English Entertainment
‘Shots Fired’ starring Hunt to debut on Star World Premiere HD
MUMBAI: Star World Premiere HD turns up the drama this month with the gripping limited TV series ‘ Shots Fired’ that will exclusively air on the channel every Saturday, 10pm starting 25 March.
Set in a North Carolina town, Shots Fired is not just another police drama series! After decades of turning away from some of America’s most pressing racial problems, world television has finally started looking eye to eye in times of adversity as it takes on the courageous topic of conversation of police violence in America with the upcoming series.
With the ‘Black Lives Matter Vs Blue Lives Matter’ debate at its very helm and multiple investigations at its heart, the series centers on the shootings of an unarmed white college student on one hand and a young black boy on the other that sparks what will eventually be an uproar.
After a black sheriff’s deputy shoots an unarmed white college student, the small, racially and economically divided town of North Carolina city of Gates Station is on edge. This is when ambitious Special Prosecutor Preston Terry (played by Stephan James) and cop-turned-investigator Ashe Akino (played by Sanaa Lathan) are appointed by the Department of Justice to sift through the evidence and prevent any perception of impropriety in the case. Although they receive support from the governor (played by Helen Hunt) and the local sheriff (played by Will Patton) initially, the town reckons a force that will tear North Carolina apart as the case begins to point toward departmental corruption and a largely ignored, police shooting of an unarmed African-American youngster.
Produced by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood of Before I Fall fame, the series draws inspiration from a spate of real-life murders of young black men by white cops in several American cities and towns but reverses the roles by posing the most important question – ‘What If It Was You?’
Reggie Rock Bythewood, co-producer and the man behind the show shares his thoughts on the kind of content that he wants to deliver to audiences worldwide: “Sure, Shots Fired is a very entertaining show with a mystery that we hope the audience leans into, but we aren’t shying away from the fact that this is a relevant social subject matter that we feel as artists and as African Americans has to be dealt with,”
The series that premiered back in January 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival and received a pool of stellar reviews, stars a powerhouse of talent – actors Sanaa Lathan (The Perfect Guy, Now You See Me 2, Alien vs. Predator, Blade fame) and Stephan James (Race, Across The Line, Selma fame) in lead roles alongside Oscar winners Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, The Goodbye Girl fame) and Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets, Mad About You, Cast Away, The Sessions, What Women Want fame) who play powerful figureheads pulled into the controversy.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
