Overbrook Entertainment executive James Lassiter is teaming up again with Jay-Z to produce a new feature film on Netflix.
Now, they are teaming up to bring to life Dwayne Alexander Smith’s novel “Forty Acres,” which will feature Luke Cage creator and Hip-Hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker at the helm of reimagining the political thriller.
Said to be a mix between “The Firm” and “Get Out,” the story follows a talented Black attorney named Martin Grey who meets a group of Black men who seem to have it all.
Impressed by their success, wealth, and assumed power he secretly wants to be included in their elite community.
This desire to be like them pushes him to accept an invitation to a weekend get-a-way … but when he gets there he realizes that they are members of a “secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery—but this time around, the Black men are called ‘Master.’”
Lassiter and the “Can’t Knock the Hustle” rapper joins Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan, Niles Kirchner, and Bill Strauss as producers. The executive producers are Dana Honor for Kapital, Smith, and Mike Epps.
Jay-Z and Lassiter also collaborated and produced “The Harder They Fall,” an all-Black western, for Netflix.
Cheo Hodari Coker is one of the most successful Hip-Hop journalists to turn his sights to film and television, having been the showrunner and EP of Netflix/Marvel’s “Luke Cage.”
He also won an NAACP Image Award for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series for “Southland,” and has feature credits that include “Creed II,” “Lowriders” and “Notorious” plus uncredited work on “Straight Outta Compton” and “All Eyez on Me.”
He also was the screenwriter for “Diary of a Trap God,” based on the Gucci Mane autobiography for Paramount/Imagine, and the sequel to the 2005 feature “Four Brothers” for Paramount.
Coker also has a multi-year television overall deal with Amazon.
