The documentary series in several parts of the director Spike Lee for the ESPN films on the former quarter of the NFL Colin Kaepernick, which sparked a national debate when it protested racial injustice almost a decade, will not be published, said the filmmaker and ESPN.
“ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided not to make this project anymore following certain creative differences,” ESPN said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. “Although he did not reach the finality, we appreciate all the hard work and the collaboration that have entered this film.”
Lee told Reuters on Friday that the series was not going to go out.
“It does not come out. That’s all I can say,” Lee said on the red carpet before the Harold and Carole Pump Foundation dinner, a fundraising for research and treatment of cancer, in Beverly Hills, California.
When asked why the Oscar-winning director refused to draw up, citing a non-divulgation agreement. “I can’t. I signed a non-divulgation. I can’t talk about it. ”
Kaepernick sparked a national debate in 2016 when he knelt during the American national anthem to protest against systemic racism and police brutality. The 37 -year -old has not played in the NFL since this season. Many experts thought that his political activism, which sparked a movement that attracted Donald Trump’s anger, was the main reason why the teams were wary of signing it. He then filed a grievance of collusion against the team owners, which was settled with the League in 2019.
Kaepernick representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The production of the series began in 2022, with ESPN belonging to Walt Disney praising it as a “full story and first -person” of Kaepernick’s trip which would offer in -depth interviews with the player.
Last year, Puck News reported that the project was faced with delays in the midst of disagreements between Kaepernick and Lee in the direction of the film.
I am grateful to be able to work with the Spike Lee legend in my Docu series. THANKS @Jemelehill To be part of our incredible team. It is time for the story to be corrected. https://t.co/jgazlkmvx4 pic.twitter.com/9sqmyfa4rv
– Colin Kaepernick (@ kaepernick7) February 3, 2022
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The series is co -produced by Jemele Hill, a former ESPN journalist who was suspended by the network in 2017, after suggesting that fans who did not agree with the criticism of the NFL players taking the knee of the owner of the Dallas Cowboys should boycott the advertisers of the team. A month earlier, she had rabid the White House when she tweeted: “Donald Trump is a white supremacist who largely surrounded himself with other white supremacists.”
The network’s decision to delete the series comes as the Trump administration continued broadcasters who have critically reported the president and pushed private companies and schools to end the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that the government now defines as illegal discrimination against white Americans.
In December, ABC Disney News agreed to pay $ 15 million to a foundation and a museum to be established by Trump as part of a defamation trial that Trump brought against the network.
