Cortés Filmworks and Blue Ant Studios will Develop and Produce Scripted and Non-Scripted Series and Narrative Works
Projects in Development Include a Docuseries Adaptation of Clover Hope’s The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop and Scripted Projects No Retreat and Little Apple
Lisa Cortés; Credit: Paul Morejón
(Los Angeles, CA – April 20, 2022) – Award-winning production company Blue Ant Studios, a Blue Ant Media company, today announced a new first-look deal with Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy Award®-winning producer and director Lisa Cortés. Under this new deal, Cortés will work with Blue Ant Studios to develop and produce new scripted and unscripted properties spanning documentary, music, history and biography, and narrative.
As part of their collaboration, Cortés and Blue Ant are developing a docuseries based on Clover Hope’s critically acclaimed book The Motherlode: The 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop. Other projects in progress under the new deal include scripted series No Retreat, an action-packed drama about Black and Indigenous women soldiers in Europe during World War II, and Little Apple, a sci-fi/dramedy created by Riley S. Wilson about a little girl in Harlem who happens to be a superhero. Additional projects will be announced in the coming months.
“Throughout my career, I have been passionate about telling complex, powerful stories from new perspectives,” said Cortés. “Cortés Filmworks is committed to inclusivity, and to elevating talent often overlooked by the mainstream. This collaboration with a company leading in dynamic, impactful genre-spanning content is exciting, and I look forward to developing a diverse slate of scripted and unscripted projects with the Blue Ant team.”
“Lisa is a creative powerhouse who has an incredible eye for vibrant, visionary stories that are of our time. She brings curiosity and a wonderful range of talent to her projects. The impact of her work is inspiring,” said Laura Michalchyshyn, Chief Creative Officer and Co-President, Blue Ant Studios. “We are already developing several exciting projects together and are honored to collaborate with her to bring culturally relevant and talent-driven projects to life.”
Recent standout series from Blue Ant Studios include the upcoming docuseries The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks (Prime Video), Canada’s Drag Race (with Saloon Media for Crave) and Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell (Peacock). The deal underscores Blue Ant’s continued expansion of its dynamic production business, and is its latest in a series of development initiatives that champion innovative and progressive women-led content.
Independent from her collaboration with Blue Ant, upcoming film directing credits for Lisa Cortés include Little Richard: I Am Everything, a documentary about the transgressive rock ‘n’ roll icon, and The Empire of Ebony, which explores the Black publishing powerhouse that forever changed American culture. Her recent work includes Amazon Studios’ All In: The Fight For Democracy (2020); and the Emmy-winning HBO documentary The Apollo (2019). All In was shortlisted for an Oscar and nominated for BAFTA, WGA, and NAACP awards. Cortés was also executive producer of the 2009 breakout film Precious, which won two Academy Awards®.
Cortés spent her early career as a music executive at the iconic Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management. She was VP of Artist & Repertoire at Mercury Records and founded the Loose Cannon label.
Cortés is represented by Lowell Shapiro and Mike Dill of Black Box Management and Denise J. Brown.
Blue Ant Studios is represented by United Talent Agency (UTA).
Blue Ant Studios is a leading studio and production business with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. Notable series and documentaries include The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks (Amazon Prime Video), Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell (Peacock, Sky), Canada’s Drag Race (Crave for Bell Media, WOW Presents Plus) and Daytime Emmy Award-winning series The Healing Powers of Dude (Netflix). The company works with all major international streaming, cable and broadcasting companies as well as regional players in the markets it operates in. Blue Ant Studios is a subsidiary of global media company, Blue Ant Media.
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