Rashida Jones
by Wilson Morales, blackfilm.com | read
While Hollywood is currently celebrating the success of Will Packer‘s Think Like A Man, having grossed over $90M at the box office, it wouldn’t be the first time a black romantic comedy has crossed passed $50M mark. There have been others, but today marks the 20th anniversary of the most successful black romantic comedy, ‘Boomerang.’
Directed by Reginald Hudlin, who previously had success with his debut film, ‘House Party,’ ‘Boomerang’ starred the reigning box office king at the time Eddie Murphy, a relatively unknown Halle Berry, and a host of comediennes who were just getting their feet wet in the film world (Martin Lawrence, David Alan Grier, Chris Rock). Along with veterans Eartha Kitt, Grace Jones, John Witherspoon, Geoffrey Holder, and Tisha Campbell-Martin memorable in her scenes with Murphy, the film was a box office smash, grossing $70M domestically, and a worldwide total of $131M.
Murphy played Marcus Graham, a high-powered ad exec who’s the classic ladies’ man. Debonair and a chauvinist, Marcus believes he has to keep bedding women until he’s found the right one to settle with. When he meets and wants the beautiful Jacqueline Broyer (Robin Givens), who also happens to be his boss, little does he know that she’s exactly like him. It’s a game of cat and mouse, with Marcus desperately looking for love in the wrong places.
Although he went on to direct a few more films such as The Great White Hype, The Ladies Man, and some episodes on various TV shows, Hudlin found better success as the President of Entertainment for BET from 2005-2008, and at the same time was the writer of the Marvel Comics series Black Panther from 2005 to 2008. His latest project puts him back in the spotlight as the Illinois native- Harvard grad is one of the producers of the most anticipated films coming out this winter, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
Blackfilm.com caught up with Hudlin as he reflects on the 20th Anniversary of Boomerang, his thoughts on a possible Black Panther film, and his involvement with Django Unchained.
How much of the film was put together by you and Eddie?
Reginald Hudlin: It was originally an idea from Eddie and the script came from the guys he had worked with on Saturday Night Live. They gave it to me and the basic structure was about a player who meets his match. The resolution was different from what we had planned. At the end of the movie, Halle Berry’s character left New York and went to work at her parents’ dairy farm. In the last scene, Eddie rejoins her, wins her back, and the last shot was him milking a cow. That’s not what you saw in theaters. My thing was that Eddie and I are the same age, and when I first met with him about the script, I just talked about what I thought the movie could be. When I mentioned things that he would know like the Silver Shadow nightclub in New York, he couldn’t believe that he was talking to a director who knew those same reference points in terms of Buppie culture. He got very excited and we had trying to do something together for a while ever he saw ‘House Party.’ He was a big fan of the film. We spent a year pitching idea back and forth before the ‘Boomerang’ script was ready.
Did Eddie have a hand in casting?
RH: Casting the film was me and my brother (Warrington Hudlin). Eddie was aware of everything, but he let us do our thing. We were focused on making sure Eddie had a cast as good as he was. Throughout the times in Eddie’s movies, it’s just Eddie. He doesn’t have comparable comedic talent around him. Putting Martin Lawrence, David Alan Grier, and Chris Rock around him was really important to me. He and I very much agreed that Robin Givens was the right person for the part. The studio disagreed. They wanted another actress for the role and she was very good, buy we just thought that Robin was perfect and she was. With Halle, she was an unknown. She came in with film credits but not a meaningful awareness. When she walked in the room, she was undeniable, and not because of her beauty. We auditioned her and thought she was fabulous and when Eddie read her, he felt the same way. It was a done deal.
Coming in from previously directing ‘House Party,’ which was more comedic than romantic, was there a challenge doing the reverse with this film?
RH: No. It was where my head was. I was always a big fan of Woody Allen’s movies, with films like ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘Manhattan.’ I was a big fan of Preston Sturges. I was very excited to making a movie like that, and that was based in my own life experience.
