Chantelle Wells, Azie Tesfai and Ryan Coogler are developing the series for Onyx, which also picked up the latter’s “Anthem” docs and Questlove’s Sly Stone feature from the Sundance Film Festival.
Onyx Collective brought the news to the Sundance Film Festival during a presentation on Saturday.
A quasi-studio led by Disney has put a Queen of Sheba scripted series into development. Onyx, which makes content exclusively for Hulu, has also snagged two documentaries from the Snowy Fest: Questlove’s untitled Sly Stone feature and Ryan The National Anthem
Sheba, Also produced by Coogler, co-created by Chantelle Wells (Showtime’s ) Yellowjackets) and actress and producer Azie Tesfai (Supergirl2021). The show explores the rise of the continent’s first queen as she seeks to unite the country now known as Ethiopia into one of the wealthiest and most powerful kingdoms in the world. Inspired by true events, the potential series will follow Makeda into a world of danger, deceit and political intrigue as she is forced to take on the role of a Queen of Sheba that no one, including herself, could have imagined.
Wells and Tesfai – who grew up in Ethiopia – co-created Sheba and exec with Coogler and his Proximity Media’s Kalia King, Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler. Wells will write the screenplay. It’s unclear if Tesfai is the first Ethiopian to portray a comic book superhero on screen on The CW Supergirl, which will have an on-screen segment in addition to her role as executive producer. Tesfai, also writing The Chase For NBC, took the idea and brought it to Proximity with Wells, then recruited to write the script. Sheba is the first scripted series From Black Panther The whole of the alum engages with Onyx, a collective that focuses on stories from underrepresented communities.
except for Sheba, Coogler and Proximity are also executive producing documentaries ) National Anthem, Follow composer Kris Bowers (Bridgerton) and Grammy Award-winning music producer Dahi (Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Drake) as they travel across America to create a new sound inspired by our nation’s national anthem if written in today’s era what it might look like. Zinzi Coogler of Proximity, Ohanian and RJ Cutler and Elise Pearlstein of This Machine are executive producers. Proximity’s Peter Nix (who also serves as director), Coogler, Chris Powers, Sean Harvey and Chris Jenkins executive produce.
Finally, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Doctor Onyx Summer of Soul examines the life and legacy of Sly and Family Stone, the groundbreaking band led by Sly Stone. It tells the story behind the rise, reign and decline of one of pop music’s most influential artists, and it tells a deeply human story about the price of genius. Questlove guides the documentation written by Joseph Patel and Jeff Mao. The project first arose out of the new overall deal, the Summer of Soul Patel has signed with Onyx. Brian Gersh, Sylvester Stone, Questlove, Shawn Gee, Zarah Zohlman, Lonnie Rashid Lynn (aka Common), Derek Dudley, Shelby Stone, Ron Weisner and Paul Gertz serve as producers. Produced by Patel and Derik Murray. The project is produced by MRC Network Entertainment Inc., Two One Five Entertainment Inc., Stardust Films and ID8 Multimedia Inc. in association with Sony Music Entertainment.
Onyx, an early launch 2021 led by Freeform President Duncan, is Based on Disney’s branding, it counts scripting efforts to include Hair Story, Reasonable Doubt, Mahershala Ali’s episode
and are not in prison, all for Hulu. In addition to Coogler, the studio also counts with Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi ) , Prentice Penny ( Not safe
) , Natasha Rothwell and Yara Shahidi ( Mature),etc. THR Communications
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