Things are shaping up fort Lorne Michael’s new comedy pilot for HBO. Maya Rudolph and Jaden Smith have joined the cast of “Brothers in Atlanta.”
Maya Rudolph’s father is an Ashkenazi Jew, and her mother was African-American.
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Michaels, born Lorne Lipowitz in Toronto, has produced 35 of Saturday Night Live’s 40 years on the air. But his resume also boasts more than 100 different production credits which now include both of NBC’s late night talk shows, The Tonight Show and Late Night.
For the new show Michaels is teaming up with Late Night with Jimmy Fallon alums Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin who will both write and star in it. The show is a comedy about struggling entertainers and best friends Langston (Riddle) and Moose (Salahuddin) trying to navigate relationships and life in the black mecca of Atlanta.
Maya Rudolph, a Saturday Night Live alum, will guest star and so will Jaden Smith who is famous because his father is Will Smith. Rudolph will play Shirle, Moose’s boss and an “R&B diva whose heyday was in the 90s.” Smith will play Curtis, a “New Atlanta” teenager “with unpredictable interests and suspicious income.”
Meanwhile, Michaels is making preparations for the three hour special marking Saturday Night Live’s 40 years on the air. Eddie Murphy, who famously refused to take part in any previous celebration and specials for the show, has said that he will appear this time. Murphy starred on the show during Dick Ebersol’s 4 year tenure as producer.
Murphy said, “It’s just timing. It just never worked out where the timing was right for me to do it … They’re actually having a 40th anniversary I think in two weeks. I’m going to that, and that’ll be the first time I’ve been back since I left.”
There is no word yet if Murphy will recreate any of his iconic characters such as Buckwheat or Gumby for the special which airs on February 15th.
