Renowned Hollywood producer Reginald Hudlin earned Oscar and PGA nominations for “Django Unchained” (2012) and an Emmy bid for producing the 2016 Academy Awards ceremony, and now he’s back in the awards conversation thanks to “Emperor.” Sobini Films’ production is inspired by the true story of Shields “Emperor” Green (played by Dayo Okeniyi), a slave in 1850s South Carolina who kills his owners and flees his plantation after his son is whipped. “I’ve taken lashes my whole life to keep my family safe, but they will never whip my son again,” Emperor proclaims in the trailer (watch above).
Mark Amin co-wrote (with Pat Charles) and directed the movie that follows Emperor’s harrowing journey through pre-Civil War America. Eventually the man joins up with iconic historical figures John Brown (James Cromwell) and Frederick Douglass (Harry Lennix), who are fighting to end slavery.
One of Gold Derby’s Oscar Experts, Scott Mantz, recently interviewed Hudlin and other “Emperor” talents for the Producers Guild of America. “I have an ancestor who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad,” Hudlin revealed. “He would take folks in, hide them underneath the house and then send them on to their next location. So our family has always been a very politically active family who’s put education first.”
Hudlin has always been a fan of these types of true-life tales, and when he read Amin’s script, he realized, “Oh man! This is exactly the kind of story I want to tell.” When people tell him that they’re “tired” of slavery stories, the producer’s response is: “Yeah, me too, but this isn’t that. This is a freedom story. This is a story about people who are taking charge of themselves and really making the promise of America come true by fighting for freedom.”
Critics were positive in their reviews of the movie, with Peter Debruge (Variety) calling Okeniyi a “striking discovery” and writing, “‘Emperor’ has found a Black hero to champion during this dark chapter of American history.” Abbie Bernstein (Assignment X) notes, “Green is an active, charismatic figure as played by Okeniyi, and we’re firmly on his side.” And Todd Jorgenson (Cinemalogue) says the film gives a “timely portrait of courage and resilience.”
ST. LOUIS – His movies inspired generations, his directing and producing are unmatched. East St. Louis native Reggie Hudlin has proven to Hollywood that having black narratives at the forefront of storytelling is crucial.
“When I first made House Party they said black teen movies won’t work, no one wants to see that, ” said Hudlin. “Then we made the movie and it made 10 times our money back. It was one of the most profitable movies of that decade”.
Before he created classic films like House Party in the 1990s or becoming the first Black producer for the Emmy Awards, Hudlin struck a cord by breathing life into one of the most successful superheroes of all time. He wrote the first 38 issues of volume 4 of “Black Panther” and continued to change how Hollywood viewed Black content.
“After writing for the Black Panther comic book I suggested that we should make the Black Panther into a movie. They said, we’ve never done a black superhero film, then boom it makes $1 billion,” said Hudlin.
Hudlin spoke honestly about his experiences in Hollywood and the entertainment industry’s long history of doubts when it comes to many black filmmakers, executives, and creators.
“It has been a challenge,” he said. I have been the “first” black man to do a lot in this business. You have to have mental discipline. You can not wait for someone to tell you can do it, you have to just do it.”
He explained while Black filmmakers are more celebrated in Hollywood in the 21st century, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“I’m not discouraged when people say they don’t know about my ideas or work, that is always what I always hear right before I have a giant success,” said Hudlin.
Hudlin is not only a testament of strength and courage he’s a special beacon of hope that all black Americans are superheroes too.
Earlier this month the City of East St. Louis celebrated the success of Reggie Hudlin. Some members of the community took to social media and showed great honor to the modern Black Film Movement pioneer.
Today DC Comics released the digital edition of Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition #0, the expanded version of the comic that originally debuted at the Fandome event last year. Along with new story pages, the issue also features ads for the three forthcoming new Milestone Returns titles – Static, Icon & Rocket, and Hardware – that reveal their creative teams. The house ads also reveal that each series, announced as digital-first earlier this month, will be available same-day on the DC Universe Infinite service.
Check out the house ads featuring the newly-announced Milestone Returns creative teams, along with the descriptions for each series from DC Comics:
he new six-issue Static series will be written by Vita Ayala, with art by ChrisCross and Nikolas Draper-Ivey. Khary Randolph will provide covers for the series, which debuts in April.
IN THIS MONTHLY MINISERIES (20 PAGES PER ISSUE), BULLIED NERD VIRGIL IS GIFTED WITH INCREDIBLE ELECTROMAGNETIC POWERS IN THE WAKE OF THE BIG BANG. NOW HE FINDS HIMSELF CAUGHT BETWEEN AN OVER-MILITARIZED POLICE RESPONSE TO BLACK KIDS GETTING SPECIAL ABILITIES AND SOME OF THOSE KIDS WHO ARE USING THOSE POWERS IN DANGEROUS AND DESTRUCTIVE WAYS. BUT WHEN THE BULLIES WHO TERRORIZED HIM BEFORE THE BIG BANG SHOW UP WITH POWERS OF THEIR OWN, CAN STATIC BE THE HERO THAT DAKOTA NEEDS?
