Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz83
Her show is named Insecure, but her money sure isn’t.
Variety broke the news that Issa Rae secured a hefty bag after re-upping her commitment to HBO with a five-year overall deal, but will now see her Hoorae media company partner with WarnerMedia as part of its cover feature featuring the actress/media mogul. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement. Still, according to Variety, the pact is valued to be at around $40 million, putting her in the company with Donald Glover. He also recently landed an eight-figure deal with Amazon Studios.
The publication reports that as part of the pact, HBO, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. television will get the rights to Issa Rae’s television shows plus a first-look film that will span across WarnerMedia brands Warner Bros. Pictures Group, New Line, and HBO Max.
Rae spoke with Variety exclusively about the new deal stating:
“It’s really exciting to have that flexibility and just deepen the relationship that we already have. Hoorae already had at least 15 projects in various stages of development with them, so we’d been working with them on the drama side, the unscripted side, and the documentaries side for a couple years now.”
“When people believe in you and build with you, I tend to want to further that relationship. That’s just been a staple of mine with so many of the people that I work with.”
HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys spoke on why it was important for HBO to prioritize keeping Rae onboard, adding:
“She’s obviously very talented and she’s very prolific, It’s been very good to work with Issa personally, but also as a company, because she’s seeded a lot of talent elsewhere.”
“It’s an indicator of passion. Insecure always scores very high when it’s on and I think that says a lot about the fan base, that she’s telling a story that a lot of people want to hear.”
Rae is currently hard at work on the final season of her hit HBO Dramedy, Insecure, plus the second season of Robin Thede’s A Black Lady Sketch Show which Rae serves as an executive producer on, is set to drop April 23.
Other forthcoming television products include docuseries Seen & Heard and drama centered around backyard wrestling called Tre Cnt produced with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Seven Bucks production company at HBO plus her new Hip-Hop-inspired HBO Max comedy Rap Sh*t. Rae will also be back on the silver screen with her forthcoming and highly debated remake of Set It Off, which is being developed by her company Hoorae and distributed through New Line.
Issa Rae joins the already talented pool of directors HBO has been collecting, like Infinity Stones, including J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot company and Greg Berlanti.
Big congrats to Issa Rae.
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Photo: Bernard Smalls/ @PhotosByBeanz83
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