Cardi B's New Movie Takes a Huge Step Forward
Rapper Cardi B's next movie finally found a director, months after the Grammy winner was cast in the Paramount Players project. In late November, Thembi Banks, who would be making her feature debut with the project, was hired to direct Assisted Living. The movie will come after Cardi had supporting roles in the Jennifer Lopez drama Hustlers and F9: The Fast Saga.
News of Assisted Living first surfaced in January. The film was written by Kay Oyegun and will star Cardi as small-time crook Amber, who is on the run from police and her former team after a heist goes wrong. After she fails to find anyone who will take her in, she decides to disguise herself as an elderly woman and stays at her estranged grandmother's nursing home. Temple Hill and Stephen Love are producing, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Assisted Living has been in the works for years now. Paramount bought the script in a bidding war back in Spring 2019, Deadline reports. Insiders told the site on Nov. 22 that the project is still in development and Banks signed to direct. Banks is considered a rising star after directing several short films. She also helmed an episode of Insecure last year and an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine this year. Banks worked as a writer on SMILF, Step Up: High Water, Home Before Dark, and Only Murders in the Building.
Oyegun is an Emmy-nominated writer who is a staff writer on This Is Us. She also worked on Queen Sugar and directed two episodes of This Is Us. She has another film project in the works, according to IMDb. Oyegun wrote the script for On The Come Up, which stars Mike Epps and Method Man. It is adapted from a book by Angie Thomas.
Cardi, born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, made her acting debut with a small role in Husters before nabbing a part in F9. Her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, made history as the first solo album by a female rapper to win the Best Rap Album Grammy. Her 2021 single "Up" was nominated for Best Rap Performance at the 2022 Grammys. She appears on Lizzo's latest single, "Rumors," which was released in August.