Small Screen: Afro-Latino Identity To Be Explored In Sony’s ‘Somos Los Prietos,’ Plus Character Breakdowns From Tracee Ellis Ross & Ramy Youssef
Tracee Ellis Ross - CBS Photo Archive
Broadcast: Jeff Buhler, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Katrina O’Gilvie headline this year’s writer’s room from CBS Television Studios, Rideback and Thinking Hat. The program, which is designed to bring both experienced film writers as well as promising new writers to broadcast television, began last year and resulted in two projects being sold to CBS. Bryan Seabury, CBS Television Studios’ Executive Vice President of Drama Development, praised the program, stating that “the search for new and diverse creative voices poses a significant challenge,” but that the writer’s room gives CBS “access to a host of up and coming creators with limitless potential.” Buhler, Akinnagbe and O’Gilvie will work with Anna Fricke, Rina Mimoun and Corinne Brinkerhoff- all showrunners and executive producers with overall deals with CBS Television Studios- to support the aspiring broadcast television writers from development through series.
Tracee Ellis Ross recently joined Amanda N’Duka and Dino Ray Ramos on the New Hollywood podcast, where she talked about her most recent work on ABC’s Black-ish. Ross went into detail about her approach to playing Black-ish’s Rainbow “Bow” Johnson, who she also narrates on its spinoff series Mixed-ish, and the in-depth thought and decision making that goes into how she creates her character. Knowing that the story is told through the eyes of Andre “Dre” Johnson (Anthony Anderson), Ross has always made sure that Bow was her own person and that viewers could see her character develop within her own right, not just within the context of her relationship with her husband. Ross described her work in playing the character as a constant process of striving to keep her true, especially with consideration to the implications of what Bow’s portrayal means within the larger scope of representation on television. She brings up the fact that married women on television are typically shown through the lens of being perfect wives who are always primarily consumed with the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning- while still looking radiant- and that viewers tend to readily accept this depiction. For Ross, part of making sure that Bow is her own person is in making sure that she does not perpetuate this stereotype and that she is a unique individual who is more than just a wife. This process of considering the implications that her characters have on representation is something that Ross states she always enjoys not just as an actress, but in her everyday life as well. In both her work and in her personal life, Ross seeks to address and break down the “blind spots” that lead to tokenism and stereotyping, allowing her to approach both with a consideration on improving inclusiveness.
Director Justin Lin has signed a multiyear overall deal with NBCUniversal’s Universal Pictures and Universal Studio Group to develop new projects for film and television under the two divisions. Having spent the past two years producing television content in a deal with Apple, Lin and his production banner, Perfect Storm Entertainment, will now create and develop projects for all internal and external platforms through Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Lin is best known for his work in the Fast & Furious franchise, with the upcoming F9, the franchise’s ninth feature, set to release next year as the first film under this new deal.
ABC’s Black-ish will air a back-to-back two-episode election special ahead of its Season 7 premier, directed by Matthew A. Cherry. The two episodes- one of which will be animated- revolve around election-focused storylines as Junior (Marcus Scribner) attempts to vote for the first time but meets a serious roadblock when discovering that he has been purged from the voter roll, while Dre (Anthony Anderson) explores local politics after his boss, Mr. Stevens (Peter MacKenzie), decides run for Congress. The first episode of the special is written by Eric Horsted, with the second, animated episode written by Graham Towers and Ben Deeb. The special is slated for an October 4 air date, pending scheduling for the NBA Finals on ABC.
Ramsey Naito - Phillip Faraone / Stringer
Cable: Ramsey Naito has been promoted to President of Nickelodeon Animation, having previously acted as the Executive Vice President of Animation Production and Development for the Nickelodeon Group since 2018. In her new position, Naito will oversee Nickelodeon’s animation content across all platforms- linear, digital, movies developed for both television and theatrical distribution and streaming.
FX has laid out its plans and projections for improved diversity at the network, as was recently announced by John Landgraf, Chairman of FX Networks and FX Productions, during the Edinburgh International TV Festival. The network is currently slated to see 63% of its team of directors be made up of women and people of color in 2021- a major improvement from five years ago when it was found that 85% of directors at FX were white men. Having made a conscious effort to find diverse directors who have already worked with other premium programming, as well as those working in the theatre or in procedurals, FX has produced such critically acclaimed series as Atlanta, Better Things, Mrs. America, Pose and Snowfall. Moving forward, the network still plans on improving diversity with such off-screen positions as directors of photography, casting directors, showrunners, executive producers and in executive positions. In addition, FX plans to hire a Senior Vice President of Diversity and Culture whose responsibilities will include acting as an ombudsman at the network.
