Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is teaming up with American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson director Anthony Hemingway and Amazon Studios for the college football drama Work Horses.
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The Emmy-winning director, who also directed the 2012 war drama Red Tails, will be working on the film penned by Matthew King that gives audiences a look at the competitive but not paying world of college football, as well as working towards exposing the flaws in the system that benefits from players who are frequently struggling with making ends meet off of the field.
NFL MVPs Rodgers and Desmond Howard, who also holds a Heisman trophy and is currently an ESPN analyst, will executive produce the film alongside Ryan Rottman (Billionaire Boys Club) and Hemingway will produce the project with former LSU receiver Abram Booty and Nate Raabe.
“It is my hope that Work Horses will help shed more light on a topic I’ve been addressing on television for a dozen years,” added College Football Hall of Famer Howard. “I want to continue to be a voice for the players and fight for systemic changes.”
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The project marks Amazon’s continuing investment in one of America’s most popular sports, having had multiple documentaries and streaming NFL games during the week.
“It speaks to the rigors of college athletics and the pressures and difficulties these young men face,” The Wire and Underground alum Hemingway said of the project. “I’m extremely excited to delve into this world of class, power and justice with ex-journalist Matt King as our writer.”
King, a former contributor for the now-dead newspaper The Village Voice, is currently working on the music drama Idol with Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee) set to star and produce and Netflix in negotiations for distributing the project.
The announcement was made via Deadline.
(Photo credit: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
