Jay Z to produce Trayvon Martin docu-series and narrative film
The rapper is producing the series with the Weinstein Company.
— -- Jay Z will produce two projects about the 2012 shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin.
A rep for the Weinstein Company confirmed to ABC News that the studio and the rapper will produce both a six-part documentary series and a narrative feature film about the Martin shooting and its aftermath.
Variety broke the news.
Martin was a 17-year-old, unarmed high school student who was shot and killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a member of a local neighborhood-watch group. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in the case, which touched off nationwide protests. Zimmerman claimed that he shot Martin in self-defense following a physical altercation.
The projects are based on two books that Jay Z and the Weinstein Company won the rights to -- "Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It" by reporter Lisa Bloom and "Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin," written by the teen's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin.
The two projects are part of Jay Z's development deal with the film studio. The deal has already resulted in one docu-series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story," which aired on Spike.
That series detailed the story of a Bronx high school student who spent three years incarcerated at New York City's Rikers Island. Browder spent two years in solitary confinement, without being convicted of a crime, when his family could not make his $3,000 bail after he was accused of stealing a backpack. He committed suicide two years after his release.