Tulia, the movie that re-unites Monster’s Ball co-stars Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton has found itself a new director. John Singleton, who previously helmed Four Brothers, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Shaft will helm the movie after Carl Franklin dropped out.
The film, about an ACLU lawyer’s efforts to expose a corrupt and racially motivated rash of drug convictions in rural Tulia, Texas, in 1999, is an adaptation of the Nate Blakeslee book “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town.” The film, about an ACLU lawyer’s efforts to expose a corrupt and racially motivated rash of drug convictions in rural Tulia, Texas, in 1999, is an adaptation of the Nate Blakeslee book “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town.”
The whole movie feels to me like a bit of a gimmick to try and revitalise the careers of both Berry and Thornton who can’t get the big dramatic roles anymore. They are going for the nostalgia button here and hoping they can have the same kind of success they had six years ago.
As far as the new director goes, John Singleton’s movies have never done anything for me but neither has Carl Franklin’s, so this don’t change anything for my point of view. Two actors whose work over the past few years have been nothing but shit.
source – coming soon, black film
One Comment
Well the Tulia story was big news in the US, was featured on 60 Minutes even. And Carl Franklin’s stuff has never intrigued me. Singleton on the other hand is just the guy to do this, assuming (as always) the script is right. Berry and Thornton, hopefully they won’t be humping their brains out in this one.
The story is compelling and infuriating that people can be sent to prison with NO evidence whatsoever, which is supposed to be required for a conviction, and it’s an “important” film. All they need is for Singleton to rediscover the form he had in the 90’s to do it.