While there have been several black romantic comedies to be released since ‘Boomerang,’ it’s still the highest grossing film among all of them. While it grossed $70 million in total domestically, after a $13M opening, it did another $60 plus overseas. These days most black films, let alone black romantic comedies, can’t get international distribution.
RH: Obviously, having Eddie Murphy as the star makes all the difference in the world. He was a global star at that point in his career. He used that star power to do something that was very unique, which was to do a black romantic comedy. This is something that I remember one of the executives at the studios told me to my face, saying, “Look. I don’t know how you make a romantic comedy with Eddie Murphy with that big nose and big lips.” I was like, “Wow!” That sort of straight up in your face racism is pretty extraordinary. I knew that they wanted us to start yelling and screaming and disqualify ourselves from this opportunity, but I knew that we were about to make a difference.
Who knew at the time that, besides Eddie, some of the cast would become leading players (Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock) in Hollywood?
RH: I remember talking to one of the producers at the time and saying, “Ten years from now, people won’t believe we had all these people in the same cast.” If you were there, you felt it. You felt that this was an explosive moment and that all these people were enormously talented and would go on to great careers. I’m so grateful that that’s what happened.
After this film did very well, it would be another four years before you did ‘The Great White Hype.’ Normally, when a black film does extremely well, the thinking is that we would see similar films from other studios or a sequel. That was not the case here.
RH: That was one of the tragic circumstances. We thought this movie would start a chain of films like this and it didn’t. There was this real hostile reaction in certain corners in Hollywood to the film. Eddie wasn’t doing what Eddie was supposed to do, which is to be a fast talking con man. It was him evolving his image. They kept saying that ‘Boomerang’ was a failure. It was not a failure. Did it make as much money as ‘Beverly Hills Cop?’ No, but it’s still a successful film by any measure. His next film was ‘Distinguished Gentleman,’ and to them, it was Eddie as they wanted him to be, a fast talking con man. That movie wasn’t nearly successful as ‘Boomerang.’ It’s not fondly remembered today. At the time, there was a negative pushback in mainstream Hollywood to the notion and prospect of what ‘Boomerang’ represented.
What did you want to do afterwards?
RH: For me, I sort of looked at George Lucas’ career. He did the teen comedy ‘American Graffiti’ and went on to do ‘Star Wars.’ I always wanted to do the same thing. I figured I’d do ‘House Party’ and then do my version of ‘Star Wars.’ I had a big sci-fi project, and several of them, that I kept trying to get off the ground and wasn’t successful at getting those off the ground. It hit this glass ceiling in Hollywood. I certainly don’t blame the system. I wasn’t sophisticated in knowing how to work the system of Hollywood. When I look at my peers, like Spike Lee and John Singleton, we all reached that same point where we had great success doing personal films in then all of sudden Hollywood said, “Now we want you to do our movies.” We still wanted to do what we wanted to do, but “If you want to work, you will do our movies.” We each hit this point of frustration that none of us could figure how to work around.
Twenty years later, things have changed. With the success of ‘Think Like A Man,’ another black romantic comedy, Hollywood has rewarded it with greenlighting a sequel. There’s talk of a sequel for ‘The Best Man’ as well. What are your thoughts on this?
RH: I applaud the success of every black film. When a black film hits, that rises all ships. When a black film flops, that hurts us all. We’re all chained together, whether we like it or not. All of us have to root for each other’s success. For me, when I hit that frustration, I realized that the only way we’re going to have meaningful success is to not to just focus on individual success, but building an institution. We are not to going to do it if we’re begging for a break. At the end of the day, people tell the stories that they want to tell. Yes, black films are profitable in business, but studios are making fewer black films than ever. When you go from 25 films a year to 12, it’s get a little tight. What’s going to get made, is not only commercial films, but commercial films that those executives have deep relationships with and those may or may not be our stories.
Moving forward, San Diego Comic Con is coming up fast (July 11) and you’re always a fixture there, participating in the Black Panel and as the former writer of the Black Panther comic book. There’s been talk that Marvel is thinking of making a Black Panther film? Being an authority figure on the subject, who do you envision in the role?
