Freeform is looking to have a series on the Black Panther Party.

Party Girls is being developed at the network from Laurence Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy Productions, which also produces black-ish and grown-ish. 

The project has a script-to-series commitment, which means if the script is good for the network, then it can bypass the pilot step and go ahead to series.

It is a “half-hour, single-camera dramedy inspired by the true story of Ericka Suzanne, daughter of the first female leader of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown. Set in Oakland in the ’70s, Party Girls will follow Ericka’s attempt to survive her adolescence as her mother rises in the Party. The plot explores an unconventional mother-daughter relationship, balancing the stakes of the movement with the humor inherent in coming-of-age, and asking the question how do you rebel when your mom is leading a rebellion?”

Dayna Lynne North is writing the pilot script and will serve as exec producer/showrunner if it goes to series.

The series is also from Platform One Media.  Elisa Ellis of Platform One Media, Fishburne and Helen Sugland of Cinema Gypsy and Lance Krall and Peter Siaggas of Picture It Productions are exec producers.

 

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Memoir of Elaine Brown, the only woman to lead the Black Panther Party, set to be adapted for film