*During HBO’s presentation at the Television Critics Association Press Tour on Wednesday (July 26), Mahershala Ali was confirmed to star in “True Detective” season three, and HBO Original Programming chief Casey Bloys admitted that the initial press release for “Confederate” (which reimagines contemporary America with the South having seceded from the Union and slavery still in tact) was misguided.
Bloys denied that the “Confederate” project from “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would be as over the top as critics had painted it.
“The producers have said they’re not looking to do ‘Gone With the Wind’ 2017,” Bloys said. “It’s not whips and plantations. It’s what they imagine a modern day institution of slavery would look like.”
A panel was also held for “Baltimore Rising,” HBO’s documentary on the city in the wake of the unrest sparked by the 2015 death of African-American man Freddie Gray while in police custody.
Director Sonja Sohn, a co-star of HBO’s “The Wire,” took on the project as a means of highlighting the grassroots work that is being done to advance social justice in the city. Amid the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, “people in Baltimore were engaging in a much more sophisticated argument than I was hearing in other cities,” Sohn said.
Baltimore activists Kwame Rose and Makayla Gilliam-Price and Baltimore Police community policing chief Melvin Russell, all featured in the film, also spoke about the importance of focusing on change at the local level, as “Baltimore Rising” documents.
“There is a lot of good work happening in Baltimore that gets zero coverage,” Rose said.
In confirming Mahershala Ali for season three of “True Detective,” Bloys said he’s already seen five scripts: “I’m very very impressed and excited about what I’ve read. I don’t want to give away the storyline, but I really think they’re terrific.”
Bloys added the network is currently searching for directors, which would appear to be the final step before scoring an official greenlight, notes Variety.
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