Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter broke an interesting news exclusive; they stated that mogul Russell Simmons had just inked a deal with HBO that is a first-look deal.
After hearing that news, we immediately hit the ground running to investigate if Simmons was interested in bringing back his very popular series Def Comedy Jam that he launched in 1992 and ran to 1997 and then relaunched again 2006 to 2008. Seems like that this deal is NOT based on bringing back DCJ as a series at all.
Simmons’ new deal is only a deal that basically means HBO has the right of “first refusal” on projects Simmons proposes to develop. If HBO, after “first looking” at a proposed project, isn’t interested and declines to back it, then Simmons can offer it up to other networks.
So after digging, we discovered from talking to several of our sources that Simmons is interested in big budget films, and that this is a stepping stone for him to be able to launch them.
Either way, we will see as this story is sure to develop soon.
Leave a comment below and follow us on Twitter @thehumormill!
