Glynn Turman is the latest to join the cast of The Apple TV+’s limited series Big Cigar as a recurring guest star. He joins stars previously cast André Holland, Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, PJ Byrne, Marc Menchaca, and Jordane Christie, Moses Ingram and Olli Haaskivi.
The series, which is about how Black Panther leader, Huey P. Newton eluded a nationwide manhunt and escaped to Cuba, is based on Joshuah Bearman’s Playboy article of the same name. Bearman is also attached as executive producer.
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According to the logline, the six-part series will tell “the extraordinary, hilarious, almost-too-good-to-be-true story of how Newton (Holland) relied on his best friend, Bert Schneider (Nivola), the Hollywood producer behind Easy Rider, to elude a nationwide manhunt and escape to Cuba while being pursued into exile by the FBI.”
Turman is set for the role of Huey’s ailing father, Walter — a man he reveres, who worked multiple jobs over the course of his life to support his family.
Boone will star as Gwen Fontaine, Newton’s girlfriend who later turned into his wife. She fled to Cuba with Newton where they resided until 1977.
Menchaca is set for the series regular role of Agent Sydney Clark. A former lawyer and Vietnam vet from Oklahoma, Clark lives undercover as a dirty hippie while pursuing Newton, who is wanted on charges of killing a teenage prostitute.
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Ingram is set for the role of Teressa Dixon, a former telephone operator turned rising star in the Black Panther Party and a close confidante of Huey.
Christie will play Newton’s friend and Black Panther Party co-founder, Bobby Seale, who bonded with Newton over repeated incarcerations and infiltration by the FBI before deciding to leave the Party.
Big Cigar comes from Don Cheadle, Janine Sherman Barrois, Jim Hecht, Bearman and Warner Bros. TV. Cheadle will direct the first two episodes and Barrois is attached as the showrunner. Hecht is penning the series as well as executive producing alongside Cheadle and Barrois.
It is produced by Warner Bros. Television, where Sherman Barrois and her Folding Chair Productions are under an overall deal. Joshua Davis and Arthur Spector, through their production company Epic, a division of Vox Media Studios, also exec produce.