VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: E! Television Co-Founder Larry Namer On NOVUS Summit, ‘Empress,’ ‘First Woman’

Larry Namer, the co-founder of E! Entertainment Television, attended this year’s NOVUS Summit on global sustainable development at the United Nations.

Namer is also a founding partner of Metan Global Entertainment Group, which was formed to develop and distribute entertainment content targeted towards Chinese audiences, both in China and in other nations. Namer spoke to uInterview about his impressions of this year’s NOVUS Summit and more.

“I’m working [as executive producer] on a big film called Empress, which is about the first woman to rule China and it really got me involved in looking at the role of women in media and the lack of emphasis on [this],” said Namer.

“She’s kind of like the George Washington of China and she’s been treated on many TV shows and films but never really examined through Western eyes,” he added.

Namer went on to say he’s partnered with NOVUS Summit founder Kunal Sood to develop a project called First Woman, which looks at the influential roles women have played in media throughout history. He said it is expected to begin as a television series before it becomes released as a film around the year 2021.

“We just haven’t made the final decision on that, so [it will cover] everything from women in history, to women scientists, women doctors, women activists,” he added of the project’s subject matter. “It’s gonna be a pretty broad swath of women throughout history, as well as women who are living now and impacting our future.”

Namer also revealed he has enjoyed working in foreign markets like China and Russia.

“I’m doing all kinds of stuff [in China], from sitcoms to drama series to reality, we’ve done some live events there,” he said.

Namer also confessed he had been hoping for a long time to develop a film with a primarily Asian or Asian-American cast and was told it would be nearly impossible, although the success of last year’s hit romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians got people thinking a different way.

Namer revealed he has been working with screenwriter Ronald Bass, who is famous for co-writing the Academy-Award-winning film Rain Man and for also co-writing The Joy Luck Club, on this new untitled project that is expected to be released in roughly two years.