Black Superheroes Movies - Part 3

[chamber-music]

You already know why.

Pretty much

I've seen more than my fair share of certain comics fans barely concealed prejudice especially when it concerns the character of Luke Cage.

Part of why I wasn't a hundred percent behind John Singleton's attempt to do a Luke Cage movie was because he seemed all to happy to make a movie that seem confirmed those small minded racists point of view of the character.

 

[SoulManX]

Pretty much

I've seen more than my fair share of certain comics fans barely concealed prejudice especially when it concerns the character of Luke Cage.

Part of why I wasn't a hundred percent behind John Singleton's attempt to do a Luke Cage movie was because he seemed all to happy to make a movie that seem confirmed those small minded racists point of view of the character.

So true

 

[roach]

Roach did you find it difficult writing Cage? Like did you want him to stray far away from any kind of stereotype but felt that some might have been necessary in order to sell the script?

And this may be off topic but how do you go about selling a script based on already copyrighted characters? Do you just just write it and push it without worrying about the legal matters or does your agent worry about all of that?

I think the biggest problem I had writing Cage is his story would take place in NYC. After Avengers came out would the GA believe that a problem would arise that only Luke Cage could solve but wouldn't attract the Avengers or Shield.
A lot of the filmmakers who adapt comic book characters eliminate a lot of silly or strange ideas when bringing heroes to the big screen. I felt that I could eliminate the stereotypical fat from the story. I would have loved to write a story where he beats up the FF and steals there plane to go to Latveria and beat up Dr. Doom over $200 but that comes across as stereotypical as hell. The fact that he had a hero for hire business and was always broke is also stereotypical. Once I answered the most basic question of What would you do if you were sent to prison for a crime you didnt commit and gain super powers and broke out...then the story started to write itself.

I dont know if you know the story behind Kevin Tancharoen. He directed the Mortal Kombat trailer that blew everyone's mind. WB called him in and he created the webseries and will be directing the new movie.
I had come up with the idea to do this with Black Panther. Create a kick ass trailer put it on the web and see if it attracts Marvel's attention. Once I pitched the idea to my agent he was onboard. He came back and told me Marvel had a list of characters that they were dying to do but had no idea how to do. They had a script for BP already and was looking for a script for Luke Cage.

You can write a script based on a copywrited character as long as you sell it to the company that owns the character and dont try to make money off it without the parent company. The biggest problem with it is if they dont like the script you have wasted time on it because you cant sell it to anyone else. Which is why while I am focusing on my own scripts while working on Marvel projects

 

[terry78]

Wasn't he basically taking on like smaller ante problems within the city that the more established heroes wouldn't really notice? More specifically in the hood? I know Spider-Man being in Queens probably handles more hood stuff once in a while, but not always.

 

[chamber-music]

The fact that he had a hero for hire business and was always broke is also stereotypical.

Well to be fair he was broke because if he genuinely did a good heroic deed for a innocent person he wouldn't accept payment from them.

Also sometimes people would stiff him and not pay him.

Wasn't he basically taking on like smaller ante problems within the city that the more established heroes wouldn't really notice? More specifically in the hood? I know Spider-Man being in Queens probably handles more hood stuff once in a while, but not always.

Yep cage was about helping out his neighbourhood. When he became an Avenger he partly saw that as just expanding the protection of his neighbourhood and people.

SHIELD or The Avengers don't usually deal with street level crime or even highend organised crime which is what guys like Cage, The Punisher and Daredevil were for.

 

[roach]

Well to be fair he was broke because if he genuinely did a good heroic deed for a innocent person he wouldn't accept payment from them.

Also sometimes people would stiff him and not pay him.

Yep cage was about helping out his neighbourhood. When he became an Avenger he partly saw that as just expanding the protection of his neighbourhood and people.

SHIELD or The Avengers don't usually deal with street level crime or even highend organised crime which is what guys like Cage, The Punisher and Daredevil were for.

It still fits into the stereotype that black people can't handle money. I just thought that in this day and age where talentless rappers can become millionaires a man that is bullet proof and super strong would make some money.
While they might be street crime heroes both DD and Punisher took on heads of crime families in their movies. In my script not only was he taking out a gang with Chitauri weaponry but he was also gonna take down the Maggia.

I had this scene written where Cage is moved into a pretty swank office in manhattan. He doesnt know who bought the office for him. He enters and meets Nick Fury. Fury feels he is too busy looking at the big picture that he misses the small things. He wants H4H to handle the small things before they become big. He then introduces Cage to Iron Fist....and thats how the movie ends

 

[SoulManX]

I think the biggest problem I had writing Cage is his story would take place in NYC. After Avengers came out would the GA believe that a problem would arise that only Luke Cage could solve but wouldn't attract the Avengers or Shield.
A lot of the filmmakers who adapt comic book characters eliminate a lot of silly or strange ideas when bringing heroes to the big screen. I felt that I could eliminate the stereotypical fat from the story. I would have loved to write a story where he beats up the FF and steals there plane to go to Latveria and beat up Dr. Doom over $200 but that comes across as stereotypical as hell. The fact that he had a hero for hire business and was always broke is also stereotypical. Once I answered the most basic question of What would you do if you were sent to prison for a crime you didnt commit and gain super powers and broke out...then the story started to write itself.

