UPDATE 10/18/16: The 4 leads who will headline the series are now officially locked with today’s announcement.
Canadian actor Lyriq Bent has been cast as the 3rd male lead opposite star DeWanda Wise (as Nola Darling) in Spike Lee’s Netflix series adaptation of his feature film debut, “She’s Gotta Have It.” Bent joins the previously cast Cleo Anthony (who will play Greer Childs) and Anthony Ramos (who will play Mars Blackmon) in what will be a contemporary reimagining of Lee’s 1986 dramedy.
Bent has signed up to play Jamie Overstreet, the over-protective investment banker, who was played by Tommy Redmond Hicks in the original movie.
In the updated Netflix series, Nola Darling is a Brooklyn-based free-spirited artist in her late 20s who divides her time between her work, her friends, and her three lovers: Mars Blackmon (now a social media phenom), Greer Childs (the self-obsessed model-turned-photographer), and Jamie Overstreet.
Most recently Stateside, Bent appeared in the BET/CBC mini-series “Book of Negroes” based on Lawrence Hill’s best-selling novel, opposite Louis Gosset Jr., Cuba Gooding Jr., and Aunjanue Ellis. He can currently be seen in the Canadian TV series “Shoot the Messenger,” which premiered on CBC Television on October 10, 2016.
He’s repped by Don Buchwald & Associates, The Associates Talent & Literary Management in Toronto and managed by Gorav Seth of Seth Management.
All previous updates on the series follow below…
UPDATE 10/17/16: Cleo Anthony is the third actor to be cast in a lead role in Spike Lee’s Netflix series adaptation of his feature film debut, “She’s Gotta Have It.” Cleo Anthony joins the previously cast Anthony Ramos (who will play Mars Blackmon) and DeWanda Wise (as the star of the series, Nola Darling) in what will be a contemporary reimagining of Lee’s 1986 dramedy.
Cleo has signed up to play one of the 2 remaining male leads in the series – the self-obsessed model-turned-photographer Greer Childs (originally played by John Canada Terrell in Spike’s film).
Still to be cast is the final male lead, Jamie Overstreet the over-protective investment banker who was played by Tommy Redmond Hicks in the original movie.
In the Netflix series, Nola Darling is a Brooklyn-based free-spirited artist in her late 20s who divides her time between her work, her friends, and her three lovers: Mars Blackmon (now a social media phenom), Jamie Overstreet (an investment banker), and Greer Childs.
Cleo Anthony’s credits include roles on the CBS summer series “Extant,” and Amazon’s “Transparent” on the small screen, and “Divergent” on the big screen.
He’s repped by Luber Roklin.
All previous updates on the series follow below…
It’s official! As I speculated last week after Spike Lee published a “cast and writers” photo for his upcoming Netflix series adaption of his feature film debut, “She’s Gotta Have It,” DeWanda Wise is indeed going to star in the project, playing Nola Darling, as Spike himself announced on his Instagram page just moments ago.
Recapping… Spike Lee and Netflix have teamed up to develop a TV series based on “She’s Gotta Have It.” Full details on the adaptation aren’t public at this time. What we do know for sure is that it’ll be a half-hour TV series based on the film that, by the way, celebrates its 30th year in release this year (it initially opened on August 8, 1986).
Netflix has ordered a 10-episode series which Spike will also direct and serve as an executive producer, along with his producer-wife Tonya Lewis Lee.
As I hoped, Spike has indeed gone with a fresh face to play Nola Darling – the young, self-assured Brooklynite, juggling 3 very different boyfriends, who, maybe, if collected into one body, will represent her ideal mate. But Nola doesn’t want to commit to any of her men, cherishing her personal freedom, even as their relationships with Nola grow, and each man wants her for himself.
Now that we know with certainty that DeWanda Wise (who we last saw in Tahir Jetter’s “How to Tell You’re a Douchebag,” and will next be seen in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “Shots Fired” followed by WGN America’s second season of “Underground”) is playing Nola, there are of course the 3 men in her life, assuming the story remains the same, except set in the present-day: Mars Blackmon, Jamie Overstreet and Greer Childs; roles for 3 (black?) actors to play.
We already know that “Hamilton” actor Anthony Ramos – who originated the roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s eldest son, in the Broadway musical – has been cast to play “da original b-boy” sneakerhead himself, Mars Blackmon – the role Spike Lee played in the 1986 movie. That leaves Jamie Overstreet and Greer Childs.
Worth noting, DeWanda Wise’s husband, Alano Miller, also appeared in the “cast and writers” photo Spike shared last week; so one can only speculate, once again, that he might be playing one of the 3 men. Let’s see if that turns out to be true.
Below is the “cast and writers” picture Spike shared last week. He didn’t identify any of the actors in the photo, and what roles they will be playing, so we were left to speculate.
Those that I was able to identify are Santana Caress Benitez (far left, standing, rear row), Alano Miller (third from the left in the rear), Joie Lee & Cinqué Lee (Spike’s siblings, who I assume are writers on the series, but they also act, so they may be cast members as well; Joie is 5th from the left in the rear, and Cinqué is 2nd from the left in the front row, seated), Lemon Andersen (seated in the front row, next to Cinqué – on his right), Ilfenesh Hadera (standing, far right), Anthony Ramos (2nd from the right, in the second row, seated), and next to him (on his right), is DeWanda Wise:
