ESPN should not have been accustomed to the work of Spike Lee after they gave the very pro-Black director the greenlight to provide his docuseries about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Now, they’re citing “artistic variations” and gained’t be airing the undertaking.
“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively determined to now not proceed with this undertaking because of sure artistic variations,” ESPN mentioned in a press release to Selection. “Regardless of not reaching finality, we admire all of the laborious work and collaboration that went into this movie.”
Lee instructed Reuters that the documentary wouldn’t be popping out.
“It’s not popping out. That’s all I can say,” Lee mentioned at a purple carpet occasion in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Lee added that he couldn’t elaborate.
“I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure [agreement]. I can’t discuss it.”
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A supply instructed Selection that the choice to cancel the undertaking –– which was first introduced in 2020 –– was made someday final summer time and that it had nothing to do with the NFL “which, earlier this month, turned a component proprietor of ESPN. The Walt Disney Firm owns 80% of the sports activities broadcasting big.”
The undertaking was created beneath Kaepernick’s first-look take care of Disney via his Ra Imaginative and prescient Media manufacturing firm. Spike Lee joined the docuseries in 2022, which was set to incorporate new interview and by no means earlier than seen footage to assist the previous quarterback who was blackballed by the NFL for his silent kneeling protest towards police brutality.
“Kaepernick performed for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 till 2016, when he ignited a media firestorm after he started kneeling throughout the nationwide anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism, Selection reviews.
“In 2017, Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers and was not signed by one other NFL staff. He filed a grievance towards the league, alleging collusion amongst staff homeowners, which was privately settled in 2019. Within the years following his retirement from skilled soccer, Kaepernick pivoted to activism via his nonprofit Know Your Rights Camp, in addition to leisure and media. In 2021, he co-created and narrated the restricted sequence “Colin in Black and White,” dramatizing his adolescence, directed by Ava DuVernay.”
