Former National Basketball Assn. star Baron Davis launched No Label Productions and is developing movie projects with Issa Rae and Amy Pascal.
Davis has teamed with Hollywood veterans Bryan Smiley, who worked at Fox Digital and New Regency, and Zennen Clifton, whose resume includes Yahoo and WME. Their focus is music and urban-driven films across linear and digital platforms aimed at younger audiences.
“We picked the name No Label because we wanted to emphasize that we’re looking for diverse content and we’re nimble,” Davis said.
No Label has teamed with Rae, co-creator and star of HBO’s “Insecure,” on the movie project “Feud.” The story centers on a dysfunctional African-American family going on a road trip to play for a game show in order to win enough money to keep their struggling restaurant afloat.
Rae is producing through her Color Creative banner. She is not attached to star or write.
No Label is partnered with Pascal, the former Sony Pictures chief who segued into a producing deal, on the drama “Ghost,” centered on a young black American male juggling life between his home neighborhood that is stricken with violence and gang activity, and the private school that he attends with affluent people blind to the realities of his home life. The young man’s journey in learning to deal in both worlds takes a toll on his psychological advancement when he meets a mysterious man, Ghost, which changes his life.
Pascal told Variety that she’s known Davis since he was a student at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Calif.
“I’m doing this because I love Baron Davis and just believe in the guy,” she added. “He’s very committed to making this work.”
Davis retired from the NBA in 2012 and has been active since in producing documentaries including the documentary “The Drew: No Excuse, Just Produce”; the Emmy-nominated documentary “Crips and Bloods: Made in America,” an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival, and “Sole Man,” an installment of “30 for 30” for ESPN.
Source: Variety
