John Singleton is a pretty decent director. He’s done a couple of ass awful films, but he’s also done some exceptional ones as well. He’s talented enough of a filmmaker that it got a bunch of people pretty excited when it was announced that he was attached to helm the screen adaptation of the comic book hero Luke Cage (Hero for Hire). But since the announcement that Singleton was attached, nothing has really happened. Why?
Well, Singleton is suggesting that the reason the project isn’t moving faster is because of racism. The folks over at ComicBookMovie give us the following:
QUESTION: Next directing projects?
John Singleton: I don’t know if I’m doing Luke Cage. I want to do Luke Cage.QUESTION: Frustrated with development?
John Singleton: Yeah. For me, the guy’s a hero. I’ve been wanting to do the movie since I was a kid and I’m not going to do it unless it’s right.QUESTION: With all the comic book movies, why haven’t they jumped on?
John Singleton: Well, because it’s a black superhero and so studios still, some studios, don’t understand that yeah, it is a black superhero but so what? He’s a superhero. That hasn’t been done yet. Like I said, unless it’s right, I ain’t gonna do it.
Personally I think Singleton is WAY OFF and needs to keep three things in mind before making comments like that.
First of all, Hollywood has explored and embraced Black superheroes a few times. Storm and Blade are a couple that come to mind. So one can’t say studios aren’t willing to try a hero just because they’re black or white.
Secondly, keep in mind that the vast majority of Superhero movies are based on OLD comics from an age when most of the heroes were indeed white. I think that’s more of a commentary on those times than today’s times. The proven and established comic books come from a time when the characters where predominantly white, so you can’t hold it against the studios today for using those characters whey they have the name brand.
Thirdly, Luke Cage isn’t exactly a popular character. Look what happened when they went and did a movie on Elektra! It was an unmitigated disaster of huge proportions. This more than anything else is probably what’s making studios hesitant to give the big green light to a project. Superhero movies are expensive to make man, and if you can’t guarantee a return on that huge investment, then who is going to take the risk?
@darren iseley, New line is not the studio making luke cage. the last that had it was sony. an they may not anymore as it has been suggested the rights have returned to marvel.and singleton cant just mnake the film without a budget. or their green light for production. @kristina what do you know about studio pitch meetings? are you a director? screenwriter? producer? do you have any insight with anyone involved in film making whatsoever? did,nt think so. jack burton is right how many studios heads are black? and jaysmack could,t have put it better.
People bring up Blade,thats like when people say theres been a black a black governor.theres been one,EVER!!..Race plays a part in this a great deal.
Why so silent, john?
We haven’t heard any replies to anything the commenters said.
god did it what…i never saw it at the movies…i waited until it was on cable…awful film.
I’m on the fence here.
On the one hand, I don’t see a reason why Singleton can just go ahead and make the film. Cage does not have any Spider-Man like powers. He isn’t Superman. He’s a ‘street’ hero (for hire) who underwent a scientific expieriment which made his skin bulletproof. I don’t see the film as needing a higher budget that say, Singleton’s “Shaft” film, or even “2 Fast 2 Furious”. While I think there may be an element of truth to what he is saying, let’s also say, if he did it, and he does a stellar job…
He will have the last laugh. It is all trivia.
@Jaysmack:
“Road To Perdition, A History of Violence, Howard the Duck, and oh yeah, Men In Black, all made from comics that NOBODY had EVER heard of.”
Actually, “Howard The Duck” had a cult following in the 70’s, and the irony is that everyone knows who Howard The Duck is now not from Steve Gerber’s comic, but sadly from the movie which strayed away from the satire material and was a critical and commercial disaster. Nobody really heard of ‘Blade’- not even a second tier character in ‘Tomb Of Dracula’, but more like the third or fourth supporting, reccuring character.
But we know of Blade now thanks to the films. Interesting that New Line has had success with the Blade films which featured a superhero who happened to be black; and say its an action film with vampires and the like if you want; Blade is still a superhero. Why can’t they get going on Cage? While we are on the subject, what about other African-American directors who DO get to helm big budget comic book films, and return to do so, even with modest success? That’s why I can’t fully get John Singleton’s view. But if this is the case, then New Line obviously does not want to make a ‘Cage’ film. Am I right on this assumption? Therefore, New Line should give the rights back to Marvel, or give it to another studio who can work with Singleton.
BTW, I agree with John Campea all the way until #3. Elektra was known in comics circles thanks to Frank Miller; it was the movie that stunk.
Jaysmack is totally right. I have no doubt in my mind that the fact that this character is black is preventing it from getting made.
and john unfortunately you have to remember that jennifer garner is not eddie murphy.
as bad as norbit looks to us i saw the trailer and everyone was laughing with it.
elektra bombed not just because it was bad but beracuse it was a complete nothing film spun off from a film ythat was not very well received to begin with…plus it was bad.
that didn’t help
wow jaysmack…good ass post, i didn’t want to say anything but you really make some good points in the post. i also agree with chisox….props on real debate instead of people just talking out of their asses
peace….
