Longtime HBO collaborator Issa Rae (co-creator, Insecure) has signed a new five-year overall deal with WarnerMedia, via The Hollywood Reporter. The deal will allow the multi-hyphenate creative to develop TV projects with HBO, HBO Max, and Warner Bros. Television under her newly launched media company, Hoorae.
In addition to developing projects for television and streaming, Rae’s WarnerMedia deal includes a first-look clause for feature films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This will include films made under the WarnerMedia label including those produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Group, New Line, and HBO Max original films. According to Deadline, the overall contract is a reported eight figure deal.
Rae recently announced the creation of her new media company HOORAE on Twitter.
This new deal continues a relationship between Rae and WarnerMedia that dates back to 2016, when, via The Hollywood Reporter, Rae signed her first overall deal with the company. This first overall deal brought Rae on to adapt her web series The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl into Insecure for the premium cable channel.
Casey Bloys, the chief content officer for HBO and HBO Max, expressed the company’s eagerness to continue working with Rae. “We have been in business with Issa for more than eight years, and we couldn’t be prouder of our collaboration, Insecurewas a breakthrough series for HBO, and there is much more on the horizon. This new deal is an opportunity to leverage the strength of WarnerMedia to provide a multitude of platforms for Issa’s formidable talents as a producer and storyteller.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Rae herself made a statement regarding the deal, stating “HBO has been supportive of my work since the very first general meeting I had with Casey in 2012. I’m thrilled to not only spread my creative wings with the network that makes all of my favorite series, but also to produce culturally resonant stories with new voices that incite exciting conversations via Hoorae’s expanded relationship with all WarnerMedia platforms.” (The Hollywood Reporter)
Insecure, the show that sparked Rae’s relationship with HBO, is currently in production on its fifth and final season, via The Hollywood Reporter. Rae’s other projects with the WarnerMedia brand include A Black Lady Sketch Show, which returns with its second season in April, Rap Sh*t, which was recently given a series order by HBO Max, and The Vanishing Half adaptation which Rae is executive producing.