Thursday, May 21, 2026

New “Annie” Movie Gets a Star: Quvenzhane Wallis of “Beasts”

Share

Quvenzhane Wallis, the nine year old star of “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” has a new iconic role to play: Little Orphan Annie. Will Smith and James Lassiter are producing yet a new version of the musical “Annie” for the movies, with a mostly African American cast. Oscar nominated Quvenhane has landed the role. You may know that the little girl was discovered by director Benh Zeitlin in New Orleans when she was six. She had no acting experience–or any kind of experience. But the little girl is proving to be quite the find, a natural so to speak. But we’re always worried about child stars. Hopefully things will go well here, with no terrible miseries or scandals down the road involving — well, we all know what could happen.

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News