Forest Whitaker and Anika Noni Rose are joining the cast of A&E Networks' "Roots" miniseries remake.
Others in the cast will include Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and newcomer Malachi Kirby as the central figure Kunta Kinte, A&E said Wednesday.
The network had previously announced that Laurence Fishburne will play writer Alex Haley, whose novel about his African-American ancestry was the basis of the original miniseries.
The new project will draw on the late Haley's book along with new research, A&E said. The 1977 ABC version was a ratings sensation.
Mario Van Peebles and Bruce Beresford were added as directors for the project, which is in production in New Orleans.
No air date has been announced for the "Roots" remake that will debut on the History, A&E and Lifetime channels.
Nintendo reports lower profits as demand drops for its aging Switch console
Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario franchise, said Tuesday that its profit fell 60% in the first half of the fiscal year, as demand waned for its Switch console, now in its eighth year since going on sale.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a 108.7 billion yen ($715 million) profit for the April-September period, as sales slipped 34% from the previous year to 523 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
More than 74% of its sales revenue came from overseas, according to Nintendo, which didn't break down quarterly numbers.
Global Switch sales during the period dropped to 4.7 million machines from 6.8 million units the previous year.
But Nintendo said in a statement that Switch sales were still growing and vowed to stick to its goal of selling a Switch console to each and every individual, not just one Switch per every household.
Nintendo stuck to its earlier projection for a 300 billion yen ($2 billion) profit for the full fiscal year through March 2025, down nearly 29% from the previous fiscal year.
Annual sales were forecast to drop 23% to1.28 trillion yen ($8.4 billion).
It also lowered its Switch sales projection for the fiscal year to 12.5 million units from an earlier forecast to sell 13.5 million.
Nintendo and other game and toy makers rake in their biggest profits during the Christmas shopping season, as well as New Year's, a holiday celebrated with fanfare in Japan, when children receive cash gifts from grandparents and other relatives.
Nintendo has not yet announced details on a successor to the Switch.
Among its million-seller game software titles for the fiscal half were "Paper Mario RPG," which sold 1.95 million units since going on sale in May, and "Luigi Mansion 2... Read More