‘Magnify’ series puts focus on socially relevant stories
Hawke, Blum adapt ‘Bird’ for TV
LOS ANGELES, June 13, (RTRS): The list of executive producers who have worked on films in Fox Sports’ “Magnify” documentary series reads like the lineup of an all-star revival of the old MTV show “Rock N’ Jock.” EPs on previous and forthcoming installments include LeBron James, Common, Dwyane Wade, Chance the Rapper, and Kevin Durant. The newest addition to the series, director Andrew Renzi’s “They Fight,” boasts Drew Brees, Tony Parker, Derrick Brooks, and Michael Finley in exec producer roles.
Fox announced the acquisition of “They Fight” last week. The film tells the story of an after-school boxing program in Washington DC’s Ward 8 — one of the city’s most economically challenged areas. The movie fits the mission of the “Magnify” series — leveraging the power of star athletes and entertainers, as well as Fox’s television platforms, to push eyeballs to off-the-beaten path socially conscious sport stories.
“It’s been pretty crazy how quickly it happened,” said Charlie Dixon, Fox Sports’ executive VP of content. “So many athletes are forced into a sound byte in a press conference. When word got out that we’re trying to affect change, tell the stories that they’re actually passionate about, it’s been insane how many people actually had ideas. People really are gravitating toward this project.”
“Magnify” kicked off last year with “89 Blocks,” a doc produced by James and business partner Maverick Carter about a high school football team in East St. Louis, Mo. The next film, “Shot in the Dark,” from Wade and Chance the Rapper, told the story of a Chicago highschool basketball team’s struggle for a championship as one star player sits in jail and another is wounded by a stray bullet. The upcoming “Nossa Chape,” from Jeff and Michael Zimbalist debuted this year at SXSW and tells the tragic story of Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense’s 2016 plane crash in Colombia. “Q Ball,” from exec producer Durant and business partner Rich Kleiman, is set to premiere next year, telling the story of an inmate basketball team at San Quentin State Prison in California.
“Nossa Chape” will make its television debut June 23 on Fox Broadcasting during the World Cup. “Shot in the Dark” and “89 Blocks” also made their TV premieres on FBC.
“You can’t ask for a better platform to premiere these films and to bring an audience in and to get people to start to realize Fox can be a place for documentaries,” said Gabe Spitzer, senior VP and exec producer at Fox Sports Films.
“Charlie and I knew we wanted to get into this premium prestige documentary space,” Spitzer added. “Especially in the sports world, it’s a crowded space and a lot of other places do it really well. So we started to think about what can our lane be. The goal with us for building out this series is to tell stories that matter right now and that matter to people right now.”
Spitzer and Dixon conceived of the “Magnify” series, viewing it as a natural extension on Fox Sports’ other programming. Right now, the plan is to debut about four films a year. But long term, the execs hope to expand “Magnify’s” footprint, venturing into short-form and series documentary.
“If you look at the larger studio shows, it’s about having a conversation about the biggest sports stories in the world,” Dixon said. “That could be an NFC Championship game, it could be the Super Bowl, it could be the World Series, or it could be Tyquone Greer’s story about getting shot and coming back in Chicago. These are the stories that people want to talk about in sports, so we’re just continuing that through our doc series.”
George Stephanopoulos and Sean Hannity each won the same thing in recent hours, but for one, the prize was rare, and for the other, it was commonplace. The loot? An interview with President Donald Trump following his recent history talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Stephanopoulos snared the first TV-news interview between President Trump and an outlet other than Fox News since NBC News’ Lester Holt sat down with the President in May of last year. Hannity talks to the President off-camera regularly and Trump makes regular appearances on Fox News programs like “Fox & Friends” and “Justice with Judge Jeanine.”
Trump acknowledged to Stephanopoulos that the path ahead remained foggy. “”Maybe in a year you’ll be interviewing and I’ll say I made a mistake. It’s possible. We’re dealing at a high level, a lot of things can change a lot of things are possible,” Trump told him. The interview aired Tuesday morning on ABC. But the President said he expected immediate action as a result of the talks.
Blumhouse Television is developing a limited series based on James McBride’s 2013 National Book Award-winning novel “The Good Lord Bird,” Variety has learned.
Ethan Hawke is on board to star as abolitionist leader John Brown, and will co-write the script with Mark Richard (“Fear of the Walking Dead”).
The project will reunite producer Jason Blum with Hawke, the star of “The Purge,” the hit 2013 horror film. It comes as Blumhouse is making a broader push into the television world. The company is best-known for backing low-budget scary movies, but it’s doing something different on the small screen. It is making several prestige dramas with healthy budgets. It’s a group that includes such highbrow literary-based series as HBO’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects” and Showtime’s forthcoming version of Gabriel Sherman’s “The Loudest Voice in the Room.”
Hawke’s involvement shouldn’t be a complete surprise. Not only is he a close friend of Blum’s, but he also told The Week that “The Good Lord Bird” is one of his six favorite books.