Notícias

President Donald Trump is considering a pardon for Pras Michel, the hip-hop legend facing 22 years in prison in a federal conspiracy and corruption case, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The U.S. Justice Department prosecuted Michel — the Grammy-winning rapper-producer best known as a member of The Fugees — for his part in a multibillion-dollar, globe-spanning scandal that the FBI deemed the “largest kleptocracy case to date.” The saga has brought down the Malaysian prime minister, a top Goldman Sachs banker and a key first-term Trump fundraiser. It’s also ensnared other high-profile Hollywood players, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who’d become close to the saga’s alleged criminal mastermind.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. Michel declined to speak about the matter. In a statement, his publicist Erica Dumas tells THR that his legal team “is exploring all available options following his case,” adding, “we remain optimistic about potential paths forward.

Fugees Co-founder Pras Michél (Photo Credit – Wikipedia)

Pras Michél, Grammy-winning artist and founding member of the legendary hip-hop group the Fugees, faces up to 22 years behind bars after being found guilty for his role in one of the largest financial scandals in recent history, the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1Mdb) scandal.

In a recent interview, the 53-year-old shared how he became involved in the billion-dollar embezzlement scheme for the first time and discussed his upcoming sentencing.

Pras Michél Was Found Guilty Last Year

Michél was found guilty last year of violating campaign finance laws and lobbying foreign officials without registration. He was accused of assisting financier Jho Low in illegally channeling money into U.S. politics in exchange for favors.

Trending What Did Olga Bednarska Do? All About Netflix’s Too Hot To Handle Star’s Arrest As She Avoids Jail Time

When Tom Cruise Insisted On Val Kilmer’s Return...

During an interview to promote Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit in 1993, one of its stars, 18-year-old Lauryn Hill, talked about the positivity she wanted to convey with her still-emerging group, the Fugees. “There are serious social ills in the community,” she said. “And I’d like to address them through the music.”

But talking about her enrollment at Columbia University, Hill already appeared prematurely savvy about the tenuous world she was about to enter. “I’m going to school in case things don’t work out in show business,...

Lauryn Hill is issuing a response to Fugees bandmate Pras Michel‘s lawsuit against her.

The co-founder of the group, which also includes Wyclef Jean, sued the 49-year-old singer for fraud and breach of contract, along with other claims following their shortened 2023 tour and the The Miseducation Anniversary Tour that was canceled earlier this year.

Keep reading to find out more…

In his suit, via Variety, Pras claims Lauryn “grossly mismanaged the setup, marketing and budgeting of” the 2023 tour, which he says “was actually a veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.” He also claims she secretly siphoned off money from the tour guarantees, and alleges a “breach of fiduciary duty and refusal to permit an audit” of the tour.

The lawsuit claims the 2023 tour should have been “a huge commercial success, since most of shows for the entire arena size tour were sold out in advance,...

Ms. Lauryn Hill has been sued by Fugees co-founder Pras Michel in federal court for fraud and breach of contract over their postponed and subsequently canceled tour, as reported by Variety and Billboard. One of the more explosive allegations in the lawsuit is the claim that Hill unilaterally turned down a $5 million offer for Fugees to play Coachella due to No Doubt getting higher billing.

Filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, the complaint alleges Hill preyed on Michel’s financial vulnerability to get him to sign a contract for the originally plotted 2023 tour in a “veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.”

“In the process, it did not matter to Hill if she took full advantage of Michel’s vulnerability — her friend and creative partner of over 30 years,” the lawsuit reads. “In fact, she counted on exploiting that vulnerability to carry out her scheme.”

The...

Ms. Lauryn Hill is slamming Pras Michél’s lawsuit against her, in which he claims she mismanaged Fugees’ tour and that it was a “devious attempt to make a big score for herself.” In a statement Tuesday, Hill called the suit “baseless,” claiming that she decided to incorporate the Fugees to “aid [Michél’s] legal defense” amid his court battle with the Department of Justice.

