'Roots' remake, set to begin New Orleans filming in mid-August, issues casting call for extras
Last edited Thu Jul 23, 2015, 05:46 AM - Edit history (1)
New Orleans-area filming on a "Roots" remake, slated to air on three A&E networks in 2016, is expected to begin in mid-August. An open call for background actors was issued Tuesday (July 21) by Caballero Casting. The project, to be simulcast on History, A&E and Lifetime, was announced in April.
The four-night, eight-hour project will film here through December. Filming will also take place in Africa, an A&E spokesman said Wednesday.
Laurence Fishburne will portray Alex Haley in the "Roots" remake, based on Haley's novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" as well as new historical scholarship, according to A&E's initial announcement of the project.
The original 12-hour 1977 miniseries, starring LeVar Burton as the slave Kunta Kinte, was a cultural landmark and ratings powerhouse. Burton is a co-executive producer of the new project.
Read more: http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2015/07/roots_remake_new_orleans_filmi.html#incart_2box_nola_river_orleans_news
Cross-posted in the Louisiana Group and Movies Group.
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Cross post in the movie group.
Content - I have no positives/negatives.
Remake? To me they might as well be remaking the Goldman script of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Petrified Forest, Schindler's List, Wall Street, Titanic, In The Heat Of The Night or the greatest movies of all time . . .
The Goonies and 
The Hot Rock.
Okay kidding on the last so but I loooooove them!
Anyhoo - some movies for me are one and done.
They aren't going to do better than the 37 Emmys the original garnered. They would save a lot of money if the cross broadcasted the original which to me - was stellar. Every scene, every shot, sound editing, acting - everything was on point.
The boys are in the bar and they're like - this can work?
