Warsame and Bigelow Getty Images
Rapper/poet K'naan Warsame will pen the script, exec produce and direct the potential series.
HBO is going back into business with Kathryn Bigelow.
The premium cable network is teaming with the Oscar-winning director behind The Hurt Locker to develop the drama The Recruiters, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The drama, based on an original idea, looks to unveil what is considered a world that's hidden in plain sight. Set in Minnesota, the drama "will draw open an iron curtain behind which viewers will see the highly impenetrable world of Jihadi recruitment."
Somali Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, poet K'naan Warsame will pen the script, executive produce and direct the project, should it move to the pilot stage. Bigelow and former HBO president Carolyn Strauss also will exec produce.
Warsame recounted his return after 20 years to his native Somalia in a 2011 essay for The New York Times in which he detailed the loss of three childhood friends at the age of 12 after a machine gun attack. He also penned an essay about censorship in the music industry as it pertained to his lyrics drawn from his childhood in Somalia ahead of his third album in 2012. He's a multiple Juno Award winner and was nominated in 2012 for an MTV VMA for best video with a message.
For Bigelow, The Recruiters brings her back to HBO, where she previously directed the 2010 drama pilot The Miraculous Year, which did not move forward. She's repped by CAA.
TV Development HBO
