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Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and Grammy-winning artist Pharrell Williams are in talks with Netflix to develop a feature musical inspired by Juneteenth, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
“Happy” singer Williams and Mimi Valdes will co-produce via their I Am Other banner, while Barris will produce through his Khalabo Ink Society production venture.
Details about the storyline are being kept under wraps, but sources close to development say the film would be separate from the Juneteenth-inspired stage musical that the pair also has in the works. That stage musical in development followed the success of “Juneteenth: The Musical,” the season-four opener of the ABC series Black-ish. Barris and one of the Black-ish writers, Peter Saji, teamed up with Williams on the stage production.
Juneteenth marks the day, June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Texas to announce that the Civil War had ended and all slaves were now free, thereby ending the official practice of slavery in the United States — two and half years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation became official, on Jan. 1, 1863.
Though celebrated in Black communities for generations, the holiday has gained attention with white people only recently, and the call to recognize Juneteenth as a paid U.S. federal holiday has gained steam.
Barris is repped by CAA and Artists. Williams is with WME.
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