Kenya Barris the creator of Girls Trip and Black-ish could be thinkink about jumping ships from ABC Studios to Netflix.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Barris who’s been at ABC Studios since 2015 is looking to get out of his four-year deal with the company in hopes of striking a big one with Netflix.
He’s in talks with Netflix to join Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy on the platform. Netflix is looking for a, “rare class of creators” to make content that’s, “critically and commercially successful” according to Ted Sarandos the Chief Content Officer there.
“Talks are very real,” says a source very close to Barris. This switch comes after Barris had a tough time with ABC studios last month when an episode of Black-ish was not aired. The reason being that the episode was too politically driven. Others have said it had to do with Colin Kaepernick and his protest of police brutality by taking a knee.
“Given our creative differences, neither ABC nor I were happy with the direction of the episode and mutually agreed not to air it,” Barris said on the topic. “Black-ish is a show that has spoken to all different types of people and brought them closer as a community and I’m so proud of the series.”
Barris already has a project with Netflix in the works. A reboot of the film Shaft featuring Samuel L. Jackson. He’s working on the sequel to the iconic film Coming To America. If he locks the deal done with Netflix, he can stand to make a nine-figure deal with the company just like Rhimes and Murphy.
Rhimes was let out of her deal with ABC Studios with a year remaining to her contract. If ABC Studios decides to let Barris out of his deal they will lose one of their top producers of comedy and drama.
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(Source: Hollywood Reporter)
(Danny Moloshok/Television Academy via AP, File)