RH: Marvel owns the property and I knew that going in. People have been talking about doing a movie for many years, even before I got involved with the character. Clearly, I would love for it to be made. I’m very proud of my contribution to the Panther. I wrote the character for five years and I’ve sold more copies of the Black Panther than any other creator on the book. It’s up to Marvel as to who makes the film and what version they want to tell. In terms of actors, there are so many wonderful people that can be used, but it depends when they will make it. There’s no question that a movie like the Black Panther should have an all-star cast. From the main character, the royal family, the villains, it should be an epic. If it turns out that I can do something about the film, then I will, but until then, I’m working on a big kick ass film and hopefully that success will encourage people to make more movies about black heroes.
This festival will be different as not only are you doing the panel, but you will also be there as a producer for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained.’ How did you get involved with the project?
RH: That came out of my relationship with Quentin. I’ve known him for several years and whenever we got together, we would always talk about movies. One time we were talking about the history of slavery on film and my frustrations with it. We debated on different movies and I talked about how I hated movies that aren’t entertaining but you’re supposed to watch them anyway because they are good for you. I don’t want to see those. I want to see films that are fun and entertaining and kick ass. For me, the only great film about slavery was ‘Spartacus,’ and if you’re not going to make a movie that entertaining about the American experience, I’m not interested. Little did I know, he was really listening closely to what I was saying and 15 years later, he hands me a script, saying, “You planted the seed, so now here’s the tree.” I’m like, “Wow!” We worked on the film and here we are.
How much is your involvement as a producer?
RH: It’s everything. I’ve been on it literally from the beginning. Quentin is a real auteur. He’s a brilliant filmmaker and I’m there to help out however he needs it. When we have creative conversations, or there are logistical problems that need to be solved, or any number of things that need to be addressed, as part of the production team, I’m there to help solve those problems so he can do his job and make his movie.
How was the reception at the recent NABJ conference in New Orleans?
RH: Oh my God, people loved it. Wherever we go, we’ve had two or three instances where we’ve shown seven to eight minutes of footage to folks; and everywhere we go, people just lose their minds. We’re putting together the plan for Hall H at Comic Con now and there will be an impressive array of folks there.
Talk about it on HEF – the Hudlin Entertainment Forum
Comment + PermalinkTalk about it on HEF – the Hudlin Entertainment Forum
Comment + PermalinkThe celebrated filmmaker and producer of one of the most anticipated films of the year tells us what’s in store, and why Tarantino can’t get enough of our stories
By Kelley L. Carter Entertainment Reporter
When the trailer was released earlier this month for Django: Unchained, Black folks didn’t quite know what to make of it. It’s clear it’s a Quentin Tarantino film—the blood shed, the fast-moving dialogue and the James Brown soundtrack are the Tarantino-esque trimmings we’ve all come to love. But it’s wrapped around—and set in—pre-Civil War America.
But a movie set during slavery? Turns out, this isn’t just another slave movie. The film is still shooting right now, but the hero—played by Academy Award winning actor and comedian Jamie Foxx— is a slave who gets his get back.
Foxx plays who we imagined we’d all be should we have lived through such a horrific time. And that’s exactly the kind of film Reginald Hudlin—Tarantino’s producer on this project—has been longing to see. It doesn’t release until Christmas (they’re still filming in New Orleans right now), but six months out, it’s got the kind of buzz that makes Hollywood studio execs ridiculously happy.
Hudlin who along with actress Kerry Washington previewed an extended seven-minute clip of the film at the National Association of Black Journalists convention on Thursday evening in New Orleans—talks with EBONY.com about the movie, slavery and why Tarantino loves telling our stories.
EBONY: What made you want to be apart of Django: Unchained?