Sony Pictures Television Latin America is developing Somos Los Prietos, a new Colombian series that will explore racism in Latin America and Afro-Latino identity. Inspired by the music and career of hip-hop group ChocQuibTown, the series follows a group of Afro-Latino friends and bandmates from Condoto who aspire to participate in a festival organized by ChocQuibTown while dealing with poverty, racism and crime. The upcoming series, written by Karin Valecillos, marks the first joint production between Sony Pictures Television’s international production division and Sony Music Latin, where ChocQuibTown is signed.
Salli Richardson-Whitfield has signed a two-year overall deal with HBO to develop new projects and to direct and executive produce already-existing HBO series. Richardson-Whitfield will executive produce and direct four episodes of The Gilded Age, and will direct two episodes of Adam McKay’s upcoming series on the Los Angeles Lakers, based on the book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s by Jeff Pearlman.
Ramy Youssef - Jim Spellman / Stringer
Streaming: María Renée Prudencio and Tatiana Merenuk have signed on as writers for Señorita México (working title), an upcoming series produced by Fremantle and Fabula for Starzplay and Pantaya. Set in Mexico in 1989, the series follows 32 Mexican state beauty queens as they spend three grueling months at the La Encantada estate in preparation for a chance to become Miss Mexico. Told through the perspectives of five young women, the prospective Miss Mexico competitors come to realize they can only count on each other for support as they discover the brutal reality of beauty pageants. Lucía Puenzo will direct and act as showrunner, with Christian Vesper of Fremantle, Juan de Dios of Fabula, Pablo Larraín, Ángela Poblete and Juan Ignacio Correa executive producing. Production for Señorita México is slated to begin sometime during the first half of 2021.
Ramy Youssef spoke with Scott Feinberg of the Awards Chatter podcast to discuss his life and career, going into depth on his hit Hulu series Ramy. For fans of the series, one of the most engaging aspects of this discussion comes from Youssef’s dissection of the series’ titular character- a fictionalized version of himself- and in the subtle ways that the fictional Ramy is built upon Youssef’s own experiences versus where the two differ. The core of the series is built upon Ramy’s personal struggle with bridging the gap between who he is and who he wants to be, a struggle that is part of the universal human experience, perhaps especially so for millennials. In order to make this portrayal as authentic as possible, Youssef removes one very important part of himself from his character in that unlike the real Ramy, the fictionalized one does not have a creative outlet in standup comedy. Joking that Ramy takes place in an alternate world where standup does not exist, Youssef noted the importance of not making his character an artist because it would make the character largely unrelatable to audiences. Without this personal outlet, the series can focus on exploring this struggle through the lens of trying to learn and understand one’s faith, something that is especially important in Youssef’s own life. Growing up the son of immigrant parents, Youssef discusses the ways in which both he in his personal life and his character come to a point where they question what is really their culture and religion versus what is just family tradition instilled by their parents to avoid losing their culture. This discourse is something that makes Ramy an especially unique show in terms of Arab and Muslim representation on television, as Youssef notes the lack of these stories in American pop culture. Still, he makes an important distinction in that the show should not be taken as a one-size-fits-all representation of Arab and Muslim communities, noting the diversity and nuances within them. Ramy, which released its second season this past May, was recently renewed for a third season.
Alexander Woo and Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are teaming up with Netflix for an English-language series adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel series The Three-Body Problem. The trio will write and executive produce the new series, which centers on the first contact between human civilization and alien species. Rian Johnson, Ram Bergman and Nena Rodrigue of T Street Productions, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B Entertainment, Rosamund Pike and Robie Uniacke of Primitive Streak, Lin Qi and Zhao Jilong of The Three-Body Universe and Bernadette Caulfield will also executive produce; Cixin and Ken Liu will serve as consulting producers.
Netflix’s Big Mouth has officially recast its mixed-race character Missy, following suit with other animated series that have recently recast or committed to recasting characters of color with voice actors of color. Previously played by Jenny Slate, Missy will now be voiced by Ayo Edebiri, who joined on as a writer for the show’s fifth season before auditioning for the role a few weeks later. Slate will still be heard voicing the character throughout most of the show’s fourth season, with Edebiri taking on the role during the season’s penultimate episode and beyond.