“I’ve been silent and pushing through because I understood that Pras was under duress because of his legal battles and that this was perhaps affecting his judgment,...

Pras Michél is suing Ms. Lauryn Hill over the Fugees’ cut-short and canceled tours over the last two years, accusing her of fraud and breach of contract. The Fugees founding member filed the lawsuit Tuesday, per Variety and Billboard, which alleges that Hill mismanaged the reunion tour, with his attorneys calling it a “veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.”

In the lawsuit, Michél claims that he made little money from the group’s scheduled 2023 arena tour since Hill controlled the tour budget that included “unnecessary,...

Pras Michel opened up about his disappointment about the recently canceled Fugees tour — but stopped short of blaming Lauryn Hill for the nixed reunion trek — in a new interview.

Speaking to Vulture two weeks after the Fugees abruptly canceled the tour due to admitted low ticket sales, Michel said that that the trio’s checkered touring history, as well as Hill’s notoriety for constant concert tardiness — and “not some media outlet’s penchant for sensationalism and clickbait headlines,” as Hill claimed — likely impacted demand for the gigs.

“I was both surprised and not surprised,...

Update: It appears there’s dissension in the ranks as to why the Lauryn Hill/Fugees North American tour was canceled on short notice.

Pras Michel today came out with a quote that seemed to rebut a previous statement by Hill, who blamed the media for the canceled 18 tour dates.

Pras told TMZ Hip Hop, “I saved her reputation for 20 years by not telling my side of the story but oops … cat’s out the bag,” he said, alluding to Hill’s reputation for late arrivals and last-minute cancellations.

Fans on social media have been blasting this latest no-show by Hill.

In an earlier statement posted to social media, Hill blamed the cancellation on media “sensationalism” over her past troubles for low ticket sales.

“Last year, I faced an injury that necessitated the rescheduling of some of my shows,” Hill wrote. “Regrettably, some media outlet’s penchant for sensationalism and...

Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees have pulled the plug on the upcoming leg of their Miseducation Anniversary Tour, which officially started last year.

Hill took to social media to address the cancellation of their shows in the U.S. “Last year, I faced an injury that necessitated the rescheduling of some of my shows,” she wrote (Hill suffered a vocal strain/injury). “Regrettably, some media outlet’s penchant for sensationalism and clickbait headlines have seemingly created a narrative that has affected ticket sales for the North American portion of the tour.

Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees have extended their “Miseducation Anniversary Tour” with a 21-date run slated to launch in August.

The new North American leg will kick off Aug. 9 in Tampa, Florida, at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre and run through Sept. 21 at the Pnc Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. The shows will feature co-headlining sets from Hill and the Fugees as they perform tracks from The Miseducation of Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Score, and more. Yg Marley will provide support throughout the run.

Tickets for all...

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill turns 25 this year — and Ms. Lauryn Hill is reuniting with Fugees on the road to celebrate.

On Tuesday, the rap legend announced that she’ll embark on a U.S. arena tour to celebrate her solo magnum opus and will be joined by Pras and Wyclef Jean for a reunion of Fugees after a brief performance at Roots Picnic in June.

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is and was a love song to my parents, my family, my people, my musical and cultural forebears, my teachers,...

Ms. Lauryn Hill will celebrate the 25th anniversary of her seminal album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by embarking on a world tour this fall. What’s more, Hill’s band Fugees will co-headline all of the North American shows.

The North American leg kicks with Fugees kicks off on October 17th in Newark, New Jersey, and also includes stops in Brooklyn, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle.

Update: Due to “overwhelming demand,” Hill has announced a new run of shows taking place in November, including dates in Vancouver, San Francisco, Atlanta, Nashville, Miami, Boston, and more.

A Live Nation pre-sale for the newly announced November shows will take place on Thursday, October 5th (use code Vocals), with a public on-sale following on Friday, October 6th via Ticketmaster.

