National Geographic, with Imagine Television Studios and Fox 21 Television Studios, announced the cast that will be joining previously announced Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin, in the next installment of the Emmy-winning global anthology series Genius: Aretha.

https://youtu.be/gVGhlxITkco

Malcolm Barrett, Patrice Covington, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Rebecca Naomi Jones and Sanai Victoria will star in the eight-episode global limited series. Additionally, Anthony Hemingway is tapped to serve as executive producer and direct the pilot episode of the upcoming season, the first-ever, definitive and only authorized scripted limited series on the life of the universally acclaimed Queen of Soul.

Barrett joins as Ted White, Aretha’s first husband and business manager, who develops relationships with songwriters and producers and picks some of her biggest hits. But as Aretha gains fame, White’s heavy drinking and volatile behavior ends their marriage. Covington and Jones will portray Erma and Carolyn Franklin, respectively, Aretha’s sisters, who are both talented performers in their own right and sing backup for Aretha. Hébert Gregory will play Ruth Bowen, a pioneer in her field, the head of a successful black-owned agency, who represents Aretha, booking her into world-class venues and getting her onto the covers of Time and Ebony magazines. Victoria will be Little Re (young Aretha), the shy, immensely talented daughter of celebrated Detroit preacher Clarence LaVaughn (C.L.) Franklin, who thrusts her into the spotlight at a very young age.

Prolific producer and director Hemingway, will serve as an executive producer and direct the pilot episode of Genius: Aretha. Hemingway directed and executive produced productions seen such as Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and Underground.

Hemingway received the 2017 African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Horizon Award and has garnered Emmy, Golden Globe, PGA, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and BAFTA TV Awards for his work on The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

Filming will start this December for a 2020 premiere on National Geographic channels in 172 countries and 43 languages.

National Geographic, the company behind the recent Oscar-winning and seven Emmy-winning Free Solo, in 2017 premiered the first season of Genius, which starred Geoffrey Rush as the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein. Biller was showrunner and creator for the multi-Emmy-winning Genius: Picasso and Genius Einstein. The latter earned 10 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited Series, as well as Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for Rush. The follow-up series to Einstein’s story, starred Antonio Banderas as the titular Spanish painter and matched much of the success of its predecessor, earning seven Emmy nominations — and two wins — as well as Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for Banderas.

The Queen of Soul, will be taking her Small Screen place as a Genius, in 2020

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Starring Antonio Banderas and Alex Rich in the joint role of Pablo Picasso, this 10-Episode Series hails from Fox 21 Television Studios and Imagine Television and is executive produced by Academy Award Winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, with a feature length Premiere on 22 April 2018.

Clémence Poésy, Robert Sheehan, Poppy Delevingne and Aisling Franciosi feature alongside returning cast from season one, Samantha Colley, with appearances by T.R. Knight, Seth Gabel and Johnny Flynn.

Few painters have been as awe-inspiringly prolific as Pablo Picasso. One of the most influential and celebrated artists of the 20th century, his career spanned more than 80 of his 91 years, during which time he produced an estimated 50,000 works. His passionate nature and relentless creative drive were inextricably linked to his personal life, which included tumultuous marriages, numerous affairs and ever-shifting political and personal alliances. Constantly reinventing himself, Picasso always strove to innovate and push the boundaries of artistic expression, leading to his worldwide renown as a genius.

Premiering on 22 April 2018 at 20h05, the second season of National Geographic’s Emmy-, Golden Globe-, and Screen Actor’s Guild Award-nominated 10-part global event series, Genius: Picasso, explores the Spanish expatriate’s devotion to his craft, his contribution to modern art and his turbulent personal life. The new season, from Fox 21 Television Studios, is executive produced by Brian Grazerand Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, MWM Studios and EUE/Sokolow Entertainment. Showrunner, executive producer, writer and director Ken Biller also returns.

Antonio Banderas brings to life the artistic career of the titular artist: Pablo Picasso. Joining him as the younger Pablo is Alex Rich, who rejects academic study and joins the circle of young bohemian artists and writers struggling to make it in early 20th century Spain and France.

Clémence Poésy portrays Françoise Gilot, a French painter and best-selling author whose decade-long affair with Picasso yielded two children.  Sebastian Roché is Emile Gilot, Francoise’s tyrannical father. Robert Sheehan plays Carles Casagemas, Poppy Delevingne portrays Marie-Thérèse Walter, and Aisling Franciosi of Game of Thrones, acts as Fernande Olivier, a French artist and model, of whom Picasso painted more than 60 portraits.

Returnig to the Genius Series, is Samantha Colley, who will play Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was also Picasso’s lover and muse.  Grey’s Anatomy’s T.R. Knight will play Max Jacob, with Seth Gabel and Joghnny Flynn in the roles of Guillaume Apollinaire and Alain Cuny respectively.

The second season of the acclaimed series began production in 2017, filming in many locations where Picasso himself once lived and worked. This included a three-day shoot in Málaga, Spain — birthplace of both Picasso and Banderas — where production filmed in the same house in which Picasso was born, the church where he was baptised and the bullring where he found much inspiration in his youth.

Genius: Picasso is executive produced by Imagine’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Francie Calfo, and co-produced by Anna Culp; showrunner, executive producer, writer and director is Ken Biller. From MWM Studios, Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane are executive producers and Melissa Rucker is co-producer. Sam Sokolow and Jeff Cooney from EUE/Sokolow Entertainment are also executive producers. For National Geographic, Carolyn G. Bernstein is executive vice president and head of global scripted development and production. The series is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios, Imagine Television and MWM Studios.

Genius, Season 2, (10 episodes) starts 22 April 2018 on National Geographic, at 20h05, and will premiere with a double bill.

