An ESPN docuseries on quarterback Colin Kaepernick that was being produced by acclaimed director Spike Lee and Jemele Hill is not shifting ahead.
The six-time Academy Award nominee revealed to Reuters throughout a purple carpet entrance at a fundraising dinner for the Harold and Carole Pump Basis dinner on Friday that the multi-part documentary won’t be launched.
“I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure,” he mentioned. “I can’t discuss it.”
Requested why the sequence tentatively titled “Da Saga of Colin Kaepernick” received’t be seen, Lee cited a nondisclosure settlement in speaking concerning the growth.
“I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure,” he added. “I can’t discuss it.”
ESPN issued an announcement to Reuters on Saturday in response to an inquiry concerning the docuseries’ standing.
Kaepernick performed within the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers for six seasons from 2011-16. He quarterbacked the 49ers to the 2013 NFC championship sport, the place they misplaced to the Seattle Seahawks.
Nevertheless, he’s most identified for protesting the U.S. nationwide anthem earlier than video games by taking a knee as a gesture to protest systemic racism within the tradition and police brutality.
That made him a nationally controversial determine, drawing criticism from many together with President Donald Trump, and presumably led to no NFL groups signing him after he turned a free agent. He by no means performed within the NFL once more after the 2016 season.
Final September, Puck’s Matthew Belloni reported that inventive variations between Kaepernick and Lee stalled the docuseries’ growth. Kaepernick most popular for the sequence to focus extra on his profession and private expertise. But Lee needed the scope of the undertaking to cowl wider cultural points, together with the historical past of Black athletes in skilled sports activities, social justice and police brutality.
Although the sequence was reportedly accomplished, Kaepernick held final approval over the undertaking and needed materials added to Lee’s last reduce.
The undertaking stalling over inventive variations between Kaepernick and Lee was confirmed to The Athletic, although specifics past what Belloni initially reported weren’t supplied. But as Richard Deitsch and Andrew Marchand level out, ESPN’s relationship with the NFL is totally different now than when the undertaking was initially being developed in 2022.
In an settlement value billions of {dollars}, ESPN will purchase NFL RedZone and different NFL Media properies with the NFL taking a ten% fairness stake within the community. A docuseries that doubtlessly casts the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s 32 groups in a foul mild seemingly wouldn’t be considered favorably below these circumstances. Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance towards NFL group homeowners with teammate Eric Reid. That lawsuit was finally settled in 2019.
The Kaepernick docuseries is reportedly completed or shut sufficient to the place it might air on one other community or streaming platform. In line with Belloni’s report, Kaepernick and Lee largely labored out their variations. But primarily based on the finality of Lee’s remarks to Reuters, it seems that the undertaking won’t be shopped round to different retailers.