OWN announces new scripted series ‘Kings of Napa’ from ‘Claws’ showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois
The show will focus on the family drama behind a Napa Valley winery
OWN has been on a roll with scripted shows including the ever-popular Queen Sugar and its newest show Delilah and it looks like that run will continue. The network announced yesterday that a new scripted series, The Kings of Napa, has been greenlit.
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The show was created by Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker) and its first two episodes will be directed by Matthew Cherry, the Oscar-winning director of Hair Love.
Production is expected to begin later this year and the show will drop in 2022.
This is the show synopsis, according to OWN:
“The Kings of Napa” is focused on a gorgeous and picturesque Napa Valley, California, vineyard owned by the Kings, an aspirational African American family whose wealth and status lands them on the pages of design magazines and society pages. The wine business has brought the family success and acclaim, but following the patriarch’s sudden exit from the company, his three children must grapple for the reigns to the kingdom — to their own power, wealth and legacy.”
“We’ve been captivated for years by Janine’s incredible body of work and welcome her into OWN’s family of dynamic drama storytellers,” said Tina Perry, president of OWN said in the release. “Janine’s created compelling characters that hook viewers right from the start, and we can’t wait for her to dive in with this bold and sexy new series.”
Barrois is new to the OWN family but not to the business. She was an executive producer for the long-running TV shows Criminal Minds and ER, and her short film French Fries explored the power dynamic between a Black married couple trying to both realize their entrepreneurial aspirations.
She told Black Girl Nerds in 2018 that women directors and producers were at the forefront of a new era with a wealth of new stories to take on.
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“For so long men have dictated what we saw onscreen,” Barrois said. “They ran all the television rooms and got all the opportunities. Women have so much to say and it’s time we take center stage in telling those stories. Our view of the world is so layered and when we don’t have to stifle it by tending to the patriarchy, our possibilities are endless. And when you look at women of color, I mean shut the front door. We have been so marginalized that there are hundreds of voices and missed stories that need to hit the screen. We just need people to help us get those stories on the air or on the big screen.”
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