ESPN is not going to be airing the Colin Kaepernick documentary in any case.
Because of inventive variations between the community, director Spike Lee, and the previous NFL participant, ESPN will not air the docuseries.
“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively determined to not proceed with this mission on account of sure inventive variations,” ESPN stated in a press release to Selection. “Regardless of not reaching finality, we recognize all of the laborious work and collaboration that went into this movie.”
The information was first reported by Reuters after Lee informed the outlet on Friday that the documentary was not going to be launched.
“It’s not popping out. That’s all I can say,” Lee revealed at a purple carpet occasion in Beverly Hills final week. When sked to elaborate, the director stated, “I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure. I can’t discuss it.”
A supply near the mission tells Selection that the choice to not transfer ahead was made final summer time, emphasizing that it had nothing to do with the NFL, which turned a component proprietor of ESPN earlier this month. The Walt Disney Firm presently owns 80% of the sports activities broadcasting large.
The now-canceled mission was first introduced in 2020 below Kaepernick’s first-look cope with Disney via his Ra Imaginative and prescient Media manufacturing firm. In 2022, Lee bought onboard with the docuseries, which promised “in depth new interviews and an enormous never-before-seen archive to assist Kaepernick inform his story from his perspective.”
Kaepernick performed for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 till 2016. In protest of police brutality and systemic racism, he started kneeling throughout the nationwide anthem, igniting a firestorm of dialog surrounding the choice. In 2017, Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers and was not signed by one other NFL group.
He has since filed a grievance in opposition to the league, alleging collusion amongst group homeowners, which was privately settled in 2019. Kaepernick has voiced his need to proceed enjoying within the league many instances through the years, although he’s by no means been signed by a group. Within the years following his retirement from skilled soccer, he pivoted to activism via his nonprofit Know Your Rights Camp. In 2021, he co-created and narrated the restricted sequence Colin in Black and White, directed by Ava DuVernay.
It’s unclear whether or not or not the documentary will discover a dwelling elsewhere. Again in September, Puck Information reported the mission confronted delays amid disagreements between Kaepernick and Lee, and that ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro was open to permitting the filmmakers to buy it elsewhere.
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