Following his breakout success with the Lakeith Stanfield-led satire Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley is coming back with a new coming-of-age comedy series I’m a Virgo led by Emmy winner Jharrel Jerome (When They See Us), which has just been acquired by Amazon Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Created, written and directed by Riley in its entirety, the coming-of-age tale centers on a 13-foot-tall Black man (Jerome) living in Oakland, California, with the tone of the 13-episode series once again featuring an absurdist comedic tone akin to Riley’s feature directorial debut.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Amazon on this project,” Riley said. “This show will either have me lauded or banned, and as such, I have demanded payment up front.“
The Coup frontman and co-former of the Street Sweeper Social Club inked a script deal with Media Res for the project in 2018 and spent the last two years developing the title following the release of Sorry and is currently set to executive produce the series alongside Media Res’ Michael Ellenberg, star Jerome and Tze Chun (Little America), while Media Res (The Morning Show) will serve as the studio for the series alongside Amazon.
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Following his acclaimed debut in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in 2016, Jerome landed a main role in both the series adaptation of Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes and Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five Netflix series When They See Us, which netted the 23-year-old an Emmy for his performance. He will next be seen alongside Idris Elba (Hobbs & Shaw) and Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things) in the upcoming Western drama Concrete Cowboy, which debuted to highly positive reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival and is set to debut on Netflix in 2021.
(Photo Credits: Getty Images)