Blade was originally supposed to be a blaxploitation film, according to David Goyer. Goyer, more than anyone else, was responsible for Blade being colorblind, certainly not the studios.
And including Storm in any list of black superhero movies is lame, she was at best an “Also” starring, not THE star. Spawn doesn’t count either since he was only “black” for the first ten minutes, after that he was a scarred freak the rest of the film. Good try, though.
And hiding behind the “comic book needs ‘name regonition'” argument is equally lame and flies in the face of other movies like Road To Perdition, A History of Violence, Howard the Duck, and oh yeah, Men In Black, all made from comics that NOBODY had EVER heard of. Luke Cage has more “name recognition” than any of those titles, yet Cage is somehow “obscure” or billed as “lower-profile” while these other high-profile comics (who hadn’t heard of History of Violence?) get made. The fact we’re talking about Luke Cage and his comic history (and every mention of a Cage movie pops up ALL over the internet movie sites) shows there’s awareness of him.
Singleton’s dead right. Hollywood IS color-struck. The success of Blade rankled the nerves of the studio heads and now they simply want the idea of black superheroes being perceived as bankable movies to fade away. And those people who think they’re clever by naming any comic-book movie that had even one black character in it (even peripherally) need to stop. If naming Halle Berry and Spawn are vaild (what a joke!) then you might as well name X-Men 3 (Callisto) and Catwoman (Benjamin Bratt) as irrefutable proof there have already been plenty of Hispanics as superheroes, when in truth there’s only been one movie that I can recall, SharkBoy and LavaGirl and that had to be made by a Hispanic!
Blade was the movie that jumpstarted comic-book adapatations after Batman and Robin nearly killed the genre, but Blade will NEVER get credit for that, certainly not here. People need to give Singleton credit for calling it as it is and back his stand.
Were is this article was racism implied? I guess my definition of racism is different than others. All I get from is piece is him implying that the studios think that a black super hero would not have a major box office audience. And they are right to point. Tyrese is attached to play Cage in this film, so that combined with a conservative budget will barely make a dent in an already crowded box office. To be honest the only way a film like this would succeed is if a certain type of place actor(read into that whatever want) plays the lead. If the studios can get ahhhhhhh… money in the bank Will Smith, then you have a potentially lucrative film.
Further more as good as the Blade series was I don’t think they crossed 100 million domestically, which is a shame.
People need to be cautious about how they throw the race card, or it loses impact. Everybody’s afraid of offending people, so the second race gets thrown out, people immediately back off. It’s bullshit to say that a character I’ve never even heard of hasn’t gotten a movie because of race.
Three X-Men movies with Storm. Three Blade movies. Spawn.
Also, one more word:
STEEL.
Spawn was based on a black superhero. I didn’t even know who Luke Cage was until I got Ultimate Alliance for Xbox 360, and he was one of the characters. Aren’t they talking about a spin of to Iron Man already base on his black partner War Machine. I think hollywood does need more ethnic hero’s but on the same note they have to be bankable.
ok, i’m not familiar with the luke cage comics, so maybe there are other reasons that are story related that are causing some reluctance from the studios.
from reading the comments, it sounds like studios could be uncomfortable with the Harlem background, the fact that the story could be very african-american, and maybe other story issues.
A movie like Blade wasn’t an african-american story, meaning his blackness wasn’t an issue or central to the story.
i don’t think your third point is very valid. as Blade has shown, it doesn’t even matter if the character was very popular or not. Blade was even less well known than Luke Cage, and it did decent box office. look at Garfield, a character that was popular in the 80s and early 90s, and that was a huge hit. and Elektra is actually more popular than Blade, she had her own comics and played a major role in Daredevil. BUT the Elektra movie flopped while Blade didn’t.
i don’t think Singlton was saying the studios are racist. He’s saying studios are more reluctant to use black leads, because films with black casts generally earn less in the foreign market. It’s generally ok for 1 or 2 characters to be black, but not anymore than that.
OK lets get black…err back on topic here (god Im funny today)
Singleton is a playa yo! he made a very smart move today, playing that race card. You get rich white people all uppity about being labelled “racists” and they start doing everything to appear as unracist as possible.
In case people haven’t noticed, Hollywood has been recognizing alot of black talent of late (Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Forrest Whitaker, Jaime Foxx to name a few) all positive moves in the right direction, all of the above mentioned are extremely talented.
There is no way they are going to move backwards on this “agenda of awknowledgment”. Luke Cage will get made, it will have a decent budget, it will be directed by John Singleton and while all of this may have happened anyways, Singleton’s comments just accelerated the whole process and he knows it.
Singleton isn’t some new kid on the block, he knows how to play the game, he knows the result that those kind of accusations will make.
Nord
Honestly, I have never heard of Luke Cage before today. For those of you that heard of Luke Cage, is the story worth making a movie?
If I understand Singleton’s comment, he is saying the studios aren’t interested in making a movie just because the hero is black. I can see the studios perspective – making a movie based on race might be tough, especially from a comic book. Movies like “Blade” and “X-Men” worked for me, because, race wasn’t an issue, it was the story that had me sold.
