''The Big Cigar'' is an upcoming

biographical drama A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a Nonfiction, non-fictional or History, historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. The ...

thriller miniseries developed by Jim Hecht and

Joshuah Bearman Joshuah Bearman is an American journalist. He has written for ''Rolling Stone'', '' Harper's'', ''Wired'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', '' The Believer'', and ''McSweeney's,'' and contributes to ''This American Life.'' Bearman was a contrib ...

Premise

Chronicles the manhunt for

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadershi ...

, the founder of the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

, who seeks the help of film producer

Bert Schneider Berton "Bert" Jerome Schneider (May 5, 1933December 12, 2011) was an American film and television producer. He was responsible for several topical films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the road film ''Easy Rider'' (1969), directed ...

as he tries to escape to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Cast

Main

André Holland André Holland (born December 28, 1979) is an American actor, widely known for his 2016 performance as Kevin in the Academy Award-winning film '' Moonlight''. Throughout his career, Holland has acted in film, television, and theatre production ...

Tiffany Boone Tiffany Boone (born August 27, 1987) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Roxy Jones in ''Hunters (2020 TV series), Hunters'', List of The Following characters#Mandy Lang, Mandy Lang in the The Following (season 2), second season o ...

as Gwen Fontaine *

Alessandro Nivola Alessandro Antine Nivola (born June 28, 1972) is an American actor. He has been nominated for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award and has won a Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Independent Film Award (BIFA), and the Best Actor Award ...

Marc Menchaca Marc Menchaca (born October 10, 1975) is an American actor, writer and director. He was co-director, co-writer, and lead actor of the 2013 Heartland Film Festival Award Winning movie ''This Is Where We Live'', and was awarded best actor at the ...

as Sydney Clark * P. J. Byrne as Stephen Blauner

Recurring

* Jordane Christie as

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

* Moses Ingram as Teressa Dixon *

Olli Haaskivi Olli Haaskivi is a Finnish-American actor. Early life and family He was born in Cleveland, Ohio where his father, Finnish soccer player Kai Haaskivi, was playing for the Cleveland Force. When Haaskivi was 8, the family moved to Florida, where he ...

as Arthur A. Ross *

Glynn Turman Glynn Russell Turman (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. Turman is known for his roles as Lew Miles on the prime-time soap opera '' Peyton Place'' (1968–1969), high school student Leroy "Preach" Jackson ...

as Walter Newton *

Jaime Ray Newman Jaime Ray Newman (born April 2, 1978) is an American actress, producer and singer. She is known for starring as Kristina Cassadine in the soap opera '' General Hospital'', Mindy O'Dell in the drama series ''Veronica Mars'', Kat Gardener in the fa ...

as Roz Torrance *

Noah Emmerich Noah Nicholas Emmerich (born February 27, 1965) is an American actor and director who is best known for his roles in films such as '' Beautiful Girls'' (1996), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), ''Frequency'' (2000), ''Miracle'' (2004), '' Little Child ...

as Stanley Schneider *

John Doman John Doman (born January 9, 1945) is an American actor best known for playing Maryland State Police Superintendent, Deputy Police Commissioner and Major William Rawls on HBO series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008), Colonel Edward Galson on '' Oz'' (2 ...

as Abe Schneider * Chris Brochu as

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

* Brenton Allen as

Eldridge Cleaver Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Cleaver wrote '' Soul on Ice'', a collection of essays that, at the time of i ...

Guest

* Al McFoster as Ceddy * Taylor Jackson as

Candice Bergen Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom ''Murphy Brown'' (1988–1998, 2018). She is also kno ...

* Inny Clemons as

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

* Liz Adjei as

Betty Shabazz Betty Shabazz (born Betty Dean Sanders; May 28, 1934/1936 – June 23, 1997), also known as Betty X, was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She was married to Malcolm X. Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster ...

* Brian Jansen as Warren Winkle

Episodes

The first episode was written by Jim Hecht, with the third through sixth written by Laurence Andries & Gwendolyn M. Parker,

Janine Sherman Barrois Janine Sherman Barrois is an American television writer, producer, and showrunner. In 2017 she began executive producing and showrunning ''Claws'' on TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluen ...

& Hecht, Andries & Valerie Woods & Ameer Hasan, and Hecht &

Production

It was announced in December 2012 that

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Jonathan Dayton (born July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (born October 20, 1958) are a team of American film and music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). Later the ...

were set to direct the project for

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

, at the time developed as a film, with

, author of the source article, and Jim Hecht set to write the screenplay. The project, now a miniseries, was given a greenlight from

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

in April 2022, with

cast to star.

Don Cheadle Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. (; born November 29, 1964) is an American actor. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also earned ...

was announced to be directing the first two episodes in addition to executive producing. In June,

and

joined the cast, with

and P. J. Byrne joining the next month. In August, Jordane Christie, Moses Ingram,

and

were cast to recur in the series. Additional recurring cast including

and

was announced in September. Filming for the series began in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in June 2022, as revealed by showrunner

. By August, production was occurring throughout

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, where

Hamilton City Hall Hamilton City Hall is the chief administration (government), administrative building for the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. Located in the downtown core, it is an 8-storey building (34.0 m) at the corner of Main Street (Hamilton, Ontario) ...

was being used as a double for

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...

References

External links

The Big Cigar
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Cigar Apple TV+ original programming Biographical television series Upcoming television series Television shows filmed in Toronto Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Works based on periodical articles Works about the Black Panther Party