Shared from deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Professional basketball player and producer Jarnell Stokes has signed with Babette Perry at Innovative Artists, who will rep him for both on-camera and production deals.
Stokes is currently developing two drama series examining the ruthless intersection of sports, music and street culture in his hometown of Memphis.
The first, Break the Cycle, follows the struggles of twin 16-year-old orphan brothers as they each seek a piece of the American dream. Stokes is co-creating the series with writer-producer Taylor Materne (Hustle), with Chris Pavoni (Supergirl) on board to produce alongside Walk Like A Duck Entertainment. The second series, collegiate sports drama Rocky Top College, centers on an institution of the same name that harbors a dark secret. When the school’s newest recruit joins the team, full of promise and hope for a better life, they set him up on a regimen to dominate on the court. But as waves of anxiety and hallucinations surface, the rising star must decide if his career is worth the price of his sanity and possibly his life. Stokes is co-producing with music mogul Vassal Benford of The Benford Company. Shannan E. Johnson (Monogamy) has been tapped as co-writer, with actor Geoffrey Blake (Forest Gump) also set to produce.
As previously announced, Stokes is also exec producing projects under his Stoked Film Group banner including the horror-comedy Slayers, starring Abigail Breslin, Thomas Jane and Malin Akerman; the thriller Dig, starring Thomas Jane, Emile Hirsch and Liana Liberato; and the murder mystery Helen’s Dead, starring Annabelle Dexter-Jones and Tyrese Gibson, among others.
Stokes played for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Sioux Falls Skyforce, and Denver Nuggets. He currently plays for the Chinese Basketball Association’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers, and continues to be represented by Tammy Hunt of CSP Management.
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Actor-director Bryce Dallas Howard (The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian) has joined the roster of creatives at the production company, Prettybird.
Howard has built an impressive career behind the camera in recent years, on the heels of more than two decades as an actor, making her her documentary directorial debut with Dads, which premiered at TIFF in 2019 and was released on Apple TV+. She also helmed the Oscar-shortlisted short film When You Find Me and the Sundance short Solemates, and has more recently gone on to direct episodes of The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian.
Howard is perhaps best known on the acting side for her turn as Claire Dearing in Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World franchise. She will soon be seen in Jurassic World Dominion, which is set for release on June 10, and in Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle. She’s also previously appeared in films including Rocketman, Gold, Pete’s Dragon, 50/50, The Help, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Terminator Salvation, Good Dick, Spider-Man 3, As You Like It, Lady in the Water and The Village, as well as in such series as Black Mirror and Arrested Development.
Howard has also directed campaigns and projects for Moroccan Oil, Vanity Fair, Glamour, MTV, Sony and Lifetime. Her production company is Nine Muses Entertainment.
She continues to be repped by WME, Management 360 and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Images and Article from deadline.com