Russell Westbrook’s time in Oklahoma City as a member of the Thunder is in the rearview of his basketball career, but the mark he made in the community there is still felt to this day, and it’s clear the impact Oklahoma had on him has influenced him off the court as well. Westbrook will help create a docuseries that looks at one of the most vile instances of racism in the history of the United States, a massacre in Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.
According to Variety, Westbrook will work with Stanley Nelson and Blackfin — who produced Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez Netflix — on a project titled Terror In Tulsa: The Rise And Fall of Black Wall Street.
The series is described as both an exploration of America’s past, and also a “urgent, sobering look at the social, economic and political lines that continue to divide the country.” It will inter-weave both past and present-day narratives in order to investigate the tragic event and its continuing impact.
Westbrook, who led a Black Lives Matter protest in Compton over the weekend, explained the importance of the project to him after learning about a brutal chapter of American history that’s often forgotten.
“Spending 11 years in Oklahoma opened my eyes to the rich and sordid history of the state,” Westbrook said according to Variety. “When I learned about the heartbreaking events that happened in Tulsa nearly 100 years ago, I knew this was a story I wanted to tell. It’s upsetting that the atrocities that transpired then, are still so relevant today. It’s important we uncover the buried stories of African Americans in this country. We must amplify them now more than ever if we want to create change moving forward.”
For Nelson, the project will entail telling the story of those who died and the subsequent coverup that’s largely shielded its retelling as Americans learn about their history.
“There is no story more poignant or relevant to the racially charged events unfolding before us today, the frustration, the outrage, the outcry for justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing,” Nelson said in a statement. “The story of Tulsa reveals a significant chapter in the American experience leading up to this moment. It is a story that needs to be treated with dignity, grounded in cultural authenticity, and portrayed with historical accuracy in order to truly understand the impact it has had on our nation. From the cover-ups of the massacre in 1921, to the uncovering of the mass graves left in its wake, the story of Tulsa is the harsh example of not only the history of violence against black people in America, but also the great American sin of burying it out of sight, and pretending that it never happened. For many, it is hard to believe such an atrocity occurred. For others, these atrocities are simply part of the American journey.”
It’s unclear when the series will hit screens, but Nelson is expected to direct while Westbrook serves as an executive producer.
Most of the NBA will soon head to Orlando to form a 22-team bubble league with the aim to crown a 2019-20 champion. However, uncertainty looms on a number of fronts, including some of the logistics of how games will be broadcast across the country. Considering one of the main reasons to convene the bubble at all is to generate the revenue from television and the potential for immense fan interest, it stands to reason that considerable interest will be paid to what the television product looks like. This week, however, word broke from a prominent source that broadcasters may not be dealing with “normal” circumstances, even above and beyond the reality of fan-less games.
In an interview with Tom Byrne and Amin Elhassan on SiriusXM NBA Radio (h/t The Athletic), TNT play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan revealed some details about what the network will be dealing with and it doesn’t necessarily include integration into the bubble from the outset.
“What I’ve heard from the folks at TNT is we will be in the studios in Atlanta and they will set up as close to possible a broadcast table like we would have courtside,” Harlan said. “We will have, I’m assuming, crowd noise pumped into our headsets. I think for the viewer, I don’t think it’s going to seem dramatically different. Now you’re not going to have courts that you recognize from Milwaukee or Los Angeles or Boston, so that’s going to be a little bit weird. But if we’re all just kind of sitting there watching, I don’t know that we’ll really notice a great deal of difference.”
The buzz about crowd noise certainly isn’t new and, even if the NBA tries it and ends up pulling the plug, there won’t be a lot of damage done. With that said, Harlan’s assertion that broadcasters won’t be present is definitely interesting, even when accounting for recent examples (such as ESPN’s broadcasts of KBO games) of announcers operating effectively from studio environments rather than on-site.
It should be noted, though, that Harlan and his colleagues could be heading to Orlando later in the playoffs, even if not until the conference finals.
“The one thing I have heard is that not until the conference finals would there be any consideration for broadcasters being in this setting,” Harlan said. “That might be the first time that an actual broadcaster might be on-site, doing a conference final, and of course, the NBA Finals.”
Very little about the NBA’s bubble setting will be “normal” when compared to life before COVID-19. At the same time, there have been some positive reviews for KBO, Bundesliga, and Turner’s “The Match” in recent days and, considering the effectiveness and professionalism of broadcasters like Harlan, it feels safe to assume that remote broadcasts will be able to capture the moment in an appropriate manner.
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“ Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return,” a spokesperson said.
Like most non-drive-in movie theaters in the Untied States, AMC movie theaters remain closed even as some parts of the country ease restrictions imposed to safeguard from the COVID-19 pandemic. And now we know just how much that has cost the theater chain: billions.
According to AMC’s first quarter filings, the rumors of “substantial doubt” AMC can survive the pandemic appear to be accurate. The company reported first quarter losses of $2.2 billion on Tuesday, according to Variety.
In a statement, the company said it is focused on its liquidity as it looks to fully reopen worldwide in July. Last week, the company said in filings that there were bankruptcy concerns, noting that “substantial doubt exists” about its ability to be “a going concern.”
“These are truly unprecedented times,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “We are confident we are taking the necessary steps on a broad array of fronts to ensure AMC’s future success as we navigate these turbulent and uncertain times.”
Hollywood effectively shut down due to coronavirus, with no new movies in production and most slated for release getting pushed to the fall. As the coronavirus pandemic spread and theaters shut down, the chain’s very profitable Stubs A-List subscription program was paused as well. The company has a fairly new on-demand streaming service of its own, but it clearly can’t make up the losses of hundreds of theaters sitting silent while months of rent and other overhead piles up.
AMC banned Universal Studios films in the middle of its closures after the studio found success outside of the theater model by releasing Trolls World Tour exclusively on-demand. The true fallout from all of that is yet to be determined, as is whether there will be the same number of AMC theaters to release movies in when they can reopen.
In an earnings call with analysts shortly after numbers were disclosed, Aron downplayed suggestions that the company might be forced to contend with a cash crunch.
“In the end, AMC will both succeed and prosper,” he said.
What’s clear right now is that AMC is taking massive losses while they remain dark, and despite hopes they can reopen in July it will be an uncertain recovery once people can go back to the movies. Or even whether they will once it’s safe to do so.
[via Variety]