Tag: Kumail Nanjiani

  • Dan Stevens boards Kumail Nanjiani-led Hulu series ‘Immigrant’

    By Express News Service

    Actor Dan Stevens has joined the cast of Hulu’s upcoming limited series “Immigrant,” based on the true story of Somen “Steve” Banerjee, an Indian-American entrepreneur who started Chippendales.

    Eternals actor Kumail Nanjiani will play Banerjee in the limited series that will focus on the crazy, dark-humoured, crime-rich story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon. Stevens will play the role of Paul Snider in the series, which is written and co-showrun by Robert Siegel.

    “A hustler and serial schmoozer, Paul Snider stumbles upon the opportunity of a lifetime in the form of Steve Banerjee (Nanjiani) and his struggling LA backgammon club. Through their unlikely partnership, the iconic male stripping institution Chippendales is born,” the character description read.

    Twentieth Television will produce the eight-episode series “Immigrant.” Meanwhile, Indian-origin British actor Dev Patel is also on board to play Banerjee in a feature film directed by Craig Gillespie of “I, Tonya” fame.

    Dan Stevens, best known for starring in the famous series Downton Abbey, most recently starred in the German film “I’m Your Man.” He will be next seen in Starz political thriller series “Gaslit,” alongside Sean Penn and Julia Roberts.

  • Andrew Rannells cast in limited series ‘Immigrant’ from the creator of Pam & Tommy

    By Express News Service

    Pam & Tommy creator Robert Siegel’s show “Immigrant” casts actor Andrew Rannells in a recurring role. The other cast members who will be a part of this Hulu show include Kumail Nanjiani, Annaleigh Ashford, Murray Bartlett, Quentin Plair, and Nicola Peltz.

    “Immigrant” will depict the rise and fall of one of the most popular American entertainment legacies — Chippendales — and its founder Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee. It will capture Somen’s journey, from how he immigrated to the US  in the hopes of a better and richer life to owning a gas station near Playa del Rey and finally setting his sight on the nightlife scene. He found a club in West Hollywood that was in need of love and care.

    He sunk some cast in it and kept the already popular themes intact while introducing a weekly male revue program called the Chippendales. Once word spread, the revue became one of the club’s most successful themes and helped Banerjee and his team rise to popularity. Banerjee then used the help of investors to change this theme night into a brand by itself. “Immigrant” will capture all of this and the fall of the brand that involved love affairs, tax loopholes, and murder.

    The role that Rannells is expected to play in the show is that of an investor, who is really a privileged kid from New York. He would not only bring in the money but also become the love interest of the producer and the choreographer of Chippendales Nick De Noia. Nanjiani will play the titular role with Bartlett portraying the role of Nick in “Immigrant”. Nanjiani will also serve as one of the executive producers along with Siegel, Dylan Sellers, Jenni Konner, Matt Shakman, Emily V. Gordon, Nora Silver, and Rajiv Joseph. The show will also see Joseph serve as a writer alongside Mehar Sethi. Konner will team up with Siegel as a showrunner with Shakman set to direct.

  • Annaleigh Ashford to star opposite Kumail Nanjiani in Immigrant

    By Express News Service

    Annaleigh AshfordHulu’s upcoming true-crime series Immigrant has added actor Annaleigh Ashford to its cast. The actor will star alongside the previously announced Kumail Nanjiani and Murray Bartlett.

    Immigrant will center around Chippendales’ founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee (Nanjiani) and will detail the insane, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon. Ashford will play the role of Steve Banerjee’s wife Irene, an accounting wizard who bonds with her husband over their fondness for finding ways to work around paying takes. From a woman who keeps to herself, she steps up and takes her husband’s business into her own hands. 

  • Incredible to include Bollywood and dance sequence in a Marvel movie, says Chloe Zhao

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao says Kingo in “Eternals” is a character that “loves pop culture and showmanship”, which is why making him a Bollywood star grooving to a “beautiful, joyous dance sequence” in the big Marvel movie felt “incredible”.

    The “Nomadland” director said Kingo, played by Pakistani-American star Kumail Nanjiani, was always supposed to be a Bollywood hero.