Reginald Hudin: Quentin and I have been friends for, I don’t know, easily 15 years now, and maybe longer. Whenever we see each other we debate movies, because we’re both super passionate about the cinema. So we got into this whole debate about movies on this topic of slavery, and I was very frank about how I hated 90 percent of them. I thought they were cod liver oil movies that were — and when I say cod liver oil, I mean movies that taste bad — but you’re supposed to swallow it anyways, because it’s supposed to be good for you. I don’t understand how that works because if it’s not entertaining, if it’s not something you want to go see, why bother, because no one’s going to see it. And I just felt like these movies should be exciting, they should be action-packed and most of all, I felt like they should have plenty of kicking ass because at the end of the day, the world needs black people who fought back. I mean, the famous slave revolts like Nat Turner and Denmark Veesey and for every one that we know about, God knows how many that we don’t know about because people wanted to suppress that information.
EBONY: And let’s be honest: a lot of black folks, when we see movies like Django we think, ‘that’s who I would’ve been. I would’ve been the guy raising hell …’
RH: Exactly! And that’s what I want to see. I was just really blunt. For me, I said, ‘Look, there’s only one great movie about slavery and it was called Spartacus, and until there’s a movie like that about the American experience, I’m not that interested. He came back 13 years later and said, ‘hey man, I’ve finished my new script.’ And usually if you’ve got a new script or a rough cut of a new movie I go by and I see the rough cut in the editing room and I flip at the script early. I just thought it was another one of those. And he handed me a script and said, ‘you planted the seed; this is the tree.’ And then I read it, and then he was very excited, he wanted to know what I thought and I said I loved it. He said, ‘do you have notes?’ And then I gave him a ton of notes, and he was like, ‘those are good notes … basically I really want to do this together with you.’ And when someone is trying to do the right thing and asks for some help, the only responsible thing to do is roll up your sleeves and get to work.
EBONY: When I first saw the trailer, my first thoughts were, ‘Oh wow. Tarantino and Hudlin are ballsy. What they’re effectively doing is giving the Inglorious Basterds treatment to pre-civil war.’ That’s what you’re doing, right?
RH: Yes! It’s like when he first started talking about Inglorious Basterds to me, years before the movie got made, Quentin said, ‘World War II was the war about racism, right?’ Because the Nazis said, ‘we’re the master race.’ So, you know, these are the things that he cares about and he thinks about … these are the things that he knows and are passionate about, and certainly the kind of movies that I always wanted to make, being a person who grew up on Blaxploitation, which was all about black folk kicking ass and taking names. I’m like, Yes, I’m down with that program. Let’s do that.
EBONY: All we have to go on right now is the trailer that’s out. And in the opening scene of it, we see the tree welts on black backs, but then it kicks into gear and kind of gives us what this film is about. Talk to me about selling this film to the black community. Is there any trepidation that you guys have? Because even though it seems to be a spaghetti Western, it’s still set in an ugly time period for us …
RH: I mean, look, the fact is whenever something historical happens with black folks, we get a little nervous, because the past has not been good to us. And so yeah, we’re good where we’re now, we’re doing better and better every year. I’ve always known those classic Western stories, those stories of good versus evil and standing up and fighting for your rights and fighting civilization, those really apply to us. Those really are perfect vehicles for our struggle. And at the end of the day in a Western, you know what you’re going to get, which is that the righteous will vanquish the evil and … I feel like as long as we deliver that to the audience, we’ll be alright. Because that’s what you want to see.
EBONY: There have been other great films set during that time period that failed at the box office because people – black and white — just don’t want to be reminded. What gives you the confidence that this one will be the one to break past it?
RH: I always start very simple with an audience of one. What do I want to see? And if I feel passionate about it, I feel that other people will be passionate about it, and that’s been pretty consistent for me. This is a movie where when I read the script, I wanted to see it. And just the response that I’ve been getting from the trailer is that a whole lot of people feel the same way.
EBONY: What’s the chatter like on set when you guys are filming this? In spite of the fun that is going to be had in an action film like this, there still are some dark moments — like that opening scene from the trailer — and you have to film those images.
