Hulu has ordered a scripted drama series based on the true stories of the Wu-Tang Clan. This may very well be the streaming serviceโs answer to Netflixโs hip-hop content push. With ten episodes on deck, it will draw inspiration from the philosophical books The Wu-Tang Manual and Tao Of Wu, both written by de-facto leader RZA.
Titled Wu-Tang: An American Saga, this project will see Alex Tse (Watchmen, SuperFly) collaborate with RZA himself behind the cameras and in the writing room. RZA and Tse will also serve as an executive producer alongside Method Man and Brian Grazer (Empire, Genius). GZA, Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, as well as the Estate of Olโ Dirty Bastard are also on-board as consulting producers.
The first episodes will be set in New York during the 1990s โโฆ at the height of the crack cocaine epidemicโฆโ. We can expect to witness the formation of the Clan from the vision of a one Bobby Digs (aka RZA). Digs/RZA will โโฆ [strive] to unite a dozen young black men who are torn between music and crimeโฆโ, before their eventual and meteoric rise in becoming โโฆ the unlikeliest of American success storiesโฆโ.
โWu-Tang, through our music, has always strove to inspire as we entertain,โ says RZA.
โThis opportunity to continue the Wu saga in a ten-episode series will exponentially increase our inspirational style of entertainment. In the immortal words of [Olโ Dirty Bastard], โWu-Tang is for the Children.โโ
โImagine: Hulu and Wu-Tang โ Iโm thrilled with this collaboration,โ says Method Man.
โThis is a major win for hip-hop.โ
Wu-Tang: An American Saga marks the second on-screen project RZA has helmed behind the cameras and in the writing room. The first being the 2011 highly-stylised martial arts film, The Man with the Iron Fist, of which he penned and directed with the help of Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth.
To date, Wu-Tang has released five gold and platinum albums, sold forty million albums internationally, and irrevocably changed the course of modern hip-hop.
More to come on this.