Tickets for the rest of Hill’s upcoming shows can be purchased via StubHub, where...

Ready or not, the Fugees are making their performances a regular occurrence. Having only sporadically reunited on stage since 1996, the group recently announced they would play a handful of concerts as part of Lauryn Hill’s 25th anniversary tour of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The rap legend announced that she will embark on a U.S. arena tour to celebrate her solo magnum opus and will be joined by Pras and Wyclef Jean for a reunion of Fugees.

This weekend’s Global Citizen Festival was not one of their scheduled performances,...

In the beginning, there was Ms. Lauryn Hill.

In 1992, she emerged as a phenom as the first lady of The Fugees. Composed of Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel, the group solidified themselves as a hip-hop powerhouse before their controversial split in 1997. Instead of crumbling, though, Hill rose even higher with her debut solo album, 1998's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." The album - which she's primarily credited with writing, producing, and arranging - quickly cemented Hill's lasting impact in hip-hop.

"Miseducation" not only provided a distinct onset of timeless lessons taken from the informal school of Ms. Hill, but it also was her audible love letter to hip-hop, Black women, and the communal Black experience.

"Yo hip-hop, started out in the heart / Now everybody tryin' to chart," Hill rapped on "Superstar." As she spoke to the need of maintaining one's self amid fame to govern true artistic integrity, Hill...

Lauryn Hill and The Fugees may have canceled their highly anticipated reunion tour last year, but that didn't stop the former group members from hitting the stage together at the 2023 Roots Picnic this weekend. Hill, who served as the festival's June 3 headliner, surprised audience members that evening when she brought out her bandmates for a brief performance of some of their greatest hits.

Per Variety, the trio - made up of Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michél - treated the Roots Picnic crowd to rhythms and rhymes from their 1996 Grammy-winning sophomore album, "The Score," starting with the title track plus other songs like "How Many Mics," "Zealots," "Ready or Not," and "Killing Me Softly With His Song." They ended their six-song set-within-a-set with a grand finale of "Fu-Gee-La."

The group's surprise reunion at Roots Picnic marks the first time all three have performed together since calling off their planned world...

The Fugees came together this weekend in a surprise reunion, which might prove to be the group’s final performance for some time.

The special unexpected gathering happened during Lauryn Hill’s headlining set at the Roots Picnic music fest in Philadelphia, where she was celebrating the 25th anniversary of her groundbreaking and iconic album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

During her performance, her fellow former group mates Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel came up to join her onstage for a reforming of The Fugees that left fans stunned.

Together, the group also performed one of their biggest hits, “Ready or Not,” and the experience was unforgettable, both for those in attendance and those behind-the-scenes — including Roots frontman and festival organizer Questlove.

“In 1993 an unknown band called the Fugees (at the request of the record label i interned at @ruffhouserecords) opened up for us at #TheTrocodero in Philadelphia — this was...

Ms. Lauryn Hill staged a surprise Fugees reunion during her solo headlining set at Philadelphia’s 2023 Roots Picnic on Saturday, bringing together the hip-hop trio for the first time since their 2021 comeback tour was delayed, and eventually canceled.

The group reconvened at the end of the New Jersey singer-rapper’s stacked set, which comprised most of her 1998 Album of the Year winner, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Following her fan-favorite cover of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” Hill introduced her long-time bandmates, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, by exclaiming, “These are my brothers!”

The six-song mini-set closed out her performance and included the title track from their 1996 album The Score as well as certified classics like “How Many Mics,” “Zealots,” “Ready or Not,” and “Killing Me Softly.” They wrapped with the self-referential anthem, “Fu-Gee-La.” Watch fan-captured footage of Lauryn Hill’s set, plus the Fugees reunion,...

