It’s official: Ava DuVernay is now a mogul. The award-winning multi-hyphenate has inked her first studio pact and it’s massive. DuVernay signed a $100 million production and development deal with Warner Bros. Television, Deadline confirms. It will see the “Queen Sugar” creator developing a bevy of new projects — drama, comedy, event series, docs, digital content, and more — for broadcast, cable, premium cable, streaming services, and other platforms via her Forward Movement banner.
Warner Bros. TV is the distributor behind “Red Line,” DuVernay’s upcoming CBS drama. It traces the effect a racially-charged shooting has on three families.
“I’ve had nothing but beautiful experiences working with Peter Roth, Susan Rovner, and Brett Paul,” DuVernay said. “They love and support artists in wonderful and nourishing ways. They work within a traditional studio headed by Kevin Tsujihara that is stirring with untraditional energy and fresh protocols for intentional, inclusive image-making. Warner Bros is a terrific partner about matters of visibility and belonging for all kinds and cultures of people, which is our mission at Forward Movement. I couldn’t be happier to call Warner Bros. TV my production home.”
“Ava DuVernay is one of the leading lights in our industry, a brilliantly talented writer, producer, director, and entrepreneur whose ability to inspire with her art is exceeded only by her ability to entertain,” stressed Peter Roth, Warner Bros. TV Group president and chief content officer. “We have had the great pleasure of working with her on ‘Queen Sugar’ and ‘The Red Line,’ and we are extremely excited about the new stories she has to tell.”
“Queen Sugar” has been renewed for a fourth season on OWN. A Netflix miniseries about the Central Park Five, a Prince docuseries, and an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s “Dawn” are among the TV projects on her slate. She’s also set to direct “The New Gods” for the big screen, a DC Comics adaptation about a group of deities who come into existence after the gods of classic mythology are killed. It marks the second time DuVernay has helmed a $100 million film. She became the first black woman to do so with this year’s “A Wrinkle in Time.”
DuVernay’s deal with Warner Bros. TV would be exciting enough on its own, but it’s especially thrilling thanks to her history of supporting women and people of color in the industry. Her film collective, ARRAY, distributes films about and from women and POC, and “Queen Sugar” has been helmed entirely by women. We know DuVernay will use this pact to similarly spread the wealth — and our content is sure to reap the benefits.
