Jay Z, Will Smith to Produce Emmett Till Miniseries on HBO
Through a collaboration between Jay Z and Will Smith, the Emmett Till story is set to be transformed into a yet-to-be-named HBO miniseries.
Entertainment Weekly reports Jay Brown, James Lassiter and Aaron Kaplan are also slated to work as executive producers on the project, which has yet to receive a target release date.
Till was a 14-year-old African-American teenager from Chicago. In 1955, Till was sadistically murdered while visiting family in rural Mississippi for reportedly whistling at a white woman. Despite the brutal scars on Till's body, his family made the brave but surely agonizing decision to have an open-casket funeral for him in an effort to show "the savage effects" of what was done to him.
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were ultimately acquitted in the killing, though they later publicly admitted culpability for the crime. Till's murder became the subject of a 2003 PBS produced called "The Murder of Emmett Till."
Both Smith and Jay Z earned producer credits on last year's rendition of "Annie" starring Jamie Foxx, and last year Jay and wife Beyoncé's concert film also aired on HBO.
Currently, there are no writers attached to the project, but Roc Nation, Overbrook, and Kapital Entertainment are all slated to serve as production companies.
Jay Z also recently inked a deal with Black Entertainment Television for his Roc Nation Sports Company to work with the network to air up to nine live boxing events over the next 18 months. According to Billboard, the ring action will be supplemented by live musical performances.
"It's more than just boxing, it's more than a sporting event, and that's why we went into it," said Stephen G. Hill, BET's president of original programming.
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