Robbie Jones Cast In ‘Shaft’ Sequel; Brandon Routh Joins Live-Action ‘Anastasia’ Remake

Robbie Jones Cast In ‘Shaft’ Sequel; Brandon Routh Joins Live-Action ‘Anastasia’ Remake

Actor Robbie Jones (One Tree Hill, Necessary Roughness) has come aboard New Line’s Tim Story-directed Shaft sequel, which stars past Shaft actors Samuel L. Jackson and and Richard Roundtree as well as new comers Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp, Cliff “Method Man” Smith and Matt Lauria. The pic, which will bow in June 14, 2019, follows John Shaft Jr. (a.k.a. JJ), a cyber security expert and FBI analyst who reluctantly enlists his estranged father to help to find out who killed his best friend Karim and bring down a drug-trafficking/money-laundering operation in NYC. The script is by Alex Barnow and Kenya Barris, who is also producing with John Davis of Davis Entertainment. Exec producers are Ira Napoliello and Marc S. Fischer. Jones, who starred in Story’s Hurricane Season film as well as Tyler Perry’s Temptation, is repped by Gersh and Van Johnson Company.

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Brandon Routh, who currently stars on CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, is set to co-star in the live-action remake of Anastasia, which has Blake Harris directing from his own script. Set in 1917, the family film follows Anastasia Romanov, who escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin and finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl, Emily Carey Wonder Woman) starts as the title character and Amiah Miller (War for the Planet of the Apes) plays Megan. Routh will portray Czar Nicholas, the Czar of Russia and the father of Princess Anastasia. Production began last summer in Lexington, KY with the young stars filming the 1988 portion of the film. Shooting on the 1917 portion of the film will commence in April. The original concept for the story hails from Harris and Armando Gutierrez, who is a producers on the project along with Eli Lipnik, Peter Lees and Bret Jones. Routh, repped by UTA and Main Title Entertainment, starred in Warner Bro’s Superman Returns.