every chance at realizing the American Dream. She went on to attend Miami Dade Community College and Florida State University where she obtained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s in International Business and Marketing and began pursuing acting immediately after.

Rose has previously appeared in TV and film roles in “Dolphin Tale,” “Hoot” and “Burn Notice.” The actress has also taken her talents behind the camera as a producer on her second full length feature film, “Break The Stage,” which profiles a young girl coming to terms with personal challenges in life while leading her step team to a national championship. This film will hit screens in 2017.

The Miami-Broward Carnival, now in its 32^nd year, is set to go on despite Hurricane Matthew. It will wrap up on Sunday with a Grand Parade and Concert. The Kings/Queens and Individual panorama competition is set for Saturday, October 8, 2016 from 3 -11 p.m. at Central Broward Regional Park (3700 NW 11th Pl, Lauderhill, FL 33311) while the MBC J’ouvert is set for October 8, 2016 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Performers this year include Kes the Band, Edwin Yearwood and Alison Hinds.

Film: FLOW Keeps the show going for TT Film Fest

TELECOMS provider Flow has committed to sponsoring the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) for the next three years until 2019.

Cindy-Ann Gatt, director of marketing for Flow, made the announcement at the launch of the Film Festival which took place at the Hyatt Regency recently. Flow is the presenting sponsor for the ttff which runs for one week this year, at MovieTowne and other locations from today to September 27.

This is the 11th year of the ttff and Flow has been involved since 2008 as the top sponsor, providing the necessary funding for the operational costs of the festival. Flow also sponsors the People's Choice Awards which cover Best Feature Film – Narrative, Best Feature Film – Documentary and Best Short Film.

Over the years, Flow's partnership with the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival has seen movies from the Film Festival air on HBO and Flow also airs local movies on Flow's Video on Demand option, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to the creators of the film.

This year Flow, the leading telecoms provider, will be hosting a workshop for participating filmmakers explaining how they can use and go about accessing Video on Demand to show their work, whether it's a full-length feature or a film short.

At the launch Cindy-Ann Gatt explained, “It's about supporting excellence in Caribbean Arts and Caribbean content. At Flow we see the Film Festival as a tool that ensures that we have a place at the table concerning film. The fact is we in the Caribbean and specifically Trinidad and Tobago cannot wait for others to tell our stories. It doesn't work like that. We have to empower ourselves to insert our narrative into the film industry.

“The ttff is one way to ensure that our films have a place to go.”

The theme of this year's ttff is Good to Go and tickets are available all venues prior to the screening of the film. It is also a reflection of the company's investment in the development of local and Caribbean content, said Gatt.

Books: Write rich, the highest earning authors

THESE WELL-HEELED wordsmiths earned a combined $269 million over the last 12 months, proving that the written word isn’t dead–although television and movie adaptations often help drive sales.

To wit: Zoo, a thriller from the inescapable James Patterson, scored a second season on CBS , while Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin benefited from clamorous interest in the hit HBO series based on his fantasy novels.

Patterson topped our list for the third straight year, earning $95 million pretax, while children’s author Jeff Kinney placed a distant second, earning $19.5 million.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/emjl45efgei/the-worlds-highest-paid/#66a837894fd9

TV: Winter is coming again.....next summer

HBO confirmed Monday that Game of Thrones’ seventh season won’t begin until summer 2017 and will include only seven episodes, as opposed to the usual 10. Rumors had been swirling about the shortened final two seasons 
(the eighth season will likely only include six episodes) and late start for weeks, but the network only now confirmed the changes. 

The next season will reportedly be shot in Northern Ireland, Spain, and Iceland. “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, Executive Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

Books: HBO "Contracts" James' 'Seven Killings" for series

HBO has optioned screen rights to Marlon James’ novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings (Oneworld), for a series adaptation.

James’ novel, which was published last year, takes inspiration from the real-life incident when gunmen attacked Bob Marley’s house in 1976. Spanning three decades and crossing continents, the story chronicles the lives of a host of characters, from slum kids to drug lords and the CIA. The book won both the Anisfield-Wolf Fiction Prize for books that contribute to our understanding of racism and cultural diversity and the OCM Bocas Fiction Prize for Caribbean Literature.

HBO plans to produce an ongoing series, with award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth penning the script. Roth’s credits include adapting books into screenplays for Oscar-nominated films such as “Munich”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Forrest Gump”, as well as acting as the executive producer of Emmy-winning series “House of Cards”.

Oneworld is releasing the paperback edition of A Brief History of Seven Killings this June. It will publish James’ debut novel, John Crow’s Devil, in November, and it has also published his second novel, The Book of Night Women.