Steven Soderbergh and Don Cheadle, having collaborated on the Ocean’s films, Out Of Sight, and last year’s No Sudden Move, are teaming up again.
This time to produce a HBO Max series titled The Other Hamilton chronicling the true story of Jeremiah Hamilton, a Haitian immigrant who rose the ranks of Wall Street to become the financial district’s first Black millionaire.
The show will be based on the best-selling book Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire, by Shane White. The book focuses on the story of Hamilton, who might have been a slave before making his way to Wall Street during the mid-nineteenth century.
Through questionable and often illegal methods, he rose up to accumulate the fortune of two million dollars, which made him the richest Black man in the United States at the time (that would correspond to around $250 million today).
The Prince Of Darkness nickname refers to the name Hamilton was given after his scamming of insurance companies and taking advantage of other people’s losses came to light. The working title for the Soderbergh/Cheadle series also refers to Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who was tied to finance as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Cheadle and Soderbergh have reportedly assembled a team of screenwriters for the series that includes Carlos Foglia (Lore, The Lost Symbol), Ashley Nicole Black (Ted Lasso, A Black Lady Sketch Show), and Keith Josef Atkins (The Good Fight, Outer Banks). It’s unclear right now if Cheadle is expected to star in the show.
The series is a part of Soderbergh’s three-year deal he signed with HBO and HBO Max back in 2020. That came on the heels of drama Let Them All Talk and has already given us the excellent crime thriller No Sudden Move.
His latest film KIMI, a thriller starring Zoe Kravitz, is set to premiere in February, while Soderbergh is also re-teaming with Channing Tatum for a third Magic Mike film.
Along with The Other Hamilton, expect plenty of other projects from Soderbergh to arise from this deal, as he’s notorious for working extremely fast. Which is good news for both HBO and his fans.
#Peace.Love.TheOtherHamilton
