Jay Z To Produce NBC Miniseries On Army’s First Black Sniper

Jay Z steadily continues to announce projects through his two year film and television deal with The Weinstein Company.

First came the news that Jay Z would produce a six part documentary series on Kalief Browder, which will premiere on Spike TV some time in January of next year.

Now, the entrepreneur has set his sights on telling the story of the Army’s first African American sniper, Nicholas Irving.

Reported by Page Six, the project will be a six hour NBC miniseries based on Irving’s 2015 memoir The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers. “The series will take a look inside the life of the world of special ops. The plan is to start filming early next year,” a source told Page Six.

Irving inevitably made a reputation for himself through special ops, and earned the nickname “The Reaper” because of his confirmed body count (33).

Sterling K. Brown, who won an Emmy for The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, will star as Irving. Irving seemed to confirm the series casting on Twitter, posting a screenshot of himself and Brown video chatting while including Jay Z and NBC in hashtags.

This miniseries on Irving seems to have been in development for quite some time. Back in February of last year The Weinstein Company had acquired the television rights to make a miniseries out of Irving’s autobiography. That following month NBC then picked up the miniseries from Weinstein.

It’ll be interesting to see what other people Jay Z might choose through his deal with Weinstein.

“I’m excited to tell stories from real life prophets, whom through their struggles have changed the world for the better, and others whose stories are filled with fantasy and delight,” the artist had said in a previous statement. “Harvey and David are visionaries both of whom have done this time and time again. I’m already passionate about what we currently have in the pipeline and I’m looking forward to discovering others.”

Unrelated to his deal with the film studio (or maybe related since Weinstein also has a hand in this), Jay Z is also serving as a producer for a Richard Pryor film that has been in the works for quite some time.