    “When I came into the process, there was a treatment and in the treatment, there are always stories and parts that take place in Mumbai. Kingo is a Bollywood star in the present day and I thought that was so interesting because we knew Kingo is going to be a character that embraced the side of humanity that loves pop culture, that loves storytelling, that showmanship,” Zhao said responding to a question from PTI during a round table interview with international journalists over Zoom.

    On bringing together different cultural elements to a superhero film, the Chinese-American director said the character arc of Kingo is a breath of fresh air.

    “It was interesting to see the writers and the Marvel team did not just make him a Hollywood star since we’ve seen him in many times, but really to make him a Bollywood star and also have this beautiful, joyous dance sequence. I thought it’s incredible to include in a big Marvel movie,” she added.

    “Eternals” introduces audiences to 10 never-seen-before superheroes, played by some of the biggest names in Hollywood such as Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, ”Game of Thrones” stars Richard Madden and Kit Harington, Gemma Chan, Nanjiani and Don Lee.

    Nanjiani recently revealed that he had initially expressed his inability to dance but Zhao tricked him by promising to change the segment to an action scene only to keep the dance sequence intact.

    The Eternals are an alien race living on Earth for over 7,000 years who team up to protect humanity from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.

    Zhao, something of a wunderkind in Hollywood for her distinct and independent films that deal with humane stories, said she always wanted to direct a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is known for its blockbuster superhero movies.

    “I wanted this so bad because I wanted to work with the team at Marvel because I love the movies. Also with this particular story, I felt like I have something to offer. And it’s a story that would address questions that I have for myself as a human being. So, I knew the making of that will allow me to grow,” the 39-year-old filmmaker explained.

    Zhao, whose debut film was “Songs My Brother Taught Me” which she followed by the critically-acclaimed “The Rider”, attracted global attention with “Nomadland”, a film that focuses on a woman who leaves home and decides to become a nomad after her husband dies and she loses her job.

    Earlier this year at the Academy Awards ceremony, “Nomadland” won the trophies for best film, best actor for Frances McDormand and best director for Zhao, who became the only second woman and the first East Asian to win the Oscar trophy in the category.

    Asked about Zhao’s interest in themes of belonging and the idea of home in her stories, the director said these concepts occupy her mind lately.

    “I’ve been thinking about us as a species, like as humanity, we are literally thinking about leaving the planet and going somewhere else.

    As a species, we’re always trying to leave home and search for something else — meaning, land, gold, opportunity — whatever it is.

    “And then in the end, when we get older we always end up wanting to go home. As I am getting older, I think about these themes quite a lot, you know, belonging and home,” she said.

    But isn’t there a worry that such themes may get lost in translation in a superhero movie? Zhao said that’s a worry she constantly grapples with as a filmmaker.

    “Every film I make I worry that it is gonna get lost in translation and you never know. That’s the thing, I try not to go there,” she told PTI.

    “When a film is done in this moment right now, this movie (‘Eternals’) is more yours than mine. So I have no control of that and the chemistry of where we are in the world now,” she said, citing the example of “Nomadland”, which struck a chord with people during the pandemic.

    “I had no idea how that film was gonna relate to people when I made it. So I will say it is part of the job.”

    Asked about plans for a possible sequel, Zhao said she and the team at Marvel were “really encouraged to make a stand-alone and really make make a film outside of the main storyline”.

    “Eternals” has “repercussions for the future” but the director said they have to see how the film interacts with the world and grows.

    “We will make future plans once we look at that,” she said.

    As a fan of superhero and ensemble films in the past, Zhao said she was inspired by a lot of movies to tell the story of these brand new characters.

    “It’s so nice to watch these people who don’t agree with each other or come from different walks of life, and find commonality, something worth fighting for, together.

    That’s something I think as human beings, we like to watch because we hope that we can all find common ground and things that are worth fighting for.”

    ”Eternals” is set for release in Indian theatres on November 5 in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

  • Wanted to be the opposite of nerdy brown stereotypes: Kumail Nanjiani

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Actor Kumail Nanjiani says he wanted to change the way people from Pakistan and the Middle East are portrayed in the American pop culture by ensuring that his character of a superhero in “Eternals” was free of ‘brown dude’ stereotypes.

    As part of his preparation for the role of Kingo, a superhero who lives on Earth as a popular Bollywood movie star, Nanjiani had a complete physical tranformation, which the actor said was his way of going against the portrayal of nerdy brown guys in American films.

