Tag Archives: Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole

Colman Domingo to Make Film Directorial Debut with Miramax’s “Scandalous”

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Colman Domingo is preparing to make his scandalous film directorial debut.

The 54-year-old Emmy-winning Belizean-Guatemalan American actor and activist will make his film directorial debut in Scandalous, a fast-tracked Miramax drama about the clandestine love affair between film star Kim Novak and singer/dancer and film star Sammy Davis Jr. in 1957.

Colman DomingoSydney Sweeney will play Novak, and David Jonsson will play Davis.

The plan is to shoot the film — imagine a film about classic Hollywood being shot in Los Angeles — when Domingo and Sweeney complete Season 3 of the HBO series Euphoria.

Much the way she did with the sleeper hit Anyone But You, Sweeney was active in putting this one together and she’ll be a producer along with Tani Cohen and Bobby Rock, with Jon Levin executive producing.

Matthew Fantaci wrote the script.

Before he became Miramax CEO, Jon Glickman originated the project at Panoramic, and remained high on it.

Novak, star of Vertigo, and Rat Pack member Davis were at the peak of star power when they met while guests on The Steve Allen Show. They fell hard for each other, but as rumors spread, the rampant racism in America threatened to derail their careers. Novak experienced the ire of Harry Cohn, the Columbia Pictures chief who had the actress under contract. Their covert affair became big news when a Chicago gossip columnist in early 1958 wrote a detailed account of their relationship, including their plans to marry. This despite their denials. Davis nine days later married a Black chorus girl named Loray White.

Domingo is coming off acclaimed turns in Rustin and Sing Sing, and he’s also working on a film about Nat King Cole that he would star in and direct.

He has directed television in the past and he’s currently in production on Netflix and Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons and he has the Netflix limited series The Madness. He also plays Joe Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.

Lights Out: Nat King Cole, which Domingo wrote with director Patricia McGregor, will premiere at New York Theater Workshop in the spring, after it premiered at the Geffen Theater in 2019.

Colman Domingo to Executive Produce the Short Film “Leylak”

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Colman Domingo is putting on his producer hat…

The 51-year-old Guatemalan American actor will be executive producing Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos’ short film Leylak.

Colman Domingo

The short, shot during the pandemic, follows an immigrant gravedigger, a frontline worker, who buries his pain in order to shelter his daughter from an unspeakable loss but learns that the only way forward is together.

Leylak made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize, going on to garner top awards at international film festivals like Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, Leiden International Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, and many more.

“Leylak’s setting couldn’t be more timely, but it’s the film’s piercing and honest look at loss, guilt, anguish, love and hope that make it timeless,” says Domingo. “With quiet intensity, Leylak is executed with such nuance in its portrayal of how unbearable circumstances can splinter people apart, but at the same time, bring them even stronger together.”

Domingo’s critically acclaimed film work includes If Beale Street Could Talk, Selma, Lincoln, Candyman, Without Remorse, Zola, and he was a Film Independent Spirit, NAACP, SAG and Critics Choice Award nominee for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also won the Best Supporting Actor Imagen Award for HBO’s Euphoria.

As a writer, Domingo’s plays and musicals include the Tony Award nominated Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole. The multi-hyphenate is currently shooting season 4 of his series, Bottomless Brunch at Colman‘s for AMC, and is developing various TV, film, theater and animation projects with his production company, Edith Productions. He is currently shooting a new film called, Rustin, where he has landed his title role and set to play gay rights activist Bayard Rustin, which is the first film production from Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground.

New York-based filmmakers Aharoni and Latos directed and co-produced Leylak. The short’s story was written and co-produced by Mustafa Kaymak, the award-winning writer and producer of Green, the winner of the 2019 short film U.S. Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival.

Colman Domingo Signs First-Look Deal with AMC Studios

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It’s a new deal for Colman Domingo…

The 50-year-old Guatemalan American actor, playwright and television/stage director has signed a first-look deal with AMC Studios, the studio behind Domingo’s zombie drama series Fear the Walking Dead.

Colman Domingo,

Domingo made his debut as Victor Strand in a two-episode guest arc during the first season of Fear the Walking Dead, a spinoff from The Walking Dead.

He was made a series regular at the start of Season 2. He made his directorial debut on the show and has directed two episodes to date.

“From the moment AMC viewers first saw Colman Domingo as the mysterious and dynamic Victor Strand in season one of Fear The Walking Dead,they haven’t been able to look away, and neither have we,” said Sarah Barnett, President of AMC Networks Entertainment Group & AMC Studios. “He has become a core character of the series and, as anyone who knows him knows, his talents go far beyond that one character in that one show. He is a writer, producer and performer who can move effortlessly between film, television and the stage and we are thrilled to be expanding our relationship with this extraordinary talent and individual through this first-look deal with AMC Studios.”

Domingo is currently in production on the upcoming sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead and stars in A24’s Zola, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He’s also had a recurring role on HBO’s Euphoria and will be seen in Jordan Peele’s spiritual sequel to the 1992 gothic horror film CandyMan, as well as opposite Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in the Netflix film adaption of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,produced by Denzel Washington.

Domingo, 20-year veteran theater director, co-wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and for the Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole  musical.

At AMC, he developed a series based on his play Dottwo years ago.

Domingo’s film acting credits also include Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Selma, Lee Daniels’ The Butler,  Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, First Match, and Spike Lee’s Miracle At St. Ana, Red Hook Summerand Passing Strange.