As Peak TV expands beyond what we thought was even possible — what was the last count, more than 420 scripted dramas? — top shelf filmmakers continue to migrate to the medium because networks are voracious for content and willing to throw the kind of money around that movie studios are reluctant to do (which is why they’re falling behind, frankly).
One of those filmmakers is Kathryn Bigelow of “The Hurt Locker,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and this summer’s most recent “Detroit.” Last summer, HBO ordered a pilot of her new drama “Mogadishu, Minnesota,” then known as “The Recruiters.” The show revolved around hidden world of Jihadi recruitment, although it was also described as a family drama about Somalis in Minneapolis. Believe it or not Minneapolis has a big Somali community, and Oscar-nominee Barkhad Abdi of “Captain Phillips” fame (who also has a role in the excellent “Good Time“) relocated from Mogadishu to Minneapolis in the 1980s.
Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter and filmmaker (he’s helmed many of his own music videos), K’naan Warsam was set to direct and write the pilot episode, and may have gone on to direct the whole series, but alas, now comes word that the show hasn’t been picked up by HBO.
Reporter Jeff Sneider from the Tracking Board says one of the sticking points for the cable channel was the fact that Mahershala Ali wasn’t starring in the show (hard to tell if he’s making a joke here or not).
This is the second strike for Bigelow at HBO. She previously directed the 2010 drama pilot “The Miraculous Year,” but the show also didn’t go beyond the pilot. And don’t hold your breath to see these discarded pilots, as HBO almost never lets these shows out of the vaults (we’d love to see Noah Baumbach’s “The Corrections” for example). In fact, all networks keep the shows they’re not moving forward with under lock and key, perhaps one of the major exceptions being Spike Lee’s “Sucker Free City” which wasn’t picked up by Showtime, but it was screened as a fill movie during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2004. Of course, there’s Amazon‘s industry breaking pilot program, where they essentially let user feedback weigh in on which shows they’ll take to series. Alas, it doesn’t seem like K’naan and Bigelow will have as much luck.
https://twitter.com/theinsneider/status/903729588798275584
Whaaaa?
Why would hollywood suddenly balk on bigalows ham-handed lib agenda bait?
Hmmm…
Maybe no matter how any oscars liberals throw at their own disgusting agendas that doesn’t necessarily transfer into people willing or wanting to actually watch it.
” I hear the big problem was that it didn’t star Mahershala Ali.”
Liberal race-baiting is a creepy and offensive scheme if your paying attention.
Remember that time bigalow made that movie about her interpretation of an incident involving Black Americans in Detroit, and hired a british Black guy to act it out for her?
Couldn’t find an actual Black American?
1. Mahershala Ali IS an African-American.
2. Mr. Ali may likely not take the role because he has been cast for Season 3 of “True Detective.”
3. Because the focus of the show is about Somalians in the U.S., why not have a lead actor who is actually of Somalian descent (Barkhad Abdi)? Also, if the person who wrote and directed the pilot is Somalian (K’naan) as well, then that lends all the more accuracy and realism to the show.
In truth, I have my own bones to pick with Ms. Bigelow’s “Detroit.” However, because HBO seems all set and ready to move ahead with their alternate imagining of the Confederacy, I don’t get why this show can’t also be picked up. If they won’t take it, they should at least give it a shot with another network.