So, Nate Parker is trying to make a comeback.
The disgraced filmmaker and actor, whose directorial debut, The Birth of a Nation, tanked due to the resurfacing of a rape accusation and trail, is plotting a return via web series.
The Oprah Winfrey-co-signed film, The Birth of a Nation, which had the biggest Sundance buy to-date with $17.5 million, ended up becoming a box office disappointment and soiled Oscar campaigns for the film as a whole, Parker himself and those of actresses Gabrielle Union and Aja Naomi King. The film went from being considered an Oscars sweep amid #OscarsSoWhite…and ended up folding completely. Since this time, Parker has kept a low profile.
Parker, whose scandal predated #MeToo and #TimesUp by nearly two years, faced a slew of controversy from a 17-year-old rape case while he was a student-athlete at Penn State. His rape accuser went on to commit suicide. Parker was acquitted and has maintained that he was “unjustly charged.” Union, who also starred in The Birth of a Nation and is also a sexual assault survivor, wrote a powerful LA Times essay in response to the controversy titled “I cannot take Nate Parker rape allegations lightly.”
During this time, Parker was also facing scrutiny due to resurfaced interviews in which made homophobic comments, including that he would never take a gay role in order to preserve the black man.
Now, two years later, THR is reporting that Parker is putting together a digital series called Baselines. It is about “a Los Angeles family intent on protecting their son and his basketball dreams from the dangers of inner-city life.”
THR’s report says auditions for Baselines will begin this week, and they note that Parker is not trying to do this project in secret, but his name appears on the casting call with mention of The Birth of a Nation.
The storyline will follow a tight-knit family as they struggle to “protect its aspiring pro basketball player from the dangers of inner city Los Angeles.” Parker is directing and writing “this raw beautiful story about family, passion and betrayal,” reads the breakdown, which goes on to detail that the project is in the vein of such films and TV shows as Animal Kingdom, Queen Sugar, Sons of Anarchy and American Honey.
The ultimate goal, according to the breakdown, is for the web series to get picked up somewhere as a series. Also per the breakdown, name actors are considered for a diverse case of “primarily black/African-American” actors that look “as if I pulled them from the streets to be in this. Raw, gritty, not-insecure.”
Parker nor his representatives responded to comment for the THR report.