Roots
Night 1
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Teleplay by Lawrence Konner and Marc Rosenthal
Based on the novel by Alex Haley
Starring Laurence Fishburne, James Purefoy, Matthew Goode, Anika Noni Rose, Forest Whitaker, and Malachi Kirby
The History Channel | A&E | Lifetime
Air Date: Monday, May 30th, 2016, 9:00pm

Roots, the 1977 miniseries based on Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, turned America upside down with its powerful story of warrior and slave, Kunta Kinte, and his descendants. With Levar Burton and then John Amos as Kunta Kinte/Toby, Roots made television history with unprecedented ratings and tons of Emmy nominations. A+E Networks brings Roots back tonight, in a reimagined series simulcast on three of its networks, The History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime. With Malachi Kirby in the lead role, it’s starting out as powerful as the first.

Spoilers for Roots: Night 1 below.

Roots, the epic tale of slave Kunta Kinte’s struggle, and the struggle of his family after him, will premiere on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30th, airing for four consecutive nights. The series will be simulcast on The History Channel, Lifetime, and A&E.

Watch the official trailer below.

If the title of this week’s edition of The Digital Wire is any indication, we’ve got one twisted job fair on our hands. Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon. We would greatly appreciate it if you use those links to order because a small percentage of each order helps keep this website running at max power. The cover art for certain titles has yet to be finalized.

Anthony Breznican of Entertainment Weekly introduced the panel for The Giver, on Wednesday’s San Diego Comic Con panel in Hall H. The book that the film is based on, Lois Lowry‘s groundbreaking 1993 novel was arguably the prototype for the recent trend of Young Adult dystopian sci-fi that includes book series like The Hunger Games and Divergent.

Director Philip Noyce introduced, via a pre-recorded video message, footage from the film which gave a great overview of the false utopia of the world of The Giver and the discovery of its dark history.

Breznican then introduced author Lois Lowry, Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas, Jeff Bridges, who plays The Giver, Odeya Rush, who plays Fiona, and producer Nikki Silver.