EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Carnahan (House of Lies), Emmy nominee Nadia Hallgren (Becoming), and Ben Crump are developing the legal series Stokes, based on Crump’s life and work as a civil rights attorney. The series will also follow Crump and his team as they travel the country fighting to change the problems within the justice system.
Carnahan, creator and showrunner of Stokes, developed the script with Hallgren. Crump and Carnahan’s producing partner, Joel Ehninger, will executive produce.
“Working with Ben Crump is a stark rebuttal of the old saying about never meeting your heroes. Three years in, through a documentary and this wonderful scripted series, Stokes, Ben is more my hero than ever, and his work has undoubtedly changed the culture,” said Carnahan in a statement to Deadline.
Added Hallgren, “Ben Crump is one of the most nuanced, complex, and interesting characters I’ve ever met. The last two years I’ve spent documenting Ben during this historical time, gave me a front row seat to his singular perspective. Ben brings together the history of America with the present moment in unimaginable ways and I’m thrilled to be working with Matthew Carnahan to share this story through a scripted narrative format.”
Carnahan, alongside Kenya Barris and Roger Ross Williams, serve as executive producers on Hallgren’s documentary about Crump that will be released via Netflix.
Crump is the founder and principal owner of Ben Crump Law. He most recently represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. In recognition for his work advocating for social justice, he earned the nickname “Black America’s Attorney General”.
Through his entertainment company, Brooklyn Media, he is executive producing the upcoming John Lewis-inspired film Freedom Ride with The Hideaway Entertainment, and Inde Film Company. He was an executive producer of the Paramount+ documentary, Woman In Motion: She Changed The Face of Space, Who Killed Tupac for A&E, and Evidence of Innocence for TV One.
He is repped by UTA and Artistry Collective.
Hallgren is an award-winning filmmaker and director of photography. She served as the director of Netflix’s Becoming, a documentary about former First Lady Michelle Obama. The project received four Emmy nods including two for Hallgren, Best Directing and Cinematography.
She is repped by WME and Granderson Des Rochers.
Carnahan is best known for creating, showrunning, executive producing, and directing Showtime’s House of Lies, the Nat Geo limited series Valley of the Boom, and Dirt on FX. He is currently developing a project that’s under wraps at Netflix as well as adapting his novel Serpent Girl for ITV
He is with ICM Partners, Lighthouse Management and Media, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
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