Angie Thomas Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Since she was a teen, Sanaa Lathan loved acting—and still does—but it was the chance to self-direct her first short film that truly shifted her perspective and re-defined her future. Anyone who’s lived a little knows that no matter what course your life is on, everything can change in an instant. A party invitation you accept, a phone call you decline—even whether you return a stranger’s smile or put on your headphones instead—an action (or inaction) that unfolds in mere seconds can upend your trajectory.

Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Netflix, Peacock, Discovery+ and even more streaming services, there’s no shortage of options when choosing what to binge-watch this weekend. However, sometimes the amount of great film and television available to stream can be overwhelming and lead to scrolling aimlessly — hoping to land on that perfect piece of content.  Scroll no more! To help you out, ET has rounded up the best movies and TV shows to stream this weekend, including new arrivals, nostalgia-filled favorites and titles you may have missed the (well-deserved) hype on that are worth circling back for.From a new season of  to new episodes of The Handmaid's Tale and HBO's, we’ve got your content covered this week. For even more recommendations, make sure to check out our guide for everything new on Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Apple TV+ and more this month.

Angelique Jackson Thanks to a successful launch at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sanaa Lathan-directed movie “On the Come Up” has nabbed a day-and-date theatrical release from Paramount. Initially set to launch exclusively on Paramount+ on Friday, Sept. 23, the studio announced Monday that the film will now also be released in limited theaters across the top 50 market. The movie marks the feature directorial debut from Lathan, who pulls double duty on the project, co-starring in the film as Jayda “Jay” Jackson, mother to the story’s central character Bri (newcomer Jamila C. Gray, who Lathan hand-picked out of more than 200 audition tapes).

Updated: In the wake of Sanaa Lathan’s world premiere of On the Come Up here at TIFF, the pic is getting a limited theatrical release in the top 50 markets nationally in sync with its Friday, Sept. 23 Paramount+ drop date. Previews start on Thursday, Sept. 22.

Toronto International Film Festival.Bri (Jamila C. Gray), a 16-year-old aspiring rapper, rises from late-night rap battles at an underground venue called the Ring in her fictional hometown of Garden Heights to having the most-played song on the radio. Running time: 115 minutes.

On The Come Up, directed by actress turned director Sanaa Lathan and written by Zora Howard (Premature) and Kay Oyegun is based on the book by acclaimed author Angie Thomas (The Hate You Give). The film explores the many facets of Black girlhood through hip-hop music and the general music industry. On The Come Up book is 464 pages, and the movie tries to cram all that information in two hours which sometimes overshadows the messaging, but what works is that it speaks to a demographic that is often ignored and the culture of rap that is seldom explored from a woman’s perspective.

Angelique Jackson When you’ve been in the entertainment industry for more than 25 years, there aren’t a lot of “firsts,” but it’s been a busy week of them for Sanaa Lathan. On Sunday night, she attended the Creative Arts Emmys, where she was nominated for her first Emmy award. And just four days later, she’s celebrating the world premiere of her feature directorial debut “On the Come Up” at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. “It was surreal and just so fun,” Lathan told Variety about attending the awards as a nominee. “The timing of it was kind of perfect because I have so much on my mind about bringing ‘On the Come Up’ out into the world that I haven’t had any time to stress over the whole award show drama.”

Paramount+ this month. Alongside classic movies and shows like  and  comes new titles including Season 6and , all set to premiere on the platform this September. Christine Baranski returns for the final season of The Good Wife's spinoff series, plus a new season of  makes its streaming exclusive premiere. Sign Up for Paramount+Paramount+ is available for $5/month with ads, or $10/month ad-free.

Lathan directs from a screenplay by Kay Oyegun. “On the Come Up” is produced by George Tillman, Jr., Robert Teitel, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner, Angie Thomas and Timothy M.

is making a splash! Paramount+ dropped the official trailer for its upcoming coming-of-age movie during Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards, which marks the feature directorial debut of Sanaa Lathan.The film, based on the best-selling Angie Thomas novel of the same name, follows the story of Bri (newcomer Jamila C. Gray), a 16-year-old gifted rapper, who attempts to take the battle rap scene by storm in order to lift up her family and do right by the legacy of her father — a local hip hop legend whose career was cut short by gang violence.

Paramount+ has released the trailer for their upcoming original film On the Come Up during the 2022 MTV VMAs.

Sanaa Lathan’s On the Come Up will be hitting Paramount+ on Friday, September 23 in U.S., Canada, Italy and later in the year in offshore territories.

Paramount+ has announced that Emmy-nominated Shots Fired actress Sanaa Lathan’s feature directorial debut On the Come Up, from Paramount Pictures’ Players Label, will premiere exclusively on the service in the U.S., Canada and Italy on September 23, expanding into additional international territories later this year. (View the first still from the film, making its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival, below.)

One of the benefits of having so many streaming services is that we are seeing new features and TV shows from filmmakers that might not have been given a chance previously. Or at least, they wouldn’t have such a high-profile first project such as Sanaa Lathan’s directorial debut, “On the Come Up,” which is debuting on Paramount+.

Paramount Players is getting merged under Paramount Motion Picture Group Co-Heads Mike Ireland and Daria Cercek.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterABC has ordered a drama pilot from Kay Oyegun.In the untitled one-hour series, five therapists in Philadelphia find unique ways to solve problems in their patients’ lives while grappling with their own. Ellen Roman, the owner of the practice and a brilliant therapist, has her life shockingly turned upside down when she begins working with a sociopathic patient who may hold the key to the disappearance of her sister five years earlier.Oyegun will serve as the writer and executive producer on the pilot.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.A Tennessee school board’s recent ban on Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” is the conclusion to a story we’ve already seen. A group of adults, whether it be parents or teachers, finds a book’s content to be so offensive that they call for it to be pulled from shelves, taken off syllabi or even banned entirely from schools.In the case of “Maus” — which details Spiegelman’s father’s experience of the Holocaust — it was “inappropriate language and nudity” that caused a Tennessee school board to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel from its eighth grade curriculum.

One of the year’s most anticipated debut novels, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, is now an Oprah Winfrey book club pick.

In the wake of the success of the Kevin Hart feature Fatherhood on Netflix, the producers of that movie, Higher Ground and Temple Hill, are collaborating with the streaming giant once again for a new project entitled Blackout, a film & television event which will be adapted from six different Black love stories written by six different writers.

Trey Anthony, best known for her work in Da Kink in My Hair, is back with a new book, Black Girl In-Love (with Herself). 

Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office EditorEXCLUSIVE: Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu has come aboard to direct Paramount Player’s feature adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Angie Thomas’ second novel, On The Come Up. The director behind the 2018 Cannes Film Festival premiere Rafiki is stepping in for George Tillman Jr. who was originally attached to On The Come Up.