You just know C-Tates would weasel his way into this somehow.

It’s almost every day that someone files a plagiarism lawsuit against a high-profile film or filmmaker, way too many for me to cover them all, and they usually come to nothing. A town full of derivative ideas just naturally breeds that sort of thing. It’s like someone saying Jay Leno stole their joke — there’s a difference between “stolen” and “hacky.” But bear with me, this one’s more enjoyable than the usual frivolous-lawsuit-from-an-insane-person story.

Jamie Foxx and Tyler Perry are being sued for $1 million each by a prisoner — who claims the duo jacked his idea for a groan-worthy new comedy … starring Foxx, Perry, and Martin Lawrence … all dressed as women.
In case you haven’t heard … the project is called “Skank Robbers” — a wacky action comedy about two lady bank robbers … with Lawrence’s Sheneneh character from “Martin,” Foxx’s Wanda from “In Living Color,” and according to reports … Tyler Perry’s Madea … from every bad movie you’ve seen. The project is reportedly in development.

The project is in development, and I’ve covered it here before (its proposed August 2011 release date came and went, but according to the DailyMail, it had begun shooting), but this is the first I’ve ever heard of Tyler Perry being involved. I think the prisoner just made that part up. And here’s where it gets good…

Read the rest of this entry »

Martin Lawrence and Jamie Foxx dusted off their characters Sheneneh and Wanda for a bit at the BET Awards a while back (video after the jump), and people seemed to like it.  Since movie execs are braying jackasses who would try to make a movie out of literally anything people enjoy these days (CHEESE PLATE! IN 3D!), Screen Gems hired Foxx to write an entire movie around it.  (TWO MEN! DRESSED AS WOMEN! BOTH UGLY!  IT WRITES ITSELF! FETCH MY COCAINE!)  Today’s news is that it now has (ulp) a distributor and a release date.  Says Production Weekly:

Sony gives the Jamie Foxx (Wanda) & Martin Lawrence (Sheneneh) comedy “Skank Robbers“ an Aug. 19, 2011 release date.

What do you think, is this a better or worse idea than a Les Grossman movie?  I guess that’s kind of like asking what flavor of popsicle I’d rather have shoved up my ass.  As much as he seems like a total d-bag, you have to give Jamie Foxx credit for being talented, but Martin Lawrence has never been funny.  He’s like a black Carlos Mencia, whose obvious, unfunny observations are not improved by his shouting.  Anyway, I think they should team up Sheneneh and Wanda with Les Grossman, Madea, and Eddie Murphy’s last three fat suits for one super-fat, super-cross-dressing, super-group movie.  It would be like The Avengers for f*cking morons.

Related: Who finds cross-dressing funnier, black people or British people?

Read the rest of this entry »

Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence made the above trailer, Skank Robbers, featuring their characters Sheneneh and Wanda, as a bit for the BET awards.  Audience reaction was said to be huge, and I imagine a lot of black women got out of their seats and pumped their fists and screamed because that’s what black women do at stand up shows.  They’re the best audience, easily.  Anyway, they’re going to make the fake trailer into a movie (a la Machete) for Screen Gems, because Screen Gems is basically Fox on a smaller scale.

Foxx will write the script for “Sheneneh and Wanda”, and he and Martin will produce together through Foxx’s Foxxhole and Lawrence’s Runteldat production banners.  In the comedy, Sheneneh and Wanda are modern day independent women trying to make it on their own, one bank robbery at a time. [Variety]

As a sketch it’s a decent concept — “I know the baby’s Chris Brown’s ’cause it keep tryin’ to kick me” — but can you really stretch a few one liners and funny makeup into an entire movie?  Who do they think they are, the Wayans brothers?  Also, when I was researching this, I started to type “Sheneneh and Wanda” into Google, and it suggested “Sheneneh and Wanda Sykes.”  Which means either Google is racist, or someone’s already gotten a head start on writing the next BET Awards parody trailer.