Alessandro Nivola has announced that he will be joining the cast of The Big Cigar, coming soon to Apple TV+. Nivola, whose previous roles include Billy Brennan in Jurassic Park III, will star alongside André Holland (Moonlight) in the upcoming limited series, based on the true story of how Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton escaped to Cuba, pursued by the FBI.
Originally based on a 2012 Playboy article by Joshua Bearman, The Big Cigar tells the “extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true” story of how Hollywood producer Bert Schneider (Easy Rider, The Monkees) helped smuggle his friend Huey P. Newton, a leader of the Black Panthers, out of the United States and into Cuba, even as the FBI doggedly chased the two. Alessandro Nivola will be portraying Schneider, described by Longform as “a well-heeled Hollywood producer with a coke problem and a soft spot for radical politics,” in the Apple TV+ series; opposite Nivola, André Nivola will star as Newton, a leader of the radical Black Panthers making a desperate break for freedom in Cuba.
Behind the Production of ‘The Big Cigar’
Apple TV+ first secured the rights to ‘The Big Cigar’ in April 2022, according to a press release put forth by the company. The six-episode limited series adaptation will be written by Jim Hecht along with Bearman himself and executive produced by Don Cheadle (The Wonder Years) and NAACP Image Award Winner Janine Sherman Barrois.
According to Deadline, Sharman Barrois and her production company, Folding Chair Productions (Self Made, The Kings of Napa), first produced The Big Cigar with Warner Bros. Television under a production deal. Warner Bros. and Apple TV+ have a history of successful partnership, having previously come together to produce Ted Lasso, a 2020 sports-comedy series that has gone on to win seven Emmy Awards; in addition, Warner Bros. Television and Apple TV+ have produced the upcoming film Shrinking, starring Harrison Ford, and Bad Monkey, an upcoming drama produced by and starring Vince Vaughn.
The Big Cigar, starring André Holland and Alessandro Nivola, will be available on AppleTV+. Further information on the series, including a release date, has not yet been released.
