EURweb |
Click Here
*Filmmaker John Singleton has been directing films about urban culture for over almost two decades. Among his successes are "Boys In The Hood," "Poetic Justice" and "Baby Boy."
Recently he has made his producing debut with the box office success "Hustle And Flow" which garnered an Oscar win for the Three Six Mafia song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" as well as an Oscar nomination for Terrence Howard.
Singleton returns the producers chair once again with the film "Illegal Tender" which is directed by Franc. Reyes. It stars Rick Gonzalez and Wanda DeJesus. "Illegal Tender" is the story of a young Latino man and his struggle to make it in an Ivy league college while confronting the demons of his past which includes drugs and prostitution.
The film will be released on August 24 in theatres nationwide.
We recently sat down and talked with Singleton about the film.
EUR: John, what about this film made you want to produce it?
John Singleton: I felt that there hadn't been a mainstream film that had the vast Diaspora of Latinos (in mind). They have ignored Latino movies. Black people have had pop movie after pop movie, which I have done, but they haven't had that. The ironic thing is if you look at this picture, it is in keeping with everything else that I have done; in the movie and poster you can see that they are afro-Latino. We never would have said that, but that's the way that it is; it's in keeping with what am. The director is Puerto Rican but he's a black Puerto Rican.
EUR: Is the film from your experience?
JS: No, it is from the director's experience.
EUR: How did the script come to your attention?
JS: He (the director) had an idea and said that he wanted to do it, and he presented it to me. I told him, "If you can produce a screenplay in three weeks, then I will gladly produce the project.'
EUR: Why three weeks?
JS: Because I was coming off of "Hustle and Flow" and I just wanted to get started working on another movie.
EUR: Is it easy for you to step away from directing and strictly stick to the producing side of another movie?
JS: Yes, especially when I am green-lighting the movies myself. This is the second movie that I've green lit; "Hustle and Flow" was the first. That worked out pretty well for me so I decided to do it again.
EUR: How did your producing films come about?
JS: With the experience of doing "Hustle and Flow" we couldn't get any studios to finance it, so I said I'm going to go ahead and find the money and put it up myself. That turned out pretty well, so I was looking for a similar picture deal when this film came up and Universal agreed to back it, which was cool. My company is doing several other pictures also.
EUR: Do you find that is a challenge even at this stage of your career?
JS: Very much so. Even though my films have made like a billion dollars, they have made those billions for corporations and not me. I've felt that whatever I've done people will come see, someone will come see it. I'm willing to do that and find the money and go for it; the studios will trust me with money.
EUR: Was there any concern about this movie being stereotypical?
JS: No not at all, because the lead character is a college student, who lives in Connecticut in a middle class neighborhood. I think that you have to adjust the position of forces in order for you to have really good storytelling. It is interesting that you said that; let's take this movie out of the context, because this is something that I wanted to talk about. I get this question all of the time from journalists. I got this on "Baby Boy," on "Shaft,' on no matter what film that I do. People ask, "why do you have so much violence in the films that you do?" Nobody who has ever asked me about that has ever complained about the successful movies that are coming out that feature men with dresses on. I applaud Tyler Perry for his independence, but when it's Tyler Perry, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and nobody is telling them anything bad about it or telling young boys "you know that this is just a joke" and they call those movies family movies. Most of the movies that are comedies are coon shows. But people give me beef when I make a movie dealing with the hood or whatever. When I make a hood movie, it's Shakespeare. you watch "Baby Boy," and that film is real ghetto but the way that I'm doing it, unless you had a background in literature you wouldn't know that there's Greek tragedy in there. You wouldn't know that there's a hint of Shakespeare in there, but it's just uniquely us, that's what makes it universal. I want to put you all to task and say, "hey listen, you have to understand that there is a difference between films like 'Who's Your Caddy?' and 'Talk To Me.'" "Talk To Me" was a great comedy, I'm not attacking either film because we are all in the family, and I wish them success, but I just think that it is a shame that "Who's Your Caddy?" got a thousand screens and "Talk To Me" only got 50, that movie was such a good movie. People are hungering for a great movie. "Illegal Tender" is a universal story.
EUR: What makes "Illegal Tender" a universal story?
JS: Because it is about a mother and her son and the struggles that they go through. But yet it is also a gangster movie. I am proud of that. I'm not trying to make a commercial movie; I'm trying to make a good movie with flavor and culture and heart. For black people it is a black movie because they see nothing but black people in it. For Latinos it is a Latino movie.
EUR: What are your future plans?
JS: I'm directing a film that we will begin in September titled "Tulia." It's about an attorney played by Halle Berry who works on behalf of a group of local black men who are wrongly convicted of their involvement in a drug ring. It should be completed in 2008. I am also working on a film called "Luke Cage" which is a comic book adaptation about is about a former gang member who is framed for a crime he didn't commit. In prison, he volunteers for a medical experiment that goes awry, giving him super strength and bulletproof skin. Using his newfound powers, Luke Cage escapes and becomes a hero for hire.
Click for the latest Obama - Political headlines
Share and Bookmark |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
.jpg)
