HBO exec: Slave drama ‘Confederate’ announcement mishandled
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — HBO’s programming chief said the cable channel erred in how it unveiled plans for a series envisioning modern Southern slavery, but he defended “Confederate” against sharp criticism it drew on social media.
“I would file this under, ‘hindsight is 20-20,’” programming president Casey Bloys said Wednesday. HBO was misguided in expecting that “we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive and requires so much care and thought on the part of the producers in a press release.”
If HBO got a do-over, it would have given producers the chance to publicly detail why they wanted to do the series, an understanding that HBO executives had gained before greenlighting the series from “Game of Thrones” masterminds David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Benioff and Weiss, who are white, also will serve as showrunners on the series. They’ll work with Malcolm Spellman (“Empire,” the forthcoming “Foxy Brown”) and Nichelle Tramble Spellman (“Justified,” ”The Good Wife”), husband-and-wife TV veterans who both are black and who will be fellow executive producers and writers on the new series.