All throughout the casting process of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained we’ve watched the director recruit big name actor after big name actor to fill out the male roles in his script. But there was one character who kept getting named, danced around, but never announced as being officially cast. We got news of the man who would be playing Django, the titular character and husband to Broomhilda. We got news of who would be playing Calvin Candie, the slave owner that kept Broomhilda under lock and key. Everything that happens in this movie seems to hinge on the character of Broomhilda, yet their hasn’t been much speculation as to who would be cast to bring her to life. Today that oversight ends, and most of the principle casting of Django Unchained seems to get wrapped up, with the casting of actress Kerry Washington in the Broomhilda role. Washington is a pretty face, who’s been known to do things like appear in L’Oréal ads, but she has a pretty lengthy film career behind her at this point as well. Perhaps most memorably she played the role of Kay Amin in The Last King of Scotland, and she’s even already had some experience playing Jamie Foxx’s significant other in Ray. Apparently the role took so long to fill because Tarantino was interested in casting an unknown for Broomhilda, but try as he might he just couldn’t find anyone to top Washington’s auditions. Despite the fact that Tarantino won’t be able to wow [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Night Catches Us, the drama featuring Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) and Kerry Washington (For Colored Girls), aims its sights on racial tension in 1970s Philadelphia to show another side of brotherly love. Director/Writer Tanya Hamilton got to speak with Black Panther artist and Minister of Culture Emory Douglas who gives some fascinating insights into the goals of the divisive group and the personal elements of the racial struggle. The film hits theaters this Friday.

In For Colored Girls, Tyler Perry trades in Madea for a high end, high-minded source — a beloved 1975 Ntozake Shange play — and comes away with the same sort of overheated, overstuffed kitchen sink cinematic work that’s become his calling card. It’s a mess, proving once again that the mega-rich Atlanta one-man studio’s business acumen surpasses his filmmaking talents. Granted, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf could not have been an easy work to adapt, consisting as it does of 20 loosely conjoined prose poems centered on such hot-button issues as rape and abortion. Using Shange’s reflective, elliptical prose as a starting point, Perry crafts an interwoven ensemble of women, who face some serious, pressing crises while largely sharing the same Harlem apartment building’s roof.

Thandie Newton. Whoopi Goldberg. Anika Noni Rose. Kerry Washington. Janet Jackson. Loretta Devine. Kimberly Elise. Phylicia Rashad. A litany of strong talents given the weight of For Colored Girls and hopefully allowed to carry it as far as they can. The original play by Ntozake Shange was written as a set of poems, but Tyler Perry and company have woven them into a narrative story for the screen. This trailer is exciting. Perry has built an empire, but this may be the film that finally pushes him out of the soap opera make-up smear and proves he has the talent to deliver real drama. Not bad for a guy who started out in elderly drag.

The Sundance drama just got picked up, and it’s going to be put down this Fall. Just in time for Awards season.

Lakeview Terrace is meant to be a taut thriller. However, the script violates a cardinal rule… it has the characters act unrelentlessly stupid in order to force a conflict. By the end, I really didn’t care about any of them.

Join in the housewarming party for Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, and have a drink to celebrate their new neighbor, Samuel L. Jackson.

Kevin and Neil are recovering from the righteous wind storm that swept through the Midwest… or at least they’re using that as an excuse for not having seen all the movies this week.