Exclusive updated with additional details: Boomerang co-creator Ben Cory Jones has acquired the shopping rights to Brianna Peppins’ YA novel Briarcliff Prep for series development.
The project will be co-written by Jones and Peppins. Both will produce alongside Cultivate Entertainment Partners Sean Mik’ael Butler and Patrick Strøm.
Briarcliff Prep is a coming-of-age story set in a space where the expectations of gender and race collide, familial responsibilities are tested, and sisterhood may be a saving grace.
Per the book’s synopsis, “set at a luxe, aspirational Historically Black Boarding School inspired by the author’s alma mater Spelman College, Briarcliff Prep is a captivating celebration of the friends we choose, the family we protect, and the love we owe ourselves.”
The novel was published by Disney Hyperion in 2022. The sequel, Briarcliff Prep: Sophomore Year, will be published by Disney Hyperion in 2024.
Jones is a writer, director and producer best known...
The project will be co-written by Jones and Peppins. Both will produce alongside Cultivate Entertainment Partners Sean Mik’ael Butler and Patrick Strøm.
Briarcliff Prep is a coming-of-age story set in a space where the expectations of gender and race collide, familial responsibilities are tested, and sisterhood may be a saving grace.
Per the book’s synopsis, “set at a luxe, aspirational Historically Black Boarding School inspired by the author’s alma mater Spelman College, Briarcliff Prep is a captivating celebration of the friends we choose, the family we protect, and the love we owe ourselves.”
The novel was published by Disney Hyperion in 2022. The sequel, Briarcliff Prep: Sophomore Year, will be published by Disney Hyperion in 2024.
Jones is a writer, director and producer best known...
- 12/1/2023
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
(Updated with producers’ statement) Exclusive: Surviving members and relatives of the famed Black Spartans want a movie about the 1966 college football co-champions consigned to the sidelines.
“This letter is directed to various producers, directors, actors and others who we understand are associated with the motion picture Black Spartans, which purports to tell our clients’ stories,” says a correspondence sent Tuesday night to director-writer Ben Cory Jones, producer James Velissaris and his various aliases, as well as actors J. Alphonse Nicholson, Neal McDonough (who also is a producer) and others (read it here). “However, this film is being produced without our clients’ input or approval and in violation of their rights to publicity and privacy and in defamation of their characters.”
“As we and our clients have not seen the full Black Spartans script (and naturally the finished film) we cannot identify with more particularity any defamatory material,” attorney Devin McRae...
“This letter is directed to various producers, directors, actors and others who we understand are associated with the motion picture Black Spartans, which purports to tell our clients’ stories,” says a correspondence sent Tuesday night to director-writer Ben Cory Jones, producer James Velissaris and his various aliases, as well as actors J. Alphonse Nicholson, Neal McDonough (who also is a producer) and others (read it here). “However, this film is being produced without our clients’ input or approval and in violation of their rights to publicity and privacy and in defamation of their characters.”
“As we and our clients have not seen the full Black Spartans script (and naturally the finished film) we cannot identify with more particularity any defamatory material,” attorney Devin McRae...
- 9/14/2022
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: J. Alphonse Nicholson (P-Valley) has signed on to star alongside Neal McDonough and Casey Cott in the sports drama Black Spartans from writer-director Ben Cory Jones (Insecure). The pic is set to shoot in Atlanta this fall.
Exploring the explosive era of the mid-1960s where social upheaval paved the way for a new order in college football, Jones’ feature directorial debut tells the story of the first fully integrated college football team. The film is inspired by the Michigan State Spartans coached by Duffy Daugherty, which forever changed the face of the sport.
A Greensboro, North Carolina native, Nicholson will portray Fayetteville, North Carolina’s Jimmy Raye, who became the first Black quarterback from the South to win a national championship, as part of the 1966 Michigan State team.
Jones, McDonough, Cott, David Brown, Rochelle Claerbaut, Ruve McDonough, Justin Oates-Marable and Jimmy V will produce Black Spartans, with Cory Wharton serving as executive producer.
Exploring the explosive era of the mid-1960s where social upheaval paved the way for a new order in college football, Jones’ feature directorial debut tells the story of the first fully integrated college football team. The film is inspired by the Michigan State Spartans coached by Duffy Daugherty, which forever changed the face of the sport.
A Greensboro, North Carolina native, Nicholson will portray Fayetteville, North Carolina’s Jimmy Raye, who became the first Black quarterback from the South to win a national championship, as part of the 1966 Michigan State team.
Jones, McDonough, Cott, David Brown, Rochelle Claerbaut, Ruve McDonough, Justin Oates-Marable and Jimmy V will produce Black Spartans, with Cory Wharton serving as executive producer.
- 8/23/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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