André Holland is set to star as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton in an upcoming six-episode limited series at Apple TV+.
The series will chronicle the true story of Newton’s escape to Cuba. The series will be executive produced by NAACP Image Award-winner Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, The Kings of Napa) who will also serve as showrunner. Don Cheadle is set to executive produce as well as direct the first two episodes of the series.
The limited series is based on the Playboy magazine article of the same name written by Joshuah Bearman (Argo), who will also serve as executive producer.
Here is the official description of the upcoming series:
The Big Cigar tells the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Newton relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider, the Hollywood producer behind “Easy Rider,” to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.
Jim Hect wrote the series, from a story by him and Bearman & Hecht. It is a between Apple TV+ and Warner Bros. Television.
The drama is executive produced by Hecht and Sherman Barrois, as well as Bearman, Joshua Davis, and Arthur Spector (Little America), through their production company Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios.
