Rapper/poet K'naan Warsame will pen the script, exec produce and direct the potential series.
HBO is going back into business with Kathryn Bigelow.
The premium cable network is teaming with the Oscar-winning director behind The Hurt Locker to develop the drama The Recruiters, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The drama, based on an original idea, looks to unveil what is considered a world that's hidden in plain sight. Set in Minnesota, the drama "will draw open an iron curtain behind which viewers will see the highly impenetrable world of Jihadi recruitment."
Somali Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, poet K'naan Warsame will pen the script, executive produce and direct the project, should it move to the pilot stage. Bigelow and former HBO president Carolyn Strauss also will exec produce.
Warsame recounted his return after 20 years to his native Somalia in a 2011 essay for The New York Times in which he detailed the loss of three childhood friends at the age of 12 after a machine gun attack. He also penned an essay about censorship in the music industry as it pertained to his lyrics drawn from his childhood in Somalia ahead of his third album in 2012. He's a multiple Juno Award winner and was nominated in 2012 for an MTV VMA for best video with a message.
For Bigelow, The Recruiters brings her back to HBO, where she previously directed the 2010 drama pilot The Miraculous Year, which did not move forward. She's repped by CAA.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact ... s-20151211
Somali Rapper K’naan Teams Up with Kathryn Bigelow for HBO Jihadi Recruitment Series, 'The Recruiters'
Somali rapper/poet K’naan has teamed up with HBO and director Kathryn Bigelow for a drama series titled "The Recruiters," which K'naan will write, direct and executive produce.
The very timely series will be set in Minnesota, and "will draw open an iron curtain behind which viewers will see the highly impenetrable world of Jihadi recruitment," according to THR.
For those unaware, a large number of the Somali immigrants settled in Minnesota, which, according to the Immigration Policy Center, has been home to the largest population of Somalis in North America since around 2012. The city of Minneapolis in particular hosts hundreds of Somali-owned and operated commercial ventures. Current estimates say that about one third of Somali Americans live in Minnesota.
Federal and Minnesota authorities have long struggled with the problem of Somali Americans leaving to join al-Shabab, with Islamic State becoming another destination for terrorist sympathizers in recent years.
In fact, just this week, Federal agents in Minneapolis arrested a 20-year-old Somali man, who they say was the “emir” – or leader – of Islamic State recruiting efforts in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame of Eagan, Minnesota appeared in the US District Court in Minneapolis on Thursday morning, to answer the charges of supplying material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was arrested without incident on Wednesday evening, the FBI said. The criminal complaint against Warsame, signed by FBI Special Agent Vadim Vinetsky, says that a group of at least ten young Somalis from Minnesota began conspiring to join Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in the spring of 2014. One member of the group, 18-year-old Abdi Nir, actually managed to get to Syria in May 2014, while nine others have been arrested by the FBI.
So, like I said, certainly a timely drama series for HBO to consider; and given that it's coming from K'naan (a Muslim of Somali ancestry, with deep connections to his community, and who has seen childhood friends lost), I'd assume that audiences will get a more comprehensive, if personal look at this particular struggle.
Kathryn Bigelow (who tackled the so-called "war on terror" telling the story of "history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man" in the critically-acclaimed 2012 drama-thriller "Zero Dark Thirty") and Carolyn Strauss will executive produce the project which is still in early stages of development.
Earlier this year, K'naan was a 2015 Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award winner, a program designed to identify and support emerging independent filmmakers from around the world. He's also an alumnus of the Institute's Screenwriters and Directors Labs.
K'naan's project, for which he won a Global Filmmaking Award, which he will direct (it was to be his directorial debut), is titled "The Poet."
Logline reads: "In war-torn Somalia, an artistic orphan named Maano undertakes a dangerous journey to Mogadishu in order to find his long-lost sister."
No word on where that project stands. I'd assume fundraising is a struggle, as he shifts to TV for "The Recruiters." Bigelow's support should help push it through.