I dont know if you know the story behind Kevin Tancharoen. He directed the Mortal Kombat trailer that blew everyone's mind. WB called him in and he created the webseries and will be directing the new movie.
I had come up with the idea to do this with Black Panther. Create a kick ass trailer put it on the web and see if it attracts Marvel's attention. Once I pitched the idea to my agent he was onboard. He came back and told me Marvel had a list of characters that they were dying to do but had no idea how to do. They had a script for BP already and was looking for a script for Luke Cage.

You can write a script based on a copywrited character as long as you sell it to the company that owns the character and dont try to make money off it without the parent company. The biggest problem with it is if they dont like the script you have wasted time on it because you cant sell it to anyone else. Which is why while I am focusing on my own scripts while working on Marvel projects

How did you meet your ex-agent?

 

[chamber-music]

Black people not being able to handle money must be some African American sterotype because I've never heard of that one.

If there is a stereotype about black people and money its that we are tight fisted.

Luke Cage kicked Doctor Doom, Iron Man and Sabertooths ass in the old comics.

I would use Luke Cage enemies the McIver (Bushmaster, Power Master family villains who were Maggia affilates. It would make a change to see powerful black supervillains instead of the regular Italian gangsters trope for a change especially Caribbean ones.

Of John, Quincy and Cruz Bushmaster only Quincy is alive now in the comics as a member of the serpent society. Its funny how many Luke Cage villains had snake themes.

 

[roach]

I live in a dorm type house and there are various people trying to get into the entertainment industry...dancers, writers, actors...you name it. One is an agent on a smaller agency. Once I pitched the idea he came back and said he knew someone in Marvel.

 

[roach]

Black people not being able to handle money must be some African American sterotype because I've never heard of that one.

If there is a stereotype about black people and money its that we are tight fisted.

Really?? We'll spend money putting rims on a ford escort. We'll have a fancy car but live in an apartment. We'll put our cable and phone bills in our kids names. I have heard this one for a while.


Luke Cage kicked Doctor Doom, Iron Man and Sabertooths ass in the old comics.

I would use Luke Cage enemies the McIver (Bushmaster, Power Master family villains who were Maggia affilates. It would make a change to see powerful black supervillains instead of the regular Italian gangsters trope for a change especially Caribbean ones.

Of John, Quincy and Cruz Bushmaster only Quincy is alive now in the comics as a member of the serpent society. Its funny how many Luke Cage villains had snake themes.

Can't uses Doom or Sabertooth as villains and I dont see Marvel letting Cage beat IM.
In a first movie I felt he had to fight Stryker, the guy who put him in jail.

 

[chamber-music]

It would be cool if Eddie March showed up in Iron Man 3. His pretty much a forgotten character these days but he was the first black guy to use Tonys armor. He showed up almost a decade before James Rhodes did as well.

 

[chamber-music]

Really?? We'll spend money putting rims on a ford escort. We'll have a fancy car but live in an apartment. We'll put our cable and phone bills in our kids names. I have heard this one for a while.

Well I'm not African American so perhaps thats what happens in the U.S but I don't see that happen so much in the Carribbean and African communities here in the UK.

Some people are materialistic and have poor financial skills especially those ghetto fabulous gangster rapper wannbe types but its never been a trait overly associated with with Black people in general from what I've seeen or heard in my life.

Perhaps its a cultural thing of flaunting wealth being seen as vulgar or crass in British society or the fact that black people in the UK are all descended from immigrants so perhaps there are more of them who save or value the money they earn more.

In Everybody Hates Chris Terry Crews dad character was super tight penny pincher.

 

[terry78]

Well, we're all labeled as thugged out gangbangers who deal in crime regardless of how classy we may be, and I think that's across the board.

 

[RockSP]

I'm a crimed out thug who deals in gangbangers, myself. I defy stereotypes.

 

[E-Man]

well during the rewrite I had changed Carl from a football player to a boxer...as a child Stryker and he broke into an old gym and tried to steal some of the old trophies...and old trainer stops them and sees something in Carl. He begins training Carl as a boxer and this is what takes Carl off the streets. He tells Carl that all it takes to inspire people is the heart of a champion and retold a story of how Joe Louis inspired people when he became the Champ. This would go into what inspires Carl to create Cage....during the course of the story the old man would die when Carl is incarcerated.


this setback has inspired me to go forward and while I may not write Luke Cage I am gonna try to pull a Kevin Tancharoen and try to direct it. Im meeting with several people out here to do short film trailers based on characters.....Luke Cage is one...Black Panther is another

I like this origin a lot. Being a boxer gives him a reputation that he's not the guy you wanna mess with, and trying to steal a trophy as a kid isn't some straight up thug stuff because you could easily spin it as them breaking into the gym on a dare and trying to steal something. Plus the Joe Louis similarities work really well.

