There had been rumors of Caple being presented with opportunities to helm a couple major Hollywood blockbusters, but Caple told Scene that he’s being selective about his next projects. He’s still intent on honing his voice as a filmmaker before he becomes beholden to franchises.
But the latest announcement — from Deadline — certifies Caple’s big-league cred. He has been hired as the writer of an HBO miniseries about Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for flirting with a white girl. Till’s murder is considered an important landmark in the mobilizing of the Civil Rights movement, as it demonstrated the depravity of violence against blacks in America.
The miniseries is being produced by a roster of glitzy A-listers: Will Smith, Jay-Z, Casey Affleck, Aaron Kaplan. The script will be based on source material from Devery Anderson’s book, Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked The World And Propelled The Civil Rights Movement.
Caple told Scene in an interview earlier this summer that he’s been a die-hard Will Smith fan since his youth, so the opportunity to collaborate with Smith, for HBO, is not only an enormous step for Cleveland’s native son, but the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2016.
