Exclusive: Janine Sherman Barrois and Jim Hecht talk The Big Cigar & casting André Holland as Huey P. Newton
This Friday, June 14 on Apple TV+ is the final episode to the limited drama series The Big Cigar, starring André Holland as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton.
"Based on the magazine article of the same name from Joshuah Bearman (“Argo”), who also serves as executive producer, NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois serves as showrunner, EP, and a writer. The pilot was written by Jim Hecht, from a story by Bearman and Hecht"
“The Big Cigar” tells the incredible true story of Hollywood revolution meeting social revolution: it’s a wild caper of Black Panther founder Huey Newton escaping from the FBI to Cuba with the assistance of famed producer Bert Schneider in an impossibly elaborate plan – involving a fake movie production -- that goes wrong every way it possibly can. And somehow, it’s all true. Mostly.
André Holland leads a renowned ensemble cast including Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, PJ Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Moses Ingram, Rebecca Dalton, Olli Haaskivi, Jordane Christie, Glynn Turman, Samora Smallwood, Brenton Allen, and Inny Clemons.
Written by Jim Hecht, from a story by Bearman and Hecht, “The Big Cigar” hails from Warner Bros. Television, where NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois and her Folding Chair Productions are under an overall deal. The drama is executive produced by Hecht and Sherman Barrois, as well as Bearman, Joshua Davis, and Arthur Spector, through their production company Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios.
For nearly 30 years Sherman Barrois has worked her way up from being a writer to producing and executive producing numerous shows and films with some of her credits including TNT’s comedy-drama Claws, the Netflix miniseries Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, and the OWN prime time soap opera, The Kings of Napa.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Janine Sherman Barrois and Jim Hecht about The Big Cigar & casting André Holland as Huey P. Newton.