A New Era of Black Entertainment - JetMag.com

A New Era of Black Entertainment - JetMag.com

JAMES BOND BY ANY OTHER NAME

I have a confession to make. I grew up on James Bond Movies. Sean Connery was always my favorite. There seemed to be two types of Bonds: the tough Bond and the foppish Bond. The tough Bonds were Connery, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby, Daniel Craig. The foppish Bonds were: Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and David Niven.

I always leaned more to the tough bonds (although Brosnan's last couple of Bond movies were very good). Even though most people didn't resonate to Dalton as Bond, I thought he was great. His tough, realistic portrayal of Bond just came at the wrong time. 

When they rebooted Bond with "CASINO ROYALE," I was blown away by the screenplay, direction, action and acting. Although I never pictured Craig as a Bond, I was immediately drawn in my his taunt portrayal. 

Now there is a big brouhaha about the possible casting of a Black man as James Bond. Though that may be moot now. Idris Elba says all the public debate has killed off his chances of playing Bond. 

To make matters worse, actor Yaphet Kotto who played a Bond baddie way back in "LIVE AND LET DIE" came out publicly and said James Bond cannot be Black. Which to me seemed a silly statement on his part. How many novels and screenplays which originally had Black or Ethnic protagonists have been white-washed by casting Caucasian actors in the starring roles?

That being said, Yaphet Kotto is correct. Ian Fleming created James Bond as a White man of Scottish ancestry.  

Some people are trying to get around this by saying James Bond 007 is a mantle that many men have worn throughout history. While that is an interesting interpretation, it is not true.

Ian Fleming wrote James Bond as one man. And that man is White.

Although I would like to see Idris Elba play James Bond, I would rather see him cast as a spy who lives the Black experience. 

If it weren't for the fact that the character John Henry in my novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is in his early twenties, I would absolutely love someone of Idris Elba's caliber of acting to play him.

However, an interesting thought has come to me. The series of novels I plan to write, will take John Henry through the Cold War from 1961 to 1989 (his character goes off the grid and underground at that point).

My thought is to write the series out of sequence. What do you mean that's crazy? I'm the author. I can do anything I want. One book can be in the 60s, the very next book can be in 89 set during the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1989, John Henry would be in his mid-forties.

WAIT A MINUTE! THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!

Okay, I'm going to end this post right now.

I've got to get Idris Elba on the phone!

Idris... call me!

                        

                       

SIXTH 5 STAR REVIEW ON AMAZON

So I just got my sixth 5 STAR REVIEW on Amazon for my novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY." I'm extremely grateful and very excited that people are reading and enjoying something of mine that I put so much heart and soul into.

I am feeling the pressure to write the sequel (I'm planning at least 10 SPOOK novels). I'm in the middle of a YA now. After that, I'm writing two NA novels (New Adult). Then I will write the sequel to SPOOK, which will find our hero John embroiled in the JFK assassination. Please be patient.

BUY HERE

NEW ERA OF BLACK ENTERTAINMENT

With the recent critical success of “Selma” and the commercial successes of the animated feature “Home” (starring a Black lead voiced by Rihanna) and TV series “Empire,” is Hollywood going to have to rethink its position on Black entertainment having limited appeal? I think so.

Is Hollywood’s sudden consideration of Black actors in film hero roles typically played by white actors enough (Anthony Mackie possibly taking over the role of Captain America, Idris Elba maybe taking on the persona of James Bond)? I don’t think so.

I believe this wave will and should be helmed by Black creators. As a Black screenwriter and novelist, I am devoted to creating cross-media titles for a multicultural audience I feel is the more accurate depiction of America today than what is currently portrayed in books, TV and movies. To that end I have created “SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy.”

Here is an excerpt from the book’s back cover: “In 1961, during the hottest days of the Cold War, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, in a time when the Superpowers are deploying psychic spies behind the Iron Curtain to engage in intrigue and espionage, the CIA discovers a man who just may be the most powerful remote viewer of them all: a Black prison convict named John. Although they hate him because of the color of his skin, although they fear him because of his unnatural abilities, the CIA secretly ‘baptizes’ John into the world of espionage. From Montgomery, Alabama to Istanbul, Turkey, from the Orient Express to Washington, D.C., from Marilyn Monroe’s final moments to the Cuban Missile Crisis countdown, John walks unseen through the annals of history, in its shadow.”

“Spook,” a novel about an African American remote viewer for the CIA during the Cold War and Civil Rights movement, is the first in a series of books that will take the character through the Kennedy assassinations, the shooting of Martin Luther King, the Birmingham riots, Vietnam and other grand historical events. 