The new Icon & Rocket series, arriving in June, will be written by Reginald Hudlin & Leon Chills, with art by Doug Braithwaite and covers by Taurin Clarke.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SUPERHEROES ACTUALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE? WHEN RAQUEL ERVIN BROKE INTO THE HOME OF A WEALTHY BLACK LAWYER, SHE DIDN’T EXPECT TO LEARN THAT HE WAS A NEARLY OMNIPOTENT ALIEN, LOST IN DESPAIR OF EVER RETURNING HOME—AND HE DIDN’T EXPECT THAT SHE WOULD INSPIRE HIM TO EMERGE FROM THE SHADOWS AND BECOME A FORCE FOR CHANGE ON THE PLANET HE’S TRAPPED ON. WHAT STARTS OUT AS A SIMPLE REQUEST TO STOP THE DRUG TRAFFICKING IN HER NEIGHBORHOOD TURNS INTO A MISSION TO ELIMINATE THE DRUG TRADE WORLDWIDE. HOWEVER, THIS ACT OF HEROISM HAS UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES, MAKING THE PAIR THE TWO MOST WANTED CRIMINALS IN THE WORLD WHEN ACTUALLY STOPPING CRIME LEADS TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY!
The third series, Hardware, will come from the creative team of Brandon Thomas, Denys Cowan, and Bill Sienkiewicz. Artist Mateus Mahanini will provide covers when the series arrives in August.
ALL HIS LIFE, YOUNG PRODIGY CURTIS METCALF WAS TOLD HE WAS SPECIAL, AND THAT HE WOULD SAVE THE WORLD. BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT ALVA INDUSTRIES WANTED HIS BEAUTIFUL MIND FOR SOMETHING A LOT LESS NOBLE THAN THAT—AND HIS TECHNOLOGY HAS MADE HIM THE FALL GUY FOR THE TRAGEDY OF THE BIG BANG. BUT CURTIS IS SMART ENOUGH TO NOT GO OUT LIKE THAT—AND SMART ENOUGH TO STEAL HIS INVENTIONS BACK FROM ALVA AND START THE PROCESS OF REMAKING THE WORLD HIS WAY.
The creative teams feature a mix of new talent and returning Milestone creators, signaling that the Milestone Returns initiative will be as much about pushing the imprint forward as celebrating its history. The decision to release each series same-day on DCU Infinite is also a bold one, and, along with today’s earlier news about the Batman/FortNite crossover also being available same-day on the service, is further incentive to drive new subscribers to the service.
The first issue of the new, monthly six-issue Static miniseries arrives digitally and on DC Universe Infinite on Monday, April 12th.
When Marvel Comics first launched the character of Black Panther, it was in the July 1966 issue of “Fantastic Four.” As explained in this exclusive clip from the upcoming Disney Plus documentary “Marvel’s Behind the Mask,” premiering Feb. 12, the character of T’Challa, the King of Wakanda, was presented just like any other Marvel superhero — attention wasn’t paid to the color of his skin, but rather to the supreme quality of his abilities.
“The first Black superhero, Black Panther, comes out perfect,” says writer-director Reginald Hudlin, who wrote a run of Black Panther comics in the 2000s. “He’s this cool, elegant, handsome guy who’s just got it on lock.”
But as the clip also demonstrates, there’s one essential element of Black Panther that was glaringly incorrect: His skin is grey, not brown.
“They got so much right, as far as making it just this inevitability that there’d be a Black superhero,” “Behind the Mask” director Michael Jacobs tells Variety. “And yet they still hadn’t caught up yet in, like, just the pure, functional side of making comics. It still wasn’t being produced in a way that represented the rich hue of a true brown color. We see that sort of back and forth along the way, throughout their history, trying to get the lived experience into the comic, but then also realizing the shortcomings of that when it hasn’t been fully worked out yet.”
As initially conceived, “Behind the Mask” was only going to be about the history of Black Panther and T’Challa in Marvel Comics, in anticipation of the release of the feature film “Black Panther.” But as Jacobs and producers Chris Gary and Ryan Simon quickly realized in their research, the full history of Marvel’s efforts to break ground with representation — in race, gender and sexual orientation — was much richer and more complicated than just a single character.
“It became really clear that there was a lot more that Marvel had done as a creator of content to address all the ways that people can be othered or outside of acceptance,” says Gary.
In “Behind the Mask,” for example, we see Marvel guru Stan Lee in his heyday ensuring that background characters in the comics represented the full gamut of racial and ethnic diversity, rather than just a sea of white faces. The comics also included many female heroes, and the relaunch of the X-Men in the 1970s became a clear metaphor for the LGBTQ experience in the U.S.
At the same time, however, Marvel’s first explicitly gay character, Northstar, wasn’t allowed to have a boyfriend for years, and at one point was revealed to be, no joke, part fairy. Many of the early female superheroes weren’t nearly as complex as their male counterparts, and they were often drawn as sexualized objects. And along with coloring Black characters as grey rather than brown, for years Marvel used yellow for the skin tone of its Asian characters.
The latter was an especially shocking discovery for Gary, who is Black and has children of Black and Asian heritage. “I don’t know how I would explain that to my kids,” he says. “That’s a conversation you don’t really want to have, but it’s a necessary conversation.”
Rather than shy away from its less than admirable history, the “Behind the Mask” filmmakers say Marvel’s executives were on board with a warts-and-all look at the company’s efforts with representation. “They were complete partners,” says Gary. “They accepted the fact that we were going to make some things uncomfortable.” The company even opened up its vault so the filmmakers could access the full range of its history.
“There were certain things that we needed to scan that weren’t part of the digital history, that were important to the storytelling,” says Simon. “We needed to get that older imagery out of the vault.”
None of the filmmakers counted themselves as die-hard comic book fans, but the experience of excavating through so much of Marvel’s history left them enormously appreciative for the people who worked to bring so many now-iconic superheroes to life.
“So much of the pop-culture imagination around Marvel is now through the movies,” says Jacobs. “This is a nice reminder that that intellectual property was created a long time ago by some really smart, intelligent people who had amazing ideas and amazing artistry and narrative strength. … They did fall into stereotypes, and they did make mistakes. But there was still something uniquely special about making these comic books and creating these characters.”
