Codeblack Films has acquired the movie rights to “Angela Davis: An Autobiography” with plans to develop and produce an authorized Angela Davis biopic film, Variety has learned exclusively
The untitled film will be produced by Nina Yang Bongiovi, whose credits include “Fruitvale Station” and “Dope.” Sidra Smith, a producer on the 2012 documentary “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners,” and Codeblack Enterprises CEO Jeff Clanagan will also serve as producers on the project.
The 72-year-old Davis has been a prominent activist and radical beginning in the 1960s as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. She will serve as executive producer along with her niece Eisa Davis, who is also writing the script.
Eisa Davis was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play “Bulrusher.” She wrote and starred in the play “Angela’s Mixtape.”
Clanagan launched Codeblack Films, a division of Lionsgate, in 2012 with the mission to serve the global black community through a diversified content portfolio targeted to the underserved African-American consumer.
Codeblack acquired theatrical rights in early 2013 to “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” and partnered with BET Networks for a theatrical release. The documentary, which debuted at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, centers on Davis being implicated in murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the Marin County Courthouse hostage-taking in 1970. She was acquitted two years later.
