Blue Ant Studios inks first-look deal with producer & director Lisa Cortés

Lisa Cortés

Blue Ant Studios in Canada has struck a first-look deal with US producer and director Lisa Cortés to develop and produce new scripted and unscripted properties across documentary, music, history and biography, and narrative.

Kicking off the collaboration, Cortés and Blue Ant are developing a docuseries based on Clover Hope’s 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.

Aside from her upcoming work with Blue Ant, Cortés is also directing 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.

Her recent work includes Amazon Studios’ All In: The Fight For Democracy and the HBO documentary The Apollo. Cortés was also executive producer of the 2009 film Precious, which won two Academy Awards.

“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.” 

Recent series from Blue Ant Studios, which is a part of Blue Ant Media, include the upcoming docuseries The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks for Amazon Prime Video, Canada’s Drag Race, with Saloon Media for Crave and Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell for Peacock.