RH: It’s the full range. On the one hand, it’s great when you have people like Samuel Jackson, Kerry Washington, Jamie Foxx who are veterans in this business working together, because they enjoy each other. They don’t always get to work together. And then you have their white counterparts, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, so you actually just have some of the best actors in Hollywood working together, regardless of race. And that doesn’t happen enough. And I think the actors really revel in that. And then you have all those wonderful, seasoned actors working with young actors and talk with them and giving them advice. Or the young actors, sometimes they won’t even be shooting on a day, but they’ll come to set just to watch the other actors work. I’ll turn around sometimes and I’ll see four young actors watching Sam Jackson like he was doing a stage play and it’s just like, ‘We just wanna watch and learn.’
EBONY: Right. He’s a fun guy too.
RH: Exactly! And that’s a mind-blowing, wonderful thing. And in terms of the content, there are really some days where people are like, ‘wow, we just really brought home what this movie was about, particularly when we’re shooting on an actual slave plantation.’ But then when we shoot the payback scenes people are stunned. They’re like, ‘Yeah, kill him! Get him!’ White people, they’re like, ‘Come on!’ And that’s the thing that’s so interesting, because, you know, we have not just a multi-ethnic cast, but a multi-ethnic crew, you know, white people and black people and Asian people and a lot of Native Americans. It was actually the biggest Native American crew of people I’ve ever worked on and just to have all those perspectives and all those spirits coming together it makes it a really fantastic experience.
EBONY: As much as we hate boxes, we kind of live in a world where we need boxes and categories. How are you going to classify this? Is it a black movie or is it something different?
RH: It’s a Quentin Tarantino movie.
EBONY: Touche. And every inch of it looks to be so.
RH: Right. And that’s the thing, when I say that people go, ‘Oh, I know what that is!’ What is Jackie Brown? Is that a black movie? Is that a white movie? What is that?
EBONY: You’re right. It’s hard to define. Which is a good thing.
RH: Yeah. I mean, there’s no category other than the category that it is.
EBONY: Tarantino has been telling our stories for years; he includes black people. Jackie Brown and even Pulp Fiction – I challenge you to find a black person who can’t quote Sam Jackson in that movie. Tell us something about Tarantino that maybe isn’t so obvious to us. Why do you think it’s so important that he includes us in his films?
RH: You know that white family who, when the neighborhood turns black, the white family can’t afford to move out? He was that family. He grew up around black people; he grew up immersed in black culture as well as white culture, and that was just part of his life. So when Quentin and I talk about movies, we saw the same movies. We both talked about our experiences watching Roots when we were a kid. You know the end of Roots where the white slave master’s tied to the post and the black man has the whip and then he goes, ‘Oh, I can’t beat you. That would lower me to your level’ …? I was a kid in East St. Louis, watching that screaming at the TV, ‘Oh, hell no!!!’ I have never seen John Wayne go, ‘Oh no, I can’t do that.’ John Wayne handles his business at the end of every movie. But somehow when the black man is at the end of the movie, the rules are different. And the fact is Quentin was in South Bay, California, screaming the same thing, having the same reaction! So for us, we have a black man beat a white slave master with his own whip, which, as far as I know, has never happened in the history of cinema. It’s like, Wow, we’re doing our jobs.
EBONY: Once this film is complete – are we supposed to have learned something? Or are we just supposed to walk away having seen some fun stuff happen on film?
RH: With House Party, when I originally made that movie I wanted to make a safe sex movie, but I wanted to hide the message so deeply within the entertainment that you would never perceive it as that. In my whole career I’ve been successful at entertaining people so thoroughly that they don’t feel a medicine-y aftertaste. Because the truth is every generation needs to hear the story of America’s original sin and that’s what slavery is. And I mean everyone, black and white. Our Jewish brothers and sisters do a great job telling the story of the Holocaust over and over again and that’s a painful story, but they know, for themselves and for all of humanity, we have to remind ourselves what we’re capable of as a people, and we have to tell this story and we have to tell it over and over. We have to find new ways and new perspectives on that story so that we never forget. Because if you don’t remember your past, you’re doomed to repeat it.
Talk about it on HEF – the Hudlin Entertainment Forum
Comment + Permalink