Starz Picks Up Detroit Documentary ‘White Boy’

Starz has acquired the documentary White Boy, about teen FBI informant Richard Wershe Jr. Wershe ran what Starz calls a “vicious sophisticated underground cocaine operation” in Detroit.

White Boy will premiere on Starz in spring 2019.

Directed by Shawn Rech, White Boy follows filmmakers as they investigate a piece of 1980s crime folklore, interviewing journalists, police, FBI agents and hit men about White Boy Rick, who has been imprisoned for 30 years.

Arrested as a teen and sentenced to life without parole, Wershe is the subject of the Sony feature film White Boy Rick, starring Matthew McConaughey. White Boy Rick made its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival Sept. 7 and opens in U.S. theaters Sept. 14.

Starz is part of Lionsgate.

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.