Will Smith leads the Netflix production of The Council. He will take on the role of New York City crime boss Nicky Barnes. The project will re-team Smith with Concussion helmer Peter Landesman, who wrote the screenplay for the new film and will executive produce.
Landesman’s script tells the story of a crime syndicate consisting of seven African-American men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early ’80s. No ordinary crime syndicate, the men dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game.
The movie centers on the Shakespearean court intrigue between The Council’s king, Nicky Barnes, dubbed “Mr. Untouchable” by the New York Times, and all the different members as one unlikely rising protégé emerges.
source
Landesman’s script tells the story of a crime syndicate consisting of seven African-American men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early ’80s. No ordinary crime syndicate, the men dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game.
The movie centers on the Shakespearean court intrigue between The Council’s king, Nicky Barnes, dubbed “Mr. Untouchable” by the New York Times, and all the different members as one unlikely rising protégé emerges.
source