So the question remains: Is Luke Cage about racism? Or, is Luke Cage about fighting against evil (without racism being addresses)?
Typo correction: About Gibson, I was trying to say that 99% of the American populace has NEVER heard of.
Lalaland preaches tolerance and jumps on anyone they perceive to be “bigots” or “racists”, but they’re really the biggest bigots and racists of them all. It’s a caste system over there, and white guys/gals are the top dogs, and they ain’t never going to let go. Name me one minority chief of a studio. If there is one, I don’t know about it; and if there is one, he’s probably the only one. People hire people that looks like them because it makes them feel more comfortable; people make movies about people like them because it makes them feel comfortable.
But I digress. Here’s why they probably will never make LUKE CAGE:
BLADE was less a superhero movie than a horror/vampire movie. It was sold as an action/horror movie with Snipes named attach. Snipes still had some clout back then, so comparing BLADE to LUKE CAGE with Tyrese Gibson is apples and oranges. As for Singleton, he no longer has the juice to do anything. He’s now just another hack director looking for work. No one makes a movie because they have “Singleton attached”.
The LUKE CAGE comics are barely known. He’s a third, fourth-tier superhero at best, race notwithstanding. If you’re going to make a movie about him, why don’t do one on BLACK LIGHTNING from DC, fer Christ. Same (lack of) name recognition.
In closing, if they’re going to make a movie about Luke Cage, the budget is gonna be small, because no studio in their right mind is going to dish out $100 mil or thereabouts for a movie about a little known superhero starring a guy who 99% of the American populace has even heard of. Hollywood movies are, first and foremost, a BUSINESS, and smart people business hedge their bets.
Since when did a movie being bad have anything to do with how much money it made opening weekend? Norbit anyone?
well said afropik. i never knew this about the luke cage character, and i think it would make a good and different superhero movie.
okay then, back on topic. elektra failed because it was a horrible movie. same with hulk (though i kinda liked it). the punisher’s a very popular superhero and it failed. super mario brother the movie anyone? yeah it’s a video game but it’s hugely popular. so your third and main point doesn’t hold water.
hey John
first time poster….but I met ya at the Films 4 food fest
ooohh…man…I so didn’t want my first post on this messageboard to be about race…..lol especially in Black History month
But I understand what Singleton is saying…and what you are saying too. But I seem to agree a little more with Singleton
I know “we” think we all know soooo much about how Hollywood is run, because we see movies like “The Player”….go to movie sites like yours…..Aint it cool, Superhero Hype, Cinemablend, Chud…etc But the truth is….we really DON’T know what it’s like to actually pitch a movie to a studio…and get the rejection, time and time again. I think some of us forget that some time.
I know what you’re saying with the whole we got a Blade movie, and the appearance of Storm in the X-Men movies. But those movies……did not touch on the fact that they were black characters
Blade works as a kickass SUPERHERO movie…..not a Black Superhero. I loved how race had NOTHING to do with his character in the movies.
and Storm’s african background is not touched upon in the movies (even Halle Berry’s african accent in the first X-Men film was dropped in the sequels)……and that worked. Even though I was a little bummed by it.
Elektra didn’t work because it was a rushed production..I’m sure if it was taken seriously like the Spider-Man franchise, or X-Men franchise (lol untl X3 of course) it would have made a great movie
……………………………………………………………………………………..
a character like LUKE CAGE….well that’s different story
the basis of “most” of his character is that he is a BLACK superhero. One, that as a kid I could really relate to. To me he was basically Shaft with super powers., created in the blaxploitation era of the 70’s
I totally understand where you are coming from…..this is not a straight forward black issue…its more of a “green” issue …..if the studios think Luke Cage will make them a lot of money……then this movie WILL be made. But to think that race has nothing to do with this..I think is wrong
ther character is a hard sell…..but the reason he’s a hard sell is because of the actual character’s background in Harlem
it’s totally easy to make a movie like Stomp the yard or Drumline….because those movies cost less
but CAGE would be a BIG budget film….and that’s where the risk is…….you could always drop all his “history”……but then you might not be making a true Luke Cage movie….so I see where Singleton has problem about making it…until he knows he can honour the character.
What a stupid man, What was the first comic to film after Batman and Robin killed the genre, oh it was Blade a black superhero, which was followed by two movies and a tvshow.
Hey N3WM4RK
Then why do you think no one went to see it opening weekend? Just curious for your opinion.
Yeah, that’s why Elektra was a disaster, because she wasn’t popular enough. Sure.
Hey Nautica
I didn’t realize the post was about racism in general.
His suggestion that an obscure little comic book like Luke Cage not getting the fast track to green light is because of race issues is stupid. It doesn’t matter what his background is. Common sense is still common sense.
I see what you’re saying, but try not to blow the issue outside of the scope of the post and the specific topic at hand… otherwise we end up talking about two totally different things.
CHeers.
i think you need to one thing in mind when commenting on race issues john. you’ve never experienced racism before so you would have no idea what it feels like and how it affects someone. it’s easy to advise somebody to be rational about race when you have never experienced it. this guy lives in LA and have been through alot of it, so can you blame him for feeling this way?