Boots Riley has been a hip-hop stalwart for decades, but as a filmmaker he made a splash with Sorry to Bother You, a unique, signature film that he’ll always be remembered for. But how do you follow something like that? While Riley doesn’t have any features on the way, he’s making his presence felt with the Prime Video series, I’m a Virgo, which shows that he refuses to get complacent.
StarringJharrel Jerome, Brett Gray, Kara Young, Allius Barnes, Olivia Washington, Mike Epps, and Carmen Ejogo, the series centers on a 13-foot-tall Black man in Oakland, who finally steps out of hiding to experience the world. Doesn’t look like that’s going to go perfectly well.
Riley wrote and directed the series, and will act as co-showrunner alongside Cold Comes the Night director Tze Chun.
I’m a Virgo hits Prime Video later this year, but will have its premiere at SXSW.
I’m a Virgo is a fantastical coming-of-age joyride about Cootie, a 13-foot tall young Black man in Oakland, California. To keep Cootie safe from a hostile world, his adoptive parents have hidden him from the world, never allowing him to leave their home. When Cootie finally ventures outside, he experiences the beauties and contradictions of our society for the very first time. The series is a mythic examination of what happens when the oppressed finally rise up – and asks why we are so often asked to identify with the oppressors in our stories, rather than the true heroes we often overlook.
