{"id":63528,"date":"2012-07-01T13:16:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2012\/07\/01\/director-reginald-hudlin-talks-boomerang-20-years-later-black-panther-django-unchained\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:45:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T10:45:38","slug":"director-reginald-hudlin-talks-boomerang-20-years-later-black-panther-django-unchained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/director-reginald-hudlin-talks-boomerang-20-years-later-black-panther-django-unchained\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Director Reginald Hudlin talks Boomerang 20 Years Later, Black Panther, and producing Django Unchained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director Reginald Hudlin talks Boomerang 20 Years Later, Black Panther, and producing Django Unchained<\/strong>by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

July 1, 2012<\/p>\n

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While Hollywood is currently celebrating the success of Will Packer<\/strong>‘s Think Like A Man<\/a><\/strong>, 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.’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Directed by Reginald Hudlin<\/strong>, who previously had success with his debut film, ‘House Party,’<\/a><\/strong> ‘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<\/strong>). Along with veterans Eartha Kitt, Grace Jones, John Witherspoon, Geoffrey Holder<\/strong>, and Tisha Campbell-Martin<\/strong> memorable in her scenes with Murphy, the film was a box office smash, grossing $70M domestically, and a worldwide total of $131M.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Although he went on to direct a few more films such as The Great White Hype, The Ladies Man<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> 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<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Blackfilm.com<\/a> <\/strong>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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How much of the film was put together by you and Eddie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reginald Hudlin:<\/strong> 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\u2019s character left New York and went to work at her parents\u2019 dairy farm. In the last scene, Eddie rejoins her, wins her back, and the last shot was him milking a cow. That\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2018House Party.\u2019 He was a big fan of the film. We spent a year pitching idea back and forth before the \u2018Boomerang\u2019 script was ready.<\/p>\n

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Did Eddie have a hand in casting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH: <\/strong>Casting the film was me and my brother (Warrington Hudlin<\/strong>). 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\u2019s movies, it\u2019s just Eddie. He doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Coming in from previously directing \u2018House Party,\u2019 which was more comedic than romantic, was there a challenge doing the reverse with this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>RH:<\/strong> No. It was where my head was. I was always a big fan of Woody Allen\u2019s movies, with films like \u2018Annie Hall\u2019 and \u2018Manhattan.\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

While there have been several black romantic comedies to be released since \u2018Boomerang,\u2019 it\u2019s 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\u2019t get international distribution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH: <\/strong>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, \u201cLook. I don\u2019t know how you make a romantic comedy with Eddie Murphy with that big nose and big lips.\u201d I was like, \u201cWow!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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Who knew at the time that, besides Eddie, some of the cast would become leading players (Halle Berry, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock) in Hollywood?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH:<\/strong> I remember talking to one of the producers at the time and saying, \u201cTen years from now, people won\u2019t believe we had all these people in the same cast.\u201d 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\u2019m so grateful that that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

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After this film did very well, it would be another four years before you did \u2018The Great White Hype.\u2019 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>RH: <\/strong>That was one of the tragic circumstances. We thought this movie would start a chain of films like this and it didn\u2019t. There was this real hostile reaction in certain corners in Hollywood to the film. Eddie wasn\u2019t 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 \u2018Boomerang\u2019 was a failure. It was not a failure. Did it make as much money as \u2018Beverly Hills Cop?\u2019 No, but it\u2019s still a successful film by any measure. His next film was \u2018Distinguish Gentleman,\u2019 and to them, it was Eddie as they wanted him to be, a fast talking con man. That movie wasn\u2019t nearly successful as \u2018Boomerang.\u2019 It\u2019s not fondly remembered today. At the time, there was a negative pushback in mainstream Hollywood to the notion and prospect of what \u2018Boomerang\u2019 represented.<\/p>\n

What did you want to do afterwards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH:<\/strong> For me, I sort of looked at George Lucas\u2019 career. He did the teen comedy \u2018American Graffiti\u2019 and went on to do \u2018Star Wars.\u2019 I always wanted to do the same thing. I figured I\u2019d do \u2018House Party\u2019 and then do my version of \u2018Star Wars.\u2019 I had a big sci-fi project, and several of them, that I kept trying to get off the ground and wasn\u2019t successful at getting those off the ground. It hit this glass ceiling in Hollywood. I certainly don\u2019t blame the system. I wasn\u2019t 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, \u201cNow we want you to do our movies.\u201d We still wanted to do what we wanted to do, but \u201cIf you want to work, you will do our movies.\u201d We each hit this point of frustration that none of us could figure how to work around.<\/p>\n

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Twenty years later, things have changed. With the success of \u2018Think Like A Man,\u2019 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH: <\/strong>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\u2019re all chained together, whether we like it or not. All of us have to root for each other\u2019s success. For me, when I hit that frustration, I realized that the only way we\u2019re 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\u2019re 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\u2019s get a little tight. What\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, San Diego Comic Con is coming up fast (July 11) and you\u2019re always a fixture there, participating in the Black Panel and as the former writer of the Black Panther comic book. There\u2019s 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? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>RH: <\/strong>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\u2019m very proud of my contribution to the Panther. I wrote the character for five years and I\u2019ve sold more copies of the Black Panther than any other creator on the book. It\u2019s up to Marvel\u2019s decision 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\u2019s 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\u2019m working on a big kick ass film and hopefully that success will encourage people to make more movies about black heroes.
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\nThis festival will be different as not only are you doing the panel, but you will also be there as a producer for Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u2018Django Unchained.\u2019 How did you get involved with the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>RH:<\/strong> That came out of my relationship with Quentin. I\u2019ve 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\u2019t entertaining but you\u2019re supposed to watch them anyway because they are good for you. I don\u2019t 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 \u2018Spartacus,\u2019 and if you\u2019re not going to make a movie that entertaining about the American experience, I\u2019m 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, \u201cYou planted the seed, so now here\u2019s the tree.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWow!\u201d We worked on the film and here we are.<\/p>\n

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How much is your involvement as a producer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH:<\/strong> It\u2019s everything. I\u2019ve been on it literally from the beginning. Quentin is a real auteur. He\u2019s a brilliant filmmaker and I\u2019m 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\u2019m there to help solve those problems so he can do his job and make his movie.<\/p>\n

How was the reception at the recent NABJ conference in New Orleans?<\/strong><\/p>\n

RH: <\/strong>Oh my God, people loved it. Wherever we go, we\u2019ve had two or three instances where we\u2019ve shown seven to eight minutes of footage to folks; and everywhere we go, people just lose their minds. We\u2019re putting together the plan for Hall H at Comic Con now and there will be an impressive array of folks there.<\/p>\n

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