As an independent screenwriter in Los Angeles, I have struggled with the industry’s lack of interest in diversity in entertainment. According to the 2014 Hollywood Diversity Report, despite minorities making up more than 36 percent of the U.S. population, out of 172 movies only 11 percent of the films had a minority lead and more than half the films had casts that were 10 percent minority or less.

When I decided to finally write this novel - and several people in Hollywood advised me not to - I knew it was going to be controversial. I wanted a title that reflected the book’s nature. Spook, which is the slang term for a spy and the derogatory slang term for a Black person, was my intended double entendre. This isn’t just a spy thriller. It’s social commentary. The duality of the title is also reflective of the main character John, who ironically enjoys more freedoms in the European countries he is spying in, than in America where he has to sit in the back of the bus or eat at a diner with no restroom for Coloreds.

The relevance of the racial themes in “Spook” can be seen in headlines across America today where young Black men are being killed by law enforcement officials such as in the Michael Brown case in Ferguson.

I am promoting my novel to the African American community and shopping a screenplay adaptation to Hollywood, where I already have interest.

SEE SPOOK HERE

Either way, I'm going to keep pushing and keep creating.

PASS IT ON

My novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" has been out for a few months now and it's exciting to see everything that is happening with it. 

In the past, I would have just written it as a spec script and gone through the traditional channels to try and sell it to a studio or studio level company. The company buying my script would have complete control over how it was produced. They could bring in other writers and change anything they wanted. My biggest concern would be they would change the lead character from African American to White. In initial pitches where I talked about how pivotal the Civil Rights movement was to the story I was telling, I actually got statements like, "I really like the whole Cold War spy/Civil Rights dynamics. But is there a way we can do that and have the lead character be White?  Just for sales' sake."

Or, equally as bad, I shop my script and it doesn't sell. Hollywood gatekeepers have their own agenda and it has nothing to do with finding the best script. It's about deal making, making the most money possible and nepotism. 

Without the backing of a studio or studio level company, my spec scripts that don't sell inevitably end up in the back of my sock drawer.

That's why I'm still excited about going straight to the audience for my novels without a traditional printing house. I don't think a traditional printing house would get it anyway. It's not traditional enough.

Also, by printing and building my own audience, I own the project. It is an intellectual property. I can still license a screenplay adaptation to a studio. Only now, they be would less likely to change anything of major importance in the story.

That being said, I am pleased to find out that people who have read my book are passing it on to other people after they are finished. To me that's the greatest compliment (other than giving me a positive review on my Amazon page).

So, whether you bought my book Online, at Book Soup on Sunset in Los Angeles, Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena or if I've given you a free copy (I carry copies around with me and give a copy to anyone who expresses a true interest in reading it), please pass it on once you're done.

There are a billion books being sold Online. I believe that even with those odds, a good book will eventually find an audience. And I wrote this from the heart.

Thanks.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

SPOOK LIVES

This won't be a very long post. I've been on a very tight schedule between working on the new book and trying to promote the two books I already have out.

GAME

It's too early to say too much, but there is interest in SPOOK as a video game from an award winning filmmaker who has been involved in producing video games for Ubisoft ("Assassin's Creed") for the last few years. We should be meeting soon to discuss the possibility. I never thought of SPOOK as a video game, but once I wrapped my head around it, I had a lot of great ideas including how to visually show a mind being remote viewed (cool). I see it as a story-driven, decision based game with an exotic cast of characters. I'll find out soon if the producer is on the same page as I am.

MOVIE
On the other front, the screenplay adaptation of SPOOK is already out to one studio producer and my manager will be getting it to two other studio companies in the coming weeks.

BOOK
I'm working on new deals for the novel.

I should begin work on the sequel to SPOOK in another six months (I have a couple of other novels that I'm working on first). I'm brainstorming on the title for the new book.

That's it for now. Or in the words of the immortal James Brown, "SAY IT LOUD, I'M BLACK AND I'M PROUD!"

SPOOK NOW IN VROMAN'S

My novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is now in VROMAN'S BOOKSTORE in Pasadena, CA.

It is also in BOOK SOUP on Sunset in Los Angeles.

I want to thank all 5,000 plus of you who downloaded SPOOK over my three day free book promotion in honor of MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

I'm now setting my sights on getting SPOOK into the number one book chain in America: BARNES & NOBLE (it's already in their Online store and you can order it at any B&N).

I don't know if I will be successful, but I'm certainly going to try. Or as MLK once said, "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

Have a happy 2015!