‘The Big Cigar’ Trailer: André Holland Goes Undercover in Hollywood

Proma Khosla
·2 min read
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Apple TV+ has just unveiled the trailer for “The Big Cigar,” the six-part limited series about Black Panther party founder Huey P. Newton (André Holland). The show tells the remarkable true story of how Newton, a film producer, and a whole crew of people involved in a fake movie production helped the political activist while he tried to evade the FBI in 1974.

The trailer introduces Holland as Newton and his revolutionary accomplishments, along Alessandro Nivola as producer Bert Schneider. The cast includes Tiffany Boone, PJ Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Moses Ingram, Rebecca Dalton, Olli Haaskivi, Jordane Christie, and Glynn Turman (guest stars include Taylor Jackson as Candice Bergen and Inny Clemons as Richard Pryor). With upbeat ’70s music and the peppy fonts to go with it, the vibe is more upbeat than one would expect of a drama thriller — but as the premise underscores, there’s always more story to tell.

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“The Big Cigar” is based on Joshuah Bearman’s article of the same name published in Playboy in 2012. Bearman serves as executive producer along with showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois (Folding Chair Productions, as part of an overall deal with Warner Bros.), Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector (Epic), and Jim Hecht, who wrote the first episode. Don Cheadle directed the two-part premiere, with Laurence Andries, Gwendolyn M. Parker, Valerie Woods, and Ameer Hasan rounding out the writers room.

“The Big Cigar” joins “Manhunt” and “Franklin” on Apple’s growing list of 2024 historical dramas (the former about the pursuit of Abraham Lincoln’s killer and the latter starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin) — and the growing list of limited and ongoing series that would have been made into movies a few years ago, but can now luxuriate in the episodic format. Bearman and Hecht also worked on HBO’s “Winning Time,” chronicling the of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and key figures that rose to fame during that era.

Watch Apple’s official trailer for “The Big Cigar” below.

“The Big Cigar” premieres May 17 on Apple TV+ with two episodes, followed by new episodes every Friday through June 14. 

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