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The Movie Redtails Takes Off Amid Controversy
(1/17/2012)
The movie Retails comes out in America on January 20th, the movie is from the screenplay by John Ridley (he wrote 3 kings, U turn, and Undercover Brother and Aaron McGruder (the creator of the Boondocks) the executive producer is George Lucas. The reason I’m talking about this movie is because of the controversy around it.
Originally George Lucas wanted to release the movie decades ago, but could not find funding for it because they believed it would be no market internationally, and that is where studios make 60% of their profits. Lucas says “This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I’ve been trying to get released ever since,” Lucas told Jon Stewart. “It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all…I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this. (Daily Show)”....
Another issue concerning the movie is if it does indeed fail then Hollywood would be more apt to not finance “black films”. So needless to say this movie has to succeed. Lucas also says...“I realize that by accident I’ve now put the black film community at risk [with Red Tails, whose $58 million budget far exceeds typical all-black productions],” he said. “I’m saying, if this doesn’t work, there’s a good chance you’ll stay where you are for quite a while. It’ll be harder for you guys to break out of that [lower-budget] mold. But if I can break through with this movie, then hopefully there will be someone else out there saying let’s make a prequel and sequel, and soon you have more Tyler Perrys out there.”
As a young film maker myself I hope this movie does succeed, that way other film makers won’t be scared to movies about topics that are not generally touched on.
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