    “I’ve been in this industry for about a decade and I looked at the usual opportunities that the brown dudes get. We get to be nerdy. I wanted him to be the opposite of that I wanted him to be cool. With nerdy goes ‘weakling,’ and I wanted him to be the opposite of that and to be strong physically. Or we get to be terrorists, and I wanted him to be the opposite of that,” the actor told The Los Angeles Times.

    “I wanted him to be this character full of joy. In working with Chloé (Zhao, the director), we were like, let’s take every single thing that I haven’t gotten to do and make a character who’s the exact opposite of the way a lot of American pop culture see people from Pakistan or the Middle East.”

    The 43-year-old actor said he had decided to have fun playing the superhero in the highly-anticipated drama that has some of the biggest Hollywood stars in Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, and Kit Harington.

    “I was very lucky that Chloé was really on board with that. Because when you have like 10 characters, you’re trying to set yourself apart from the other characters and find your own shadings. You’re not going to get a ton of real estate. So you want it to come from a very specific place. I decided going in, I’m going to have fun during this process.”

    The movie is about the titular group who has been living on earth for the past 7,000 years.

    Created by cosmic beings called Celestials, the Eternals have been sent to Earth to safeguard the planet from their evil counterparts Deviants. 

  • Kumail Nanjiani set to act in and produce Homeland Elegies 

    By Express News Service
    As Kumail Nanjiani is gearing up for his silver screen appearance as Kingo in Marvel’s Eternals, the actor-comedian has gotten busy with a long lineup of television projects. Nanjiani will be producing and starring in an FX limited series adaptation of one of 2020’s most acclaimed novels, Homeland Elegies.

    The book—written by Pultizer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar of Disgraced fame—is a fictionalized autobiography that probes into the collisions of politics, faith, culture, and division that arise in the life of an American son of a Pakistani immigrant (a link both Akhtar and Nanjiani share).

    Oren Moverman will helm the Homeland Elegies eight-episode limited series for FX. Moverman is famous for directing and co-writing the 2009 film The Messenger, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Akhtar will handle the adaptation of the book for the screen alongside Moverman. Nanjiani is also awaiting the release of the upcoming Diney+ Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

  • Kumail Nanjiani to play Chippendales founder Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee in Hulu serie

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: Oscar-nominated actor Kumail Nanjiani will star as Chippendales founder Somen “Steve” Banerjee in the upcoming Hulu series ‘Immigrant’.

    As per Variety, the eight-episode limited series will tell the true story of Banerjee, the Indian-American entrepreneur who started Chippendales.

    The series will detail the “insane, darkly comedic, crime-ridden story behind the unique male revue that became a cultural phenomenon.”

    The forthcoming series is written by Robert Siegel and executive produced by Siegel, Nanjiani, Limelight’s Dylan Sellers and Chris Parker, and Emily V. Gordon as well as Rajiv Joseph and Mehar Sethi, who will also write on the series. 20th Television will produce.

    Banerjee was an Indian American entrepreneur who struck gold in 1979 when he added a male stripper dance troupe for female audiences to the lineup at his Los Angeles nightclub.

    The first of its kind, the Chippendales have evolved to performing Broadway-style burlesque shows all over the world and at their flagship venue in Las Vegas.

    But Banjaree’s legacy is shrouded in scandal. Hours before he was to be sentenced in 1994 for having his business partner, Emmy-winning director and choreographer Nick De Noia, killed in 1987, Banjeree died by suicide.

    He was also indicted for plotting to kill some former Chippendale dancers he allegedly considered a threat.

    Nanjiani is no stranger to television, having starred in the hit HBO comedy ‘Silicon Valley’ throughout its six-season run. He has also been on shows like ‘Portlandia,’ ‘Franklin and Bash,’ and ‘Adventure Time.’

    He picked up an Emmy nomination in 2019 for best guest actor in a drama series for ‘The Twilight Zone’ reboot and is set to appear in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series at Disney Plus.

    On the film front, he earned an Oscar nomination in 2018 alongside his wife, Emily V. Gordon, for ‘The Big Sick,’ which is loosely based on the couple’s real life. Next up, he will appear in the Marvel film ‘Eternals’ as Kingo.

    He will star alongside Angelina Jolie in Marvel’s ‘The Eternals’, a role for which he worked out extensively. (ANI)