Trevor Jackson Confirmed For Lead Role Super Fly Remake With Jason Mitchell As Co-StarPosted by Wilson Morales
January 16, 2018
Source: Deadline
Deadline has confirmed that Trevor Jackson will star as Youngblood Priest in the remake to the 1972 blaxploitation film, Super Fly, which is set up at Sony Pictures.
Director X (a.k.a Julien Christian Lutz) will direct the film with Jason Mitchell co-starring as Eddie, along with Lex Scott Davis as Georgia, Andrea Londo as Cynthia, Jacob Ming-Trent (Showtime’s White Famous) as Fat Freddy, and Omar Chaparro as Adalberto.
Hip-Hop superstar Future has come on board to produce with Joel Silver, while Steven R. Shore, son of the original film’s producer Sig Shore, will serve as an exec producer alongside Matthew Hirsch, Hal Sadoff and Aaron Ausch.
Alex Tse will be writing the screenplay the screenplay.
The film is inspired by the 1972 classic, which starred Ron O’Neal as Priest, a cocaine dealer looking to score one more super deal and retire. The movie was directed by Gordon Parks Jr., the son of Gordon Parks, who directed another blaxploitation classic “Shaft” — one of the staples in the early years of the genre that took the ’70s by storm.
Future will curate the soundtrack for the redo, following in the footsteps of legendary songwriter and musician Curtis Mayfield, who composed the original soundtrack, which went on to the a critical and commercial success. Separately, rapper 21 Savage is in talks to join the film in some capacity.
“When I went back and watched the original, I was struck by how relevant the themes are,” said Director X. “The pursuit of the American Dream is eternal – everyone’s always on the hustle, because you’ve got to be… and Superfly is about pulling off the ultimate hustle to get out of the game. Our goal is to make it modern – to make a movie where the style, the art direction, the camera movements are all part of what makes the movie Superfly. With this film, my goal is to honor the lineage of an iconic title that the community has loved for decades.”
He continued, “I want to honor it in a way that shows a new generation how black culture continues to be a catalyst for new trends in every area, from fashion to music. I’m also excited to be working with Future, both on the music and as a producer of the film – the original soundtrack is legendary, and that’s an inspiration for the artists that Future is working with to bring a singular modern musical vision to the film.”
