Powerhouse rappers and businessmen Jay Z and Will Smith will soon team up to produce a mini-series on the life of Emmett Till.
Entertainment Weekly reports the pair will produce the mini-series for HBO alongside fellow producers Aaron Kaplan, James Lassiter and Jay Brown. Kapital Entertainment will be in charge of production for the series in addition to Jay Z’s Roc Nation and Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment.
Jay Z and Smith previously worked together on the film Annie and a production of Fela.
Till, of course, was the 14-year-old Chicago boy murdered for supposedly whistling at a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi in 1955. Two men, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, later kidnapped Till from his relatives’ home before beating and killing him and dumping his body in a nearby river. Both Milam and Bryant were acquitted of murder by an all-white jury with the two later admitting their guilt after the statue of limitations ran out.
No air date has been given for the as-of-yet untitled mini-series.