The Fugees surprised concertgoers Saturday during Lauryn Hill’s headlining set at the Roots Picnic music festival. The three band members, including Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, did a six-song set in celebation of Hill’s 25th anniversary for her landmark album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Sadly, it may be the last time the three are together on a stage. Michel was found guilty earlier this year on federal charges including conspiracy, witness tampering, and failing to register as an agent of China. He faces a sentence of up to 20 years.

The Fugeees had planned a reunion tour that was canceled by the Covid-19 pandemic. They played one reunion show in 2021.

On Saturday, The Fugees did a six-song set that included “How Many Mics,” “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly,” and “Fu-Gee-La.”

Questlove, who produced the show, wrote on Instagram, “@MsLaurynHill did us a solid by letting us not...

Eighteen months after Fugees abruptly canceled their much-anticipated reunion tour, the trio of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel shared the stage for what could be the last time Saturday at Philadelphia’s Roots Picnic.

During the tail end of Hill’s headlining set at the Roots’ annual party, the singer brought out her surprise guests for a six-song mini-set that featured Fugees classics like “How Many Mics,” “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly” and a concert-ending “Fu-Gee-La.”

Saturday’s surprise Fugees reunion marked the first time the trio...

Rapper Pras Michél, best known as a member of the iconic 90s music group Fugees, was found guilty in federal court of 10 criminal charges of conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

The Grammy winner faces up to 20 years of imprisonment for conspiring to help Malaysian playboy and fugitive Jho Low, whom he met in 2006, and the Chinese government to gain access to U.S. officials, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Michél, 50, was found guilty last month of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., witness tampering and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. He is believed to have funneled over $800,000 through a string of donors to Obama’s 2012 campaign, received $100 million from Low to impede an investigation into his money laundering scam, and tried to persuade the U.S. to extradite a Chinese dissident, Guo Wengui, on behalf of the Chinese government.

Fugees co-founding member Pras Michel has been convicted for his involvement in a brazen billion-dollar Malaysian money laundering scheme. On Wednesday, a jury found Pras guilty of 10 federal counts, including campaign finance violations, money laundering, illegal lobbying, witness tampering, and lying to banks. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

The case involved Low Taek Jho, aka “Jho Low,” a fugitive businessman who has been accused of embezzling $4.5 billion from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Michel allegedly worked on Jho’s behalf, intentionally failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and attempting to influence two different presidential administrations — by pouring millions of dollars into Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign through straw donors, and by lobbying Donald Trump’s administration to halt a DOJ investigation into 1Mdb. Michel was allegedly paid tens of millions of dollars for his services.

Michel purportedly rejected a deal...

Leonardo DiCaprio took the stand at the federal money laundering trial against Fugees member Pras Michel on Monday. The actor is one of 72 witnesses prosecutors prepped as potential witnesses for the government.

DiCaprio, who is appearing as a witness for the prosecution, testified about the alleged exploits of Malaysian financier Jho Low. Low is accused of stealing $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s 1Mdb sovereign wealth fund, and Michel is among those accused of assisting him, allegedly receiving $8 million (and as much as $40 million) for doing so.

“I understood him to be...

It was one of those beautiful and unseasonably warm fall days in New York City, November 2019, when Pras Michel, founding member of the Fugees, documentary filmmaker, and man about town, was headed to a lunch date, a first date with a woman he hadn’t met before. Around noon, he walked out of his SoHo apartment building and onto the street, which was busy in all the typical New York ways: There were construction workers, a guy with a jackhammer, a fiber-optic telephone worker, people window shopping at the Versace store.

New light has been shed on Leonardo DiCaprio’s relationship with a fugitive Malaysian businessman who’s wanted by international authorities in connection with a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.

Bloomberg Businessweek reviewed previously undisclosed FBI documents detailing its grilling of the actor as the agency sought to understand the nature of his personal and professional partnership with Jho Low, the accused mastermind of a colossal scheme to fleece a sovereign wealth fund known as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, which has led to the conviction of the country’s former prime minister for money laundering and abuse of power. Low was charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2021 for pursuing a “back channel lobbying campaign” to drop the government’s 1Mdb investigation. A fugitive for roughly eight years, Low is believed to be residing in China. An Interpol Red Notice was issued for his arrest in 2016.

An FBI special agent,...

Pras Michel, a rapper known as a member of the group The Fugees, is going to have to be “Ready Or Not” for a trial in federal court where he is charged with campaign finance conspiracy to secure foreign campaign donations for an unaware United States presidential candidate, suspected to be Barack Obama when he was running in 2012.

Michel’s partner is this scheme was reportedly Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman who is currently internationally wanted for his crimes.

He reportedly secured the donation money by laundering from the country’s sovereign investment fund: 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1Mdb).

Low is accused of lining his pockets with as much as 4.5 billion in money from 1Mdb which was diverted around the world by other co-conspirators. The U.S. Department of Justice called this scam the “largest kleptocracy case to date.”

Interestingly, another celebrity is involved in this trial as a witness, and that...

Fugees member Pras Michel’s trial on federal money laundering charges heads to trial on Nov. 4, and he won’t be the only star participating in the case. Seventy-two witnesses, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and several top Trump officials, are being prepped as potential witnesses for the government, as Politico’s Playbook reports.

In 2019, Michel pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy and falsifying records stemming from the rapper’s alleged role in a Malaysian wealth fund’s campaign finance violations.

Michel was among the people that Justice Department...

After two years of virtual programming, the saints returned to New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome for the Essence Music Festival (now officially the Essence Festival of Culture) with mixed results. Nearly 30 years ago, the Black women’s magazine launched in the early 1970s created a celebration of music that has evolved into far more than a series of concerts with well-recognized brands (longtime sponsors Coca-Cola and Ford, among many others, play pivotal roles in Black consumer outreach).

Peak capitalism aside, the concerts remain a centerpiece and this year, the brand made...

Image Source: Getty / Johnny Nunez

The Fugees are back together! On Sept. 21, it was announced that Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel are reuniting for a tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their second and final studio album, The Score. The upcoming tour marked the hip-hop group's first tour in 25 years, and they kicked it off at an undisclosed location in New York City on Sept. 22 as part of Global Citizen Live for their first show together in 15 years. The rest of the tour was due to commence in November, but on the first day of the month, they announced the tour has been postponed until early 2022 "to ensure the best chance that all cities on the tour are fully open." The group added, "With so much excitement around the reunion tour, we are also happy to announce that we will be adding more cities and dates!" The...

Hip-hop group Fugees, which comprises Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, have reunited to announce their first tour in 25 years and first shows in 15 years, celebrating the anniversary of their blockbuster 1996 album ‘The Score’. The 12-city tour launches Wednesday with a show in New York at an undisclosed location, reports variety.com. […]...

Streaming platform Pandora has unveiled its Most-Thumbed Movie Songs Playlist. Based on Pandora listeners’ thumbs-up activity, 102 of the most popular movie songs were rounded up.

Among the most-thumbed tracks are “Earned It” by the Weeknd from “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth from “Furious 7” and “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri from “Twilight.”

Other classic movie songs featured include “Titanic’s” “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston from “The Bodyguard” and “Mrs. Robinson” from “The Graduate” by Simon and Garfunkel.

Oscar winners for best original song also making the playlist are Adele’s “Skyfall,” from the James Bond movie of the same name, and the 2018 winner “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from the “A Star Is Born” remake.

The playlist can be streamed here. Here’s the full list of...

This year’s MTV Video Music Awards are going heavily hip-hop.

The network will close out the kudofest with a New Jersey-themed performance featuring rap pioneers hailing from the Garden State. Among the all-star roster are Naughty By Nature, Queen Latifah, Redman and Wyclef Jean, who moved to Newark from Haiti and later formed Grammy-winning group, the Fugees with Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel.

They’ll be joined by rapper Fetty Wap of Paterson, New Jersey, who won the Best New Artist VMA in 2015.

The performance is intended as a tribute to the Garden State, where the awards are being held for the first time in the show’s 36-year history, MTV said in a statement Friday.

During the show, Missy Elliott will also perform and pick up the cable network’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. This is the latest honor for the rapper, songwriter and producer, who became...

Founding member of The Fugees, Pras Michel, is in serious legal trouble with the feds for allegedly funneling millions of dollars worth of campaign contributions. Federal prosecutors in D.C. slapped the rapper with a 4-count indictment Friday ... claiming he and infamous Malaysian businessman Jho Low conspired to funnel funds from foreign accounts to make political contribution in the U.S. ... reportedly for President Obama. Although the indictment doesn't mention Obama by name ... it says...

Wyclef Jean is back! The musician has just announced his first full-length album in eight years, Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee, which will be released Sept. 15 via Legacy Recordings.

To celebrate the announcement of his newest album and commemorate the 20th anniversary of his debut solo album, The Carnival, the singer will be the focus of TV One’s latest episode of the music docu-series Unsung. People has an exclusive video of Jean performing an unplugged acoustic set of his iconic hit “Gone Till November.”

“My Carnival albums have always been about celebrating music culture from...

The answer to the eternal question: What ever happened to the director of ‘Mystery Men’?

The first thing to notice about Kinka Usher’s Twitter account — which we’ll assume is the real deal, even in the absence of a blue check mark — is its profile description: “I directed the movie that actually made All Star by Smash Mouth popular.” As far as legacies go, we can agree this would be an ignoble one, assuming that’s all there was to it. The description does not clarify the movie in question however.

So then, the second thing to notice, after a bit of scrolling, is the title of said movie: Mystery Men. The film, based on marginal superhero characters from an obscure comic book (where my Flaming Carrot fans at?) and released in 1999, stars Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, and an almost literally unbelievable list of others. Smash Mouth is indeed heard on the soundtrack...

For a short film, “Night Shift” has a backstory of its own which gives more than the film’s glimpse into a day in the life of a bathroom attendant in a Los Angeles nightclub.

Filmmaker Marshall Tyler’s “Night Shift”, stars Tunde Adebimpe and is executive produced by JuVee Productions, the company founded by Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon established to empower diverse voices and emerging artists. It is produced by Moira Griffin, Efuru Flowers and Roberta Marie Munroe.

Watch the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/198757828

Marshall and I had a long conversation at the Yarrow in Sundance the day of the premiere of his film.

Let’s start with who you are…

Well, I was born in Philadelphia and raised in Hawaii and then moved to San Diego. I went to Howard University. Now I am based in La. My first documentary, “Skid Row”, followed Pras Michél,...

TV on the Radio musician and singer Tunde Adebimpe has long used his many talents to bolster indie film outings, from Joel Hopkins’ “Jump Tomorrow” to Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” and Sebastian Silva’s recent Sundance feature “Nasty Baby,” and he’s poised to return to the festival circuit with Marshall Tyler’s inventive and styling short film “Night Shift.”

In the Sundance premiere, Adebimpe stars as Olly Jeffries, a struggling actor whose need to pay the bills lands him a gig as a bathroom attendant at the swanky Hollywood nightclub The Fix. While Olly never intended for the job to be a permanent thing, he’s found that the work — and the weird solitude it offers — suits him.

Read More: Sundance 2017: 10 Must-See Shorts At This Year’s Festival

“Night Shift” follows Olly over the course of on particularly memorable night in which his old dreams and...

Pras Michel of the Fugees has re-teamed with producer Karyn Rachtman (the duo last worked together on the award-winning feature documentary "Sweet Micky for President" which was released in 2015) on what will be an adaptation of a book by co-authors Hugh Wray McCann, David C. Smith, titled "The Search For Johnny Nicholas: The Secret of Nazi Prisoner No. 44451," which tells the relatively unknown story of Haitian-born Jean Marcel “Johnny” Nicholas, a downed black American pilot who parachuted into France on a secret intelligence mission during WWII. Born in 1918, Nicholas was a young Haitian dilettante and member of the French Resistance during the...

Exclusive: Fugees co-founder Pras Michel has teamed with Karyn Rachtman to land The Search For Johnny Nicholas: The Secret of Nazi Prisoner No. 44451, a book by Dave C. Smith and Hugh Wray McCann that tells an unbelievable story of a Haitian man imprisoned in a concentration camp in WWII. Jean Claude Lamarre will write the script. Haitian born Johnny Nicholas was a savant and con man who moved to Paris and lived the high life under the guise of being an American fighter…...

[[tmz:video id="0_b6i356sc"]] Pras Michel, one of the members of the hugely successful The Fugees says not even an induction into the Rock and Roll H.O.F could guarantee a group reunion.  Pras appears on an upcoming episode of Theo Von and Matt Weiss' "Allegedly" podcast later this week and talks about the group's rocky history and the chance they'll be inducted. It's interesting though, when asked if they'd reunite at the ceremony, Pras sounds anything but optimistic.

Read More: Watch: 'Song of Lahore' Directors Reveal Why the Film Almost Unraveled (Exclusive)Producers Pras Michel and Karyn Rachtman recently joined Indiewire's Special Projects Editor Steve Greene to discuss their film, "Sweet Micky for President," at the International Documentary Association's continued screening series.The official synopsis reads: "'Sweet Micky for President' follows Pras Michel, Grammy award-winning rapper and founder of the hip-hop group The Fugees, as he returns to his homeland of Haiti post-earthquake and finds a corrupt government in paralysis. With no experience or money, Pras passionately mobilizes a presidential campaign for the unlikeliest of candidates: Michel Martelly, aka 'Sweet Micky,' Haiti’s most popular and most outlandish pop star. The idealistic and politically inexperienced pair set out against a corrupt government, civil unrest, and a fixed election system to change the course of Haitian history." In this first clip above,...

The 21st annual Slamdance Film Festival kicks off this week, Jan. 23–29 in Park City, Utah. This year’s selection of 11 narrative films and 8 documentaries includes, or most interest to this blog, the world premiere of "Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang," Colin Offland's documentary on Dennis Rodman's so-called "hoops diplomacy" in North Korea, when he met with dictator Kim Jong-un; and the world premiere for "Sweet Micky for President," also a documentary, directed by Ben Patterson, featuring the contributions of Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel of the Fugees, as well as presidential candidate...

While the Sundance Film Festival is the better known film festival located in Utah that runs in January, it is not the only one, as the Slamdance Film Festival has been running in the same place during the same month for over 20 years. The unique aspect of the Slamdance Film Festival, however, is its Narrative Features and Documentary Features program, which restricts its selection to films that are directorial debuts, made for under $1 million, and don’t have Us distribution. The 2015 incarnation of the festival is set to run from January 23rd to the 29th, and ahead of the festival’s premiere next month, organisers have unveiled the lineup for the aforementioned categories. The lineup is as follows.

Narrative Features Program:

Across The Sea (Turkey/USA), making its North American Premiere

Written and Directed by Nisan Dağ and Esra Saydam

Starring Damla Sönmez, Jacob Fishel, Ahmet Rıfat Şungar, Hakan Karsak,...

Festival top brass announced the 19 films that will screen at the Slamdance Film Festival, set to run in Park City, Utah, from January 23-29.

The 11 narrative and eight documentary selections include 13 world premieres. All competition films are feature directorial debuts budgeted below $1m without Us distribution.

“It’s very exciting to bring this dynamic lineup to audiences in Park City,” said festival director Anna Germanidi. “We are proud to help launch these filmmakers’ careers and celebrate the success we all believe these films deserve.”

