Emmett Till was only 14 when the black teen was brutally murdered after allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. The tragic story that galvanized the emerging Civil Rights Movement is the subject of an HBO miniseries from a A-list producing team that includes Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan.
The untitled mini, now in active development, is described as an immersive and in depth exploration of the Emmett Till story. Search is underway for a writer to pen the project, likely a six-hour miniseries, executive produced by Jay-Z and his partner Jay Brown of Roc Nation, Smith and James Lassiter of Overbrook Entertainment and Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment.
Chicago native Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi in August 1955 when he spoke and possibly flirted with Carolyn Bryant, the 21-year-old White co-owner of a local grocery store, reportedly asking her on a date. Several nights later, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till’s great-uncle’s house, forcefully took him and tortured him before shooting him in the head throwing his body in the Tallahatchie River. read more
