Laurence Fishburne, Larenz Tate Team Up for ‘Bronzeville’ Podcast

by Gregg Kilday

The 10-part audio series set in 1940s Chicago will begin streaming in January.
Laurence Fishburne and Larenz Tate have joined forces for a new 10-part podcast called Bronzeville, which will begin streaming in January.

Written by Josh Olsen, an original screenplay Oscar nominee for 2005’s A History of Violence, the series is set in the African-American Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago and follows the lives of players who ruled the numbers games, the illegal lottery that swept through the black community in the 1940s before it was taken over by the mafia.

Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy Productions and Tate’s TateMen Entertainment have partnered with Audio HQ, the digital audio ad sales company, on the project that is billed as an audio-drama.

Fishburne, Tate and Kc Wayland, who directed the We’re Alive audio series, are directing Bronzeville, with Wayland also serving as producer. Fishburne, a best actor Oscar nominee for 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It, and Tate are also part of an extensive voice cast that includes Tika Sumpter, Lance Reddick, Brittany Snow and Mitch Pileggi, among others.

Bronzeville will be available, free of charge, on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn, Radio One/Interactive One and SoundCloud, with ads from Toyota, Audible, Hennessy, Tracfone, Amex and Quicken Mortgage.

Fishburne, Tate, TateMen, Cinema Gypsy, Olson and Audio HQ are all repped by Paradigm, which brokered the deal, along with attorneys Nina Shaw and Jeff Finkelstein repping Cinema Gypsy and John Meigs Jr. repping TateMen.