Sun. May 19th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

Jonathan Majors, who was convicted last month of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend, has been cut from a proposed film project in which he would have played flamboyant basketball star Dennis Rodman.

The move by producers of the film “48 Hours in Vegas” comes a few days after the actor’s interview with ABC News, where he denied that he abused his ex, actor Grace Jabbari, and said he still hoped to have a future in Hollywood. Following the jury verdict, he was fired by Marvel, where he had been cast as Kang the Conqueror, a prominent villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His character was introduced in 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and the actor was poised to star in “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” slated for 2026.

“48 Hours in Vegas” had been developed as a project that would depict Rodman’s Las Vegas spree during the 1998 NBA Finals. The film had been developed at Lionsgate, but the studio has released the project back to its producers, Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Aditya Sood, to enable them to shop the film elsewhere and find a new partner.

Under the new arrangement, Majors has not been officially fired, but is no longer attached to the picture. If the project winds up back at Lionsgate, he would be dropped from the movie, insiders said. Representatives for Lionsgate and the producers declined comment.

Majors is scheduled to be sentenced in February and could receive up to a year in prison. He was arrested last March following a physical confrontation with Jabbari.

Prosecutors said Majors assaulted Jabbari after she read a romantic text message sent to his phone by another woman. Prosecutors alleged Majors grabbed Jabbari’s hand so hard he fractured her middle finger, struck her face with an open hand and pushed her into a vehicle. She was hospitalized for minor injuries.

At the time of the arrest, the actor was being praised for a series of strong performances in “Creed III,” “Lovecraft Country,” “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “The Harder They Fall” and other projects. His 2023 Sundance competition film, “Magazine Dreams,” which had sparked early Oscar buzz, remains unreleased.

Source link

Discover more from Occasional Digest

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading