Apple TV+ has unveiled a first look at “The Big Cigar,” the highly anticipated limited drama series that chronicles the story of Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton’s escape to Cuba. Premiering globally May 17, the six-episode drama is executive produced by NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois, Jim Hecht and Joshuah Bearman.
Legendary award-winning actor, producer and director Don Cheadle will direct and executive produce the first two episodes with new episodes available to stream every Friday until June 14. André Holland portrays Huey P. Newton and leads the renowned ensemble cast including Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, P. J. Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Moses Ingram, Rebecca Dalton, Olli Haaskivi, Jordane Christie and Glynn Turman.
“The Big Cigar” is a mostly true story based on a monumental, eponymous Playboy Magazine article penned by executive producer, Joshuah Bearman (“Argo”). In the series, Black Panther Party founder Newton escapes from the FBI to Cuba with the assistance of famed Hollywood producer Bert Schneider. The impossibly elaborate plan turns into a wild caper and involves a fake movie production gone wrong every way it possibly can!
Based on the magazine article by Joshuah Bearman (“Argo”), who will also serve as executive producer, “The Big Cigar” is the incredible true story of Hollywood revolution meeting social revolution: it’s a wild caper of Black Panther founder Newton escaping from the FBI to Cuba with the assistance of famed producer Bert Schneider in an impossibly elaborate plan — involving a fake movie production — that goes wrong every way it possibly can. And somehow, it’s all true. Mostly.
The Big Cigar‘s showrunner is NAACP Image Award winner Janine Sherman Barrois (“Claws,” “The Kings of Napa”) and Jim Hecht (“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”) penned the show’s first episode.
The series hails from Warner Bros. Television, where Barrois and her Folding Chair Productions are under an overall deal. Barrois and Hecht are executive producing alongside Bearman, Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector (“Little America”) through their production company Epic.