“Our success in showcasing emerging artists is most obviously linked with American talent, but increasingly at Slamdance, we want to also support new international talent,” said co-founder and president Peter Baxter.

All synopses below provided by Slamdance.

Narrative Features

Across The Sea (Turkey-usa)

Dirs Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam

Young, beautiful and pregnant, Damla has to confront her first love in a Turkish summer town before she can fully embrace her new life in...

The 21st annual Slamdance Film Festival has announced its narrative and documentary feature film competition programs. This year’s selection of 11 narrative films and 8 documentaries includes, or most interest to this blog, the world premiere of "Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang," Colin Offland's documentary on Dennis Rodman's so-called "hoops diplomacy" in North Korea, when he met with dictator Kim Jong-un; and also the world premiere for "Sweet Micky for President," also a documentray, directed by Ben Patterson, featuring the contributions of Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel of the Fugees, as...

The Sundance Film Festival dominates Park City in late January, but there is also the upstart Slamdance Film Festival. We’ve not really highlighted that fest or its program, but I always stay at Treasure Mountain Inn where Slamdance is headquartered and they’ve kind of grown on me. Last year they brought Christopher Nolan to speak (the fest had the good sense to program his first film) and Joe Mangianello came to vamp his male stripper docu. This year, there’s every chance of seeing Dennis Rodman, the flamboyant former rebounding machine and Bff of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for the docu Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang In Pyongyang. So let’s all root for an international incident! Here are the films they’ll be playing from January 23-29:

Narrative Features Program

Across the Sea – Directors & Screenwriters: Nisan Dağ, Esra Saydam. (Turkey/USA) North American Premiere.

Less than a week after the New York Post published an article that was headlined, "Ex-Fugee rapper bailed on his own 9/11 benefit concert," Pras Michel has filed a $30 million defamation lawsuit that contends much of the story was untrue and damaging to him. The article in question appeared on the Nyp website on October 5 and reported that Pras didn't show up as the headliner for a 9/11 charity event in Hell's Kitchen to benefit his own foundation. The article also stated that Pras' Hope for Them foundation bounced a check to the venue, had falsely

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Rapper Pras -- co-founder of The Fugees -- says he's been cheated out of thousands of dollars ... double-crossed by two guys who took his money and then robbed him of studio time.Pras filed suit in small claims court in Los Angeles County -- using his full name, Prakazrel Samuel Michel -- claiming he paid Jason Gluz and Chasen Spellman $5,600 to rent their North Hollywood recording studio ... but never got to record because they double-booked the studio   Plus,...

Novelist Craig Clevenger wowed readers with his inventive debut novel The Contortionist.s Handbook in 2002 - which has made its way around Hollywood and has had Leonardo DiCaprio and Channing Tatum both attached to at different times. Since then he's released the less critically-praised Dermaphoria, and an anthology submission, but has mostly been removed from the public consciousness. But that will probably change soon. Dermaphoria will soon get a feature film adaptation, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Motion Picture Capital has secured funding for the film and landed documentary filmmaker Ross Clarke to make his feature directorial debut. Clarke.s main claim to fame has been the documentary Skid Row, which followed rapper Pras Michel around as he went homeless in L.A. for a nine-day experiment. This will be a beast of an entirely different nature. The story is described as .Memento meets Breaking Bad,. and although those...

Like most lawsuits this one gets somewhat complicated. So let me try to explain it in a clear and understandable way Earlier last week, rapper Pras Michel of The Fugees filed a lawsuit against documentary filmmaker Marshall Tyler, over the ownership of the documentary Paper Dreams, which Tyler made, about the infamous 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship. You'll remember that incident in which the captain of the ship, Richard Phillips, volunteered to surrender to the pirates in exchange for his crew. He was later rescued by Navy Seal snipers who killed the piates. The incident was recently made into a feature film by director Paul Greenglass (The Bourne...