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HBO pulls plug on Canadian-Somali rapper K'naan's Mogadishu, Minnesota project


Saturday September 2, 2017


"We value the relationship we've built working with the talented K'naan Warsame and hope to have a chance to work with him in the future," HBO told CBC Toronto. ((Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press))

HBO says it won't be proceeding with a proposed series by Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan about the experiences of Somalis living in America.

"Mogadishu, Minnesota will not be moving forward as a series," the company said in a statement to CBC Toronto Friday.

"We value the relationship we've built working with the talented K'naan Warsame and hope to have a chance to work with him in the future."

News of the pilot drama, written and directed by K'naan, was met with mixed reaction when it was announced in late 2015.

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Many slammed the project, which was to involve executive producer Kathryn Bigelow — who drew sharp criticism for her film Zero Dark Thirty about the hunt for Osama bin Laden — saying it would further unfair stereotypes about Somali Muslims at a time when anti-Muslim sentiment appeared to feature heavily in the then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric. 

When casting for the series was held in Toronto in December 2015, the show was billed as The Recruiters. Various U.S. media reports, including a story in The Hollywood Reporter, said then that the series would zero in on the process of recruitment of young Somali men into Islamic extremist groups.

HBO described the pilot at the time as "a family drama that grapples with what it means to be American — among the Somalis of Minneapolis." 

But many Somali-speaking youth in Toronto's Dixon Road community, a neighbourhood that K'naan once called home, told CBC Toronto at the time that K'naan's success inspired them to reach for their own dreams. 

"What I see from him is the grind," casting hopeful Husam Alaghabria said of K'naan. 

"Going from Toronto all the way to HBO, it's amazing and it lets other people know that whatever you set your mind to you can also achieve."

K'naan said last fall that he hoped the pilot would get the green light for a 10-episode inaugural season. 

The series was to be his directorial debut.



 





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