Lovie Simone Cast as Mary Simms in Apple Limited Series ‘Manhunt’

By -

Lovie Simone has been casted in the Apple TV+ true crime limited series "Manhunt" based on Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson. The series follows the Lincoln assassination and the resulting aftermath. It will be lead by Tobias Menzies ("Rome, “The Crown,”, “Outlander”) as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s war secretary and friend.

Simone has been casted as Mary Simms, the first Black American to testify on May 25, 1865 during the conspiracy trial for the assassination of President Lincoln.

Mary Simms was the former slave of Samuel Mudd, the doctor who treated the leg injury of John Wilkes Booth (to be played by Anthony Boyle) and gave him safe harbor after his crime. Simms remembered her former enslavers dislike for Lincoln and discussed specific conversations during her testimony. Mary Simms' brothers Elzee Eglent,14 year old Milo Simms, and seven other formerly enslaved people also testified in the case so I'm looking forward to their casting. 

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House, May 2016. Jamie Krouse. Wikimedia Commons.

The series is said to feature many important Black historical figures whose lives were intertwined with the escape, manhunt and the tension filled investigation. Manhunt is described as "part historical fiction, part conspiracy thriller", so I'm very eager to see how the Black characters play into that. 

Carl Franklin will be the director and executive producer. Franklin has experience with historical thrillers as shown by his work on “Devil in a Blue Dress”. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 28, 2022 at 10:17 AM

    My niece Jessica Ross is in 7 episodes of this series. So proud of her!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

White Water (2015) - A Review

By -
Image
Water White is based on the 2011 children’s book which was co-authored by Michael Bandy and Eric Stein. The film is based on a childhood experience of author Bandy and tells the story of a boy in 1963 Alabama who is obsessed with drinking water from the “Whites Only” fountain. I was drawn to this movie premise because my grandfather told me about his experience as a child in 1950’s Georgia wanting to drink from the white fountain. Like Michael, my grandfather found that the water wasn’t all he thought it would be. The narrative style and tone of the film fit perfectly as it is from the point of view of a 7 year old little boy. Watching the shenanigans that Michael and his older cousin Red get into was hilarious. Amir and Amari O'Neil were perfectly cast as Michael. Although twins they played the character in the same way. I was not even aware that Michael was being played by twins until I looked up the trailer to write this review. I was also impressed by the actin...
Read more

Film News: Zendaya as Ellen Craft

By -
Image
In more Zendaya film news! Deadline recently mentioned in an article that Zendaya has signed on to play Ellen Craft in the adaptation of the book, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or, the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery. As of 2016 the project was in development at Alloy Entertainment and Alloy Features, with Suzanne Allain attached to script. The History : In 1848, William and Ellen Craft made an amazingly clever escape from slavery in Macon, Georgia. Ellen, the daughter of a biracial slave and her master used her light skin and features to disguise herself as a white male planter. With her husband William posing as her servant the Crafts traveled to freedom in plain sight. This will be the third period production that   Zendaya will be taking part of. She was first in the 2017 musical, The Greatest Showman . In the musical the actress played one of P. T. Barnum's circus acts; a trapeze artist. News also broke of her casting as Anita Hemmings ...
Read more

Looking Back at Bonanza: Enter Thomas Bowers (1964)

By -
Image
As a child I regularly watched syndicated television shows in historical settings like Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman with my mother. I remembered that some of the episodes featured black characters and dealt with race. I thought it'd be fun to rewatch these episodes and give my thoughts here. The first episode I dug up was the season 5 episode 30 of Bonanza, titled "Enter Thomas Bowers" which aired April 26, 1964. The episode starts with three women discussing a benefit concert for the local Native American tribe. One of the women proudly states that she has gotten the internationally famous singer Thomas Bowers to perform and that he is coming in on the next stagecoach. Only when Thomas Bowers (William Marshall) arrives, he's not exactly who she thought he'd be. Once she realizes that the singer is a black man the entire atmosphere changes.  I have to stop here is point out the irony of them not wanting...
Read more