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Something New From the Tallest Man on Earth: "In Little Fires"

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goddamnedfrank8/07/2017 2:29:33 am PDT

re: #17 Targetpractice

You know, there was a parody film about a Confederate victory released a little over a decade ago that didn’t lead to this sort of response towards the creators. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the director was black and Spike Lee ended up with a producer credit?

Probably also the fact that it was a mocumentary film released at Sundance and not an HBO show being green lighted on the basis of a proposal with no script. This is not a subject that white people should be eagerly getting behind with no black creative input. It also again demonstrates the ease with which some white creatives find encouragement, Lena Dunham got a similar green light for Girls on the basis of a one page proposal. In comparison Issa Rae and Larry Wilmore had to produce an entire pilot episode of Insecure before HBO bought in.

Eager to have her voice on their network, a handful of HBO executives encouraged Dunham to put some ideas down on paper. “We told Lena we want you, just write you,’” recalls Sue Naegle, the network’s former entertainment chief, as part of The Hollywood Reporter’s Girls oral history.

What transpired was an informal pitch — or, as Dunham describes it, “a tone poem about millennial life” — which featured nary a character nor a plot. Instead, the page and a half long document, titled “Lena,” drew comparisons to Sex and the City and Gossip Girl.

When asked about it now, Dunham laughs: “I mean, it is the worst pitch you’ve ever read,” she says. “It was like, ‘They’re everything, they’re nothing, they’re everywhere, they’re nowhere.’ It’s pretentious and horrifying, but I remember sitting on the floor, listening to Tegan and Sara in my underwear, being like, ‘I’m a genius.’”