Movies: From "40 Acres" to Amazon Studios for Spike Lee

Having previously secured the services of Woody Allen, Amazon Studios have another coup in the form of Spike Lee

Spike Lee is making his next movie for Amazon Studios and the Oscar-nominated filmmaker is courting Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Piven, Common and Kanye West for the ensemble cast of “Chiraq,” multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

Representatives for Common and West did not respond to multiple requests for comment, while a representative for Amazon declined to comment.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but “Chiraq” became synonymous with Chicago as the city became increasingly plagued by gun violence in recent years.

Piven and West are both from Chicago, and the duo are in talks for the film, though neither has a deal in place yet. Piven’s involvement will depend on his schedule, as he’s preparing to shoot another season of “Mr. Selfridge.”

A longtime collaborator of Lee’s, “Avengers” star Jackson is expected to cameo in “Chiraq.” The duo previously worked together on “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever,” among other films. Jackson, who is currently filming Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight,” will soon be seen in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” He’s repped by ICM Partners and Anonymous Content.

West recently moved from CAA to UTA and he has been looking to increase his profile in the feature world. He previously had a cameo in “Anchorman 2” and he’s currently filming a role inBen Stiller‘s “Zoolander” sequel.

Piven next stars in the “Entourage” movie, which hits theaters in June. He’s repped by CAA.

Common recently won an Oscar for “Selma” and co-starred in “Run All Night.” He’s also repped by CAA.

Lee turned to Kickstarter to finance his last film, “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus.” He’s represented by ICM Partners.

Amazon Studios gets a "Woody"

Amazon orders a full season of Untitled Woody Allen Project, which will premiere exclusively on Prime Instant Video

Episodes will be written and directed by Allen

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2015-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)--Amazon Studios today announced it has signed the critically-acclaimed Director Woody Allen to write and direct his first television series ever. Untitled Woody Allen Project, a half-hour series, has received a full season order and episodes will be written and directed by Allen. Customers will be able to see the series exclusively on Prime Instant Video in the US, UK and Germany. Additional details, including casting information, will be made available in the future.

Woody Allen is a visionary creator who has made some of the greatest films of all-time, and it's an honor to be working with him on his first television series," said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. "From Annie Hall to Blue Jasmine, Woody has been at the creative forefront of American cinema and we couldn't be more excited to premiere his first TV series exclusively on Prime Instant Video next year."

Woody Allen added, "I don't know how I got into this. I have no ideas and I'm not sure where to begin. My guess is that Roy Pricewill regret this."

Allen is represented by ICM Partners.

About Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios most recently debuted its dramatic comedy Mozart in the Jungle from Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Paul Weitz, John Strauss and Alex Timbers, as well as Jill Soloway's multi-Golden Globe Award-winning dark comedy Transparent; its first live-action series for kids 6-11, Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street; and a second season of the Garry Trudeau political comedy Alpha House. The studio has also launched three additional children's series, the Annecy International Animated Film Festival Award-winning and Annie Award-nominated Tumble Leaf from Bix Pix Entertainment; Creative Galaxy from Angela Santomero and Out of the Blue Enterprises, the creators of Blue's Clues; and Annedroids, from Emmy nominated Sinking Ship Entertainment.

Amazon Studios has also announced five additional, original series to debut in 2015 including Michael Connelly's Bosch; Hand of God from Marc Forster and Ben Watkins; Red Oaks from Steven Soderbergh, David Gordon Green, Greg Jacobs and Joe Gangemi; and kids series Wishenpoof! from Angela Santomero and Out of the Blue Enterprises; as well as a second season of Transparent.

Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series--one that's open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script online and Amazon Studios will read and review all submissions. Those who choose to make their projects public can also receive feedback from the Amazon Studios community.

Comprehensive cast and crew information, including bios and filmographies, is available on Amazon's IMDb (www.imdb.com), the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.

The Time(s) of His Life: Midnight in Paris

'if you could have dinner - or party - with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? and if you could live in any era, which would you choose?

Eternal existentialist Woody Allen has taken those two beyond cliche confections and made a delightful, if typically ego-driven comedic confection, mixed in the metropolitan bowl that is Paris.

"Every street, every boulevard, its won work of art" - so says protagonist Gil Pender, Hollywood screenwriting hack who's looking to make that cliched transition into Great American Novel territory. he's accompanied in Paris by his fiance, the fiendishly materialistic Inez (a fine turn by Rachel McAdams) and her equally unbearable parents. The presence of know-it-all blowhard Paul (Michael Sheen) and his fawning companion Carol (Nina Arianda) make his misery near complete.

There is, however, an escape. A chance walk through the narrow streets at midnight finds our hero lost and at his wits end when a mysterious yellow vintage Peugeot (a 1920 Landaulet, to be more precise) pulls up to the curb and the passengers bid him come in, he begins a journey back to the "Paree" of the  Roaring 20s, peopled by the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald and his troubled, live-wire wife Zelda, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein. Man Ray, Dali, Cole Porter and Picasso.

The latter's muse, Adriana (Marion Cotillard, in yet another irresistibly idiosyncratic performance) takes a shine to the anachronistic author (no one in the alternate dimension seems to notice the radical difference in his outfits or his references), even as his fiance is wasting no opportunity to belittle him in favour of the aforementioned Paul. Turns out that as happy as Gil is in this stylized 1920s Paris, Adriana has an ideal era of her own - the Belle Epoque years that closed out the 19th Century, with its skirt-twirling, high-kicking can-can girls and more artists - this time Toulouse-Lautrec, Gaugin and Cezanne among others.

having to choose between his fantasy and hers, its obvious which side Gil is going to come down on. Nevertheless, the present offers both its own realizations and welcome distractions, but for those, you really ought to watch.

You ought to watch also, though its certainly been done, the opening montage of up-to-the-minute images of Paris, shot form nearly every conceivable vantage point, and in all kinds of weather. The questions of the beginning. have been taken to their illogical extremes, but even the savviest, most jaded viewer won't mind going along for the ride. In any case, "it never gets any better than it is right now" seems to be the film's core message. Go, and see if you agree.

Movie Flashback: Everything You Aways Wanted To Know About Sex*

What's YOUR Deviance?

In today's "everything's out there" pervasively sexual, media-driven social landscape, it's hard to imagine things like cross-dressing, homosexuality and even public coitus to be shocking.

Flahback to 1972, when psychologist David Ruben released his now classic treatise "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex(But Were Afraid To Ask)". The Swinging 60s had ended, and the national angst of Watergate, Vietnam, Kent State and other developments was playing out. Flower Power was fading and the "Me Generation" was kicking in.

Who better to reimagine the book as a comedy than the quietly self-absorbed "Noo Yawk" existentialist, Woody Allen. In his hands, the then groundbreaking sexology manual ( noted for it's conversational style in stark contrast to the earlier Kinsey Report), becomes a not-so-groundbreaking but still highly enjoyable series of vignettes that feature, among other things, a 60-year old married, cross-dressing man, an entire sequence in which Italian is the only language spoken - with no subtitles, and a sex scientist gone clearly mad ( a jab at Kinsey?).

The highlight though, is the final sequence which, with the moon landing already three years past, and the US Space program me booming, chooses to remigine a man's body (in particular his sexual response), as one giant Mission Control. Allen, playing one of the innumerable millions of sperm awaiting "launch" wonders such things as "is this a homosexual encounter?" and "what if he's only jerking off?; I don't wanna hit the roof"

You won't, but if you have even a smidgen of a sense ofhumour not subject to the ravages of the the "reality TV era", then you just might hit the floor.