Rodney Barnes Tackles Tales of Black Folklore In Podcast Series From Campside & At Will With One Eye On TV & Film Adaptations

Peter White
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Rodney Barnes, exec producer of HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, is prepping a horror podcast devoted to legends and myths stemming from black folklore.

The writer/producer of series such as Everybody Hates Chris and The Boondocks has teamed up with Campside Media, the company behind Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen, and At Will Media, which is behind Apple’s podcast and docuseries Wild Things for Run, Fool.

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Run, Fool will follow an anthology format in the style of the Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt with each episode focusing on a singular, terrifying ghost story, from various periods of American history.

For instance, legend has it that a black goat farmer named Oscar Washburn moved his family to a residence just north of a bridge in a Maryland known today as Goatman’s Bridge. It got that name because it was haunted by a half-man, half-goat figure that Oscar Washburn sold tickets to see. Until horror ensued.

Goatman is the first of dozens of these stories that will be told.

Barnes said that he has loved “digging into” these stories. “We’ve got some deliciously terrifying stories to tell, and an exciting list of folks joining in on the fun. So just know, when it gets too scary, you can always Run, Fool,” he added.

The series is set to launch in 2023 with Campside and At Will yet to select a distributor for the podcast. The companies are already lining up TV adaptations of some of the stories.

Campside co-founder Adam Hoff said, “We’d been merely hoping to find a great story that Rodney might want to start as a podcast and then adapt into a TV show; instead, he unleashed an always-on concept that would reach an underserved audience and generate potentially dozens of TV and film concepts.”

Campside initially started talking to Barnes about a potential adaptation of one of its other podcasts, which include Suspect, Hooked and Run, Bambi, Run.

“As a comics nerd, I’ve long admired Rodney’s writing. Few creators can cross boundaries and genres as ably as he can––he’s got this monster sense of imagination. Plus, he happens to sound absolutely incredible on the mic,” added Campside co-founder Matthew Shaer.

Campside will co-produce with At Will, which is also behind series such as Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders and biker gang scripted series Koz starring Taylor Kitsch and Kate Mara for Audible.

“We are extremely excited to launch this unique series alongside of the incredibly talented visionary Rodney Barnes, whose eye for storytelling is unparalleled, and the Campside Media team, who are the best in the business for non-fiction podcasts,” added Will Malnati, CEO of At Will Media.

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