 

[MadVillainy]

Roach did you find it difficult writing Cage? Like did you want him to stray far away from any kind of stereotype but felt that some might have been necessary in order to sell the script?

And this may be off topic but how do you go about selling a script based on already copyrighted characters? Do you just just write it and push it without worrying about the legal matters or does your agent worry about all of that?

I'd like to know this as well

 

[roach]

The main thing is you want to have an agent and then study the world the characters inhabit. Ronald D Moore who created the reimagined Battlestar Galactica got his start when he submitted a script to Star Trek The Next Generation. He did this thru an agent and based on the strength of the script got a job on the writer's staff. Sometimes is just being in the right place at the right time.
I found out that Marvel was looking for scripts on a few projects and Luke Cage was one of them.

 

[MadVillainy]

agents get 10% right

 

[roach]

yep

 

[Kar]

Thanks roach that was really helpful. Guess I should get started on looking for an agent. I had a script I was working on for a Static movie I just didn't know how to go about moving it anywhere. And I just finished a Power Rangers reimaging script that I definitely want to get in the right hands, and seeing as how you said it has to go to the company that owns it I guess that'd be Saban?

Thanks again.

 

[Paradox1]

I like the ideas I heard roach for Luke cage but MMA is all the rage in the fight game.

 

[chamber-music]

Noel Clarke got no luck with Marvel Studios or WB

Some worthy-sharing revelations from Brit renaissance man, Noel Clarke, lifted from an interview he did with Den Of Geek, while doing press for his latest film, The Knot, which opened in the UK over the weekend.

We've already reported on his desire to break into Hollywood, and make a name for himself, in much the same was as he's done in the UK, and previously said that his fans had been lobbying for him to play Black Panther, the Marvel superhero.

Den Of Geek asked him about that, but more broadly, about his interests in expanding his brand beyond the UK, and this is what he had to say:

There are plans, there are plans to go overseas, 100%. There are two or three scripts now that are starting to get set up, and three out of four are set abroad.



And about the Black Panther movie, and whether he's talked to Marvel about it:

They’re not interested, man. I’ve tried everything. I’ve offered to write the film, they’re not interested. Obviously I’d love to play the part, they’re not interested. I wanted to write Black Lightning for DC, they’re not interested. I’ve tried. I want Supergirl, they’re not interested. They’re just not interested. ​

So, uh, I guess what you're trying to say Noel is that Marvel's just not interested?! Interesting... I would've loved to be a fly on the wall during those conversations, to hear how exactly they went on.

Unfortunately, Clarke doesn't reveal anything more than "they're not interested." But at least he's being proactive, taking matters into his ow hands, instead of waiting to be approached, which may not happen otherwise.


But Marvel has been dragging their heels on this Black Panther movie for years now, so, it'll take a lot more than Noel Clarke to move the needle. He's big in the UK, but still practically unknown here in the USA, and really much of the rest of the world. I couldn't see Marvel going with him for Black Panther.


And what's this about Black Lightning (one of the earliest Black superheroes) and Supergirl?

Can't knock his hustle though. He's almost as prolific as Tyler Perry, with at least 3 movies out in UK theaters this year. And he does say, because Marvel and DC aren't interested in his working with them on their superheroes, he's created his own.

I have done, I have done. I’ve written a superhero movie, it’s sitting on my laptop, much like many of my other films. Again, it’s not expensive, but it’s too expensive for anyone to take the risk.​

What that superhero movie is, he doesn't say.

This certainly won't be the last we'll be hearing from Noel Clarke. He co-stars in 3 upcoming films that'll are scheduled to be released in 2013, none that he wrote or directed; so expect announcements of Noel Clarke-branded projects squeezed between those 3.

I don't think he would be right acting wise for Black Panther or Black Lightning but I think he could write and direct a good Black Lightning, Luke Cage or Static movie if WB were willing to give him a chance.

Good on him for doing it himself though.

 

[roach]

I like the ideas I heard roach for Luke cage but MMA is all the rage in the fight game.

I agree that MMA is all the rage...however one of the themes I wanted to go with was how a larger than life person could inspire the community...Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali were boxers who inspired people.
Im sure there is a larger than life MMA fighter but I dont know who they are.

 

[p4poetic]

I was surprised to see so many black/poc characters in the CW's Arrow

http://www.blackfilm.com/read/2012/...s-colin-salmon-featured-in-green-arrow-pilot/

Already ahead of Smallville in the diversity apartment with just one episode.

 

[Anubis]

Mickey from Dr. Who for BP?

Ehhhh I don't know man.