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Starring Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein, this 10-Episode Series Hails From Fox 21 Television Studios and Imagine Television and is Executive Produced by Academy Award Winners Brian Grazer & Ron Howard.  Genius Premieres Sunday 23 April, at 20h05, including supporting cast like Emily Watson, Johnny Flynn, Samantha Colley, T.R. Knight, Seth Gabel and Vincent Karteiser.

Though his scientific endeavours continue to inspire awe, few know the entire story of the tumultuous private life of the 20th century’s most brilliant icon, Albert Einstein.

Premiering Sunday 23 April at 20h05 (South Africa), National Geographic’s new 10-part global event series, GENIUS reveals how Albert became Einstein, exploring his extraordinary professional achievements along with his volatile, passionate and complex personal relationships.

From Fox 21 Television Studios, whose recent “The People V. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story” dominated every awards contest and critics’ list, Imagine Television, the producer of “24” and “Friday Night Lights,” and OddLot Entertainment, who earlier this year produced the Academy Award®-  nominated film “Hell or High Water,” the series is based on Walter Isaacson’s book “Einstein: His Life and Universe” and is executive produced by Brian Grazer,Ron Howard and Gigi Pritzker, with Howard making his scripted television directorial debut with the first episode.

Featuring Einstein’s lovers, enemies and fellow scientific luminaries, the all-star cast includes Geoffrey Rush (“The Kings Speech,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Shine”) as the celebrated titular scientist, Johnny Flynn (“Clouds of Sils Maria,” “Song One,” “Lovesick”) as Albert in the years before he rose to international acclaim and Emily Watson(“Theory of Everything,” “The Book Thief”) as his second wife — and first cousin — Elsa Einstein.

GENIUS tracks Einstein’s rise from humble origins as an imaginative, rebellious thinker, through his struggles to be recognised by the establishment, to his global celebrity status as the man who unlocked the mysteries of the cosmos with his theory of relativity. Delving deeper, the series follows Einstein’s alternately exhilarating emotions and heartlessness in dealing with his closest personal relationships, including his children, his two wives and the various women with whom he cheats on them.

The series is set against an era of global unrest over the course of two world wars. Faced with rising anti-Semitism in Europe, surveillance by spies and the potential for atomic annihilation, Einstein struggles as a husband and a father, not to mention as a man of principle, even as his own life is put in danger.

“I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious.”

The series begins in Einstein’s (Flynn) teenage years, when he opposes his father and drops out of school in Germany to go to university in Switzerland. His love of women and passion for theoretical physics blossom after he breaks the heart of his first love, Marie Winteler (Shannon Tarbet, “A Promise,” “Virtuoso”), to pursue his mysterious and elusive fellow physics student Mileva Maric (Samantha Colley, “Victoria,” “The Crucible”). Their whirlwind romance puts them at odds with teachers and leads to an unexpected pregnancy, forcing both to set aside grand dreams and Einstein to take a mundane job as a patent clerk at the urging of his close friend Michele Besso (Seth Gabel, “Salem,” “Fringe”). Striving in earnest to break into the scientific establishment, Einstein publishes five original papers in one year, catching the eye of many, including the scientist who will go on to become his fiercest adversary, Dr. Philipp Lenard (Michael McElhatton, “Game of Thrones”).

As World War I looms and his marriage begins to crumble, Einstein throws himself into an affair with his first cousin Elsa. Shifting global politics draw him into increasingly politicised scientific circles, causing friction with friends and fellow scientists like Fritz Haber (Richard Topol, “Covert Affairs,” “Elementary”) and Max Planck (Ralph Brown, “Alien 3,” “TURN: Washington’s Spies”). Taking a moral stand, Einstein refuses to support Germany’s war effort. When war descends and borders are shut down, he is prevented from going to his sons in Switzerland when they need him most.

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

Einstein’s (Rush) fortunes rise after the war when relativity is proven right. On the verge of becoming an overnight celebrity, Elsa (Watson) demands he marry her to avoid the scandal such scrutiny will bring. Fighting with Mileva for a divorce, Einstein also has to contend with the roller coaster of fame. After a tense interview with consulate official Raymond Geist (Vincent Kartheiser, “Mad Men,” “Saints & Strangers”), he escapes a rising tide of anti-Semitism and seeks sanctuary in the United States as an immigrant.

Living and teaching in Princeton, New Jersey, Einstein continues to be besieged on all sides. His fractious relationship with his children and grandchildren weighs on him, he ends up in bed with Russian spy Margarita Konenkova (Ania Bukstein, “Game of Thrones”) and must cope with J. Edgar Hoover’s (T.R. Knight, “Grey’s Anatomy”) personal vendetta to bring him down. He also faces possibly his biggest challenge ever: the pressure to set aside his lifelong pacifism in the hopes of stopping Hitler’s conquest of Europe. While his journey is far from easy, Einstein still manages to find hope and inspiration before his death, in the form of a young girl learning to understand the world. As Einstein famously said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

Filmed in Prague, Czech Republic, where Einstein lived and taught early in his career, the series also features a raft of scientific superstars from the turn of the 20^th century, including Marie and Pierre Curie, Wilhelm Rontgen, Carl Jung, Werner Heisenberg and more. GENIUS premieres globally in April on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages.

GENIUS is executive produced by Imagine’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Francie Calfo, and co-produced by Anna Culp; showrunner, executive producer and writer is Ken Biller; from OddLot Entertainment, Gigi Pritzker and Rachel Shane are executive producers and Melissa Rucker is co-producer; Sam Sokolow and Jeff Cooney from EUE/Sokolow are also executive producers. Writer Noah Pink, who adapted the series for the screen, is co-executive producer. For National Geographic, Carolyn G. Bernstein is executive vice president and head of global scripted development and production. The series is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios, Imagine Television and OddLot Entertainment.

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