UPDATING: Exit Georgia for Emancipation is now official. Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua said, “Right now, the nation is coming to terms with its history and trying to eliminate vestiges of institutional racism in order to achieve true racial justice. We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government enacting regressive voting laws designed to restrict voter access. Georgia’s new voting laws are reminiscent of ballot barriers passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to move our film production operations from Georgia to another state. You can read the release at the bottom of the original break.
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EXCLUSIVE, 5:45 AM, PST: Apple’s runaway slave thriller Emancipation will change its plan to shoot in Georgia today, due to the controversial state’s restrictive electoral law signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp. I’ve heard that the movie – Antoine Fuqua directs Will Smith from a William N. Collage script – will probably instead be shot in Louisiana, where the actual events of the thriller took place. The move will cost production somewhere in the $ 15 million range, due to the loss of the lucrative tax cuts that have made Georgia such a busy US manufacturing hub.
This move comes after weeks of discussions between filmmakers and film officials in Georgia and Louisiana, and with political leaders in Georgia like Stacey Abrams. Along with Tyler Perry and several others, Abrams has urged Hollywood not to uproot its productions in response to the passage of a restrictive electoral law that followed President Joe Biden’s election victory. Emancipation probably won’t predict an exodus from Georgia. This is a special case where the optics of shooting in Georgia would be difficult given the subject. Wearing the familiar Peach symbol on this particular Apple movie could undermine the power of the movie’s subject matter.
Smith will play Peter, a slave who fled a Louisiana plantation after being whipped within inches of his life. He had to outsmart cold-blooded hunters and the brutal swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey north. There he joined the Union army. The thriller is based on his true story, seared into the annals of history by an indelible image; When Peter showed his bare back during an Army medical exam, photos were taken of the scars of a whip delivered by a superintendent on John and Bridget Lyons’ plantation who nearly killed him. When the photo – which became known as “the lashed back” – was published by The Independent in May 1863 and subsequently in the Harper’s Weekly issue of July 4, it became indisputable proof of the cruelty and barbarity of slavery in America. The picture reached all over the world. It cemented the cause of abolitionists and prompted many free blacks to join the Union military.
Apple bought the movie package in stiff competition last June, beating out Warner Bros in a deal worth about $ 130 million including back-end buyouts. It’s a passionate project for Smith and Fuqua, the deal taking place in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder that sparked Black Lives Matter’s nationwide protests.
“It was the first viral image of the brutality of slavery the world saw,” Fuqua told me last year. “Which is interesting, if you put it into perspective with today and social media and with what the world sees, again. You can’t restore the past, but you can remind people of the past and I think we need to do that in an accurate, real way. We all need to look for a better future for all of us, for everyone. That’s one of the main reasons for doing things right now is showing our history. We must face our truth before we can move on. “
The Emancipation deal set a record for a festival purchase. While another deal broke Deadline recently – that Netflix has acquired two Knives out sequels for over $ 400 million became the biggest streamer deal of all time, Emancipation remains a rich package. The filmmakers and Apple were captivated by the optics of shooting the expensive message film in Georgia after the state responded by going from red to blue in the presidential election by enacting restrictive electoral laws. Those include stricter ID rules for absentee ballots, limiting the use of drop boxes, enabling election council officials to override local governments, and making it a crime to offer food or water to voters in line. Critics widely derided it as an attempt to make voting more difficult for black and other Georgian minority residents, all in response to President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him.
Stay tuned.
FUQUA FILMS AND WESTBROOK INC. INCREASE FILM PRODUCTION OF “EMANCIPATION” FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA AS A RESULT OF NEW VOICE RESTRICTIONS
DATE: April 12, 2021
Director / Producer Antoine Fuqua and his Fuqua Films and Actor / Producer Will Smith and his media company Westbrook Inc. have decided to move production of their upcoming film EMANCIPATION out of the state of Georgia due to the new voting restrictions passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor.
Fuqua and Smith stated, “Right now, the nation is coming to terms with its history and trying to eliminate remnants of institutional racism in order to achieve true racial justice. We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that enacts regressive voting laws designed to restrict voter access. Georgia’s new voting laws are reminiscent of ballot barriers passed at the end of Reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting. Unfortunately, we feel compelled to move our film production operations from Georgia to another state. “
Fuqua directed Denzel Washington to the lead actor’s Academy Award for Training Day and earned an Emmy in 2020 for his film Muhammad Ali: What’s My Name. His recent film projects include directing The Equalizer, Equalizer 2 and as executive producer of the television series The Resident.
Emancipation was scheduled to begin filming on June 21, 2021. Smith will play the lead role. Fuqua will direct.
Based on a script by William N. Collage, the film stars Smith as Peter, a fugitive from slavery on a poignant journey north of Louisiana. The character ‘Whipped Peter’ was an enslaved person who emancipated himself from a southern plantation and joined the Union Army. In 1863, photos of Peter during an Army medical examination first appeared in the July 4 issue of Harper’s Weekly. Known as “The Scourged Back,” an image shows Peter’s bare back, mutilated by a flogging that was delivered to the plantation of slaves John and Bridget Lyons.