Justin Simien Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

JON FROSCH: Here we are, team, another Sundance under our belts! As usual, it’s hard to confidently qualify a given edition of the festival as “good” or “bad”; depending on what you see (this year, there were 114 feature-length world premieres), Sundance can either be a thrill or a slog. Or, more typically, both — sometimes even within the span of a single movie (hello, Justin Simien’s Bad Hair).I did think the narrative films felt a bit smaller this year.

Hulu is set to acquire Justin Simien’s campy horror film “Bad Hair” out of the Sundance Film Festival, insiders told Variety. The global pact is for $8 million.

By Mike Fleming Jr

By Dino-Ray Ramos

“Bad Hair” writer and director Justin Simien always intended for his horror-satire film to spark a conversation about the way society relates to appearance (especially around and among black women), but filming the project has equally affected his cast, who shared their own struggles to gain acceptance professionally and learn how to accept themselves personally.

The year is 1989 and New Jack Swing is about to push black culture from the margins to the mainstream. The question for the black employees of Culture, the music TV station at the center of writer-director Justin Simien’s delightfully macabre horror-dramedy “Bad Hair,” is what image do they — and their white executive Grant (James Van Der Beek) — want to promote? Accuses one host, “You want us to appeal to a whiter — er, wider — audience.”

Deeply personal but indulgently campy, Justin Simien’s Sundance opener “Bad Hair” is a genre-blending horror show that the director said serves as a tribute to the struggles of black women.

By Dino-Ray Ramos

The creator of Netflix comedy Dear White People has said he is not surprised by a lack of diversity in recent Oscar nominations.

Justin Simien understands the value of a compelling story.

Elle Lorraine — the lead of Justin Simien's Sundance-bound Bad Hair— has signed with WME.Lorraine stars in Simien's sophomore feature, which will premiere in the fest's genre-focused Midnight section, and also stars Lena Waithe, Vanessa Williams and Laverne Cox.Her other onscreen credits include an appearance on Netflix series Dear White People, and an arch on the third season of Issa Rae's HBO seriesInsecure.