Shawn_Edwards's Blog

IN BLACKFACE?!

Robert Downey Jr. plays a black man in the new movie comedy "Tropic Thunder." Essentially Downey is in blackface which was an ugly and racist practice that was popular amung many white performers in Hollywood back in the day. So is Downey dead wrong for doing this in 2008 or does he get a pass for creativity for showcasing his brilliance as an actor?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIXAR MOVIE?

"Toy Story" versus "Finding Nemo." "The Incredibles" versus "Cars." I really loved "Monster Inc." Pixar has taken animation to the next level with terrific storytelling and breathtaking visuals. Today the sci-fi opus "Wall-E" hits theaters. So what is your favorite Pixar movie?

WHO SHOULD PLAY BARACK IN AN OBAMA MOVIE?

Now that it looks like Sen. Barack Obama will be representing the Democrats in the race for the White House who would you choose to play him in a movie about his life? Will Smith anyone? Or Nick Cannon-Carey if he were older? Who you got?

DOES JENNIFER HUDSON DESERVE BETTER?

Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson co-stars in "Sex and the City." The former "American Idol" contestant who won an Oscar for her role in the 2006 musical "Dreamgirls" plays Carrie Bradshaw's assistant (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the highly anticipated movie based on the popular HBO TV series. However, the question must be asked "Is this the best role Miss Hudson's agent and management could get for the Academy Award winner?" Only one other cast member has even been nominated for an Oscar, Candance Bergman. Sure she Hudson has a song on the movie's soundtrack but doesn't this award winning actress deserve more than being a sidekick?

THE BEST MOVIES AND PERFORMANCES OF 2007  

BEST MOVIE

1. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.)

2. Hairspray (New Line)

3.Transformers (Paramount)

4. American Gangster (Universal)

5. Atonement (Focus Features)

6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Bros.)

7. 300 (Warner Bros.)

8. Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)

9. The Great Debaters (Weinstein Co.)

10. Enchanted (Disney)

BEST ACTOR

1. Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild)

2. Don Cheadle (Talk to Me)

3. Denzel Washington (American Gangster)

BEST ACTRESS

1. Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire)

2. Amy Adams (Enchanted)

3. Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Casey Affleck (Jesse James)

2. Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

3. Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Taraji P. Henson (Talk to Me)

2. Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

3. Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

1. Juno

2. Talk to Me

3. Hairspray

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Todd Haynes (I'm Not There)

2. Ridley Scott (American Gangster)

3. Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse)

BEST WRITER (Original or Adapted Screenplay)

1. Lars and the Real Girl

2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

3. Margot at the Wedding

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Surf's Up

2. Ratatouille

3. Persepolis

ACTOR (UNDER 21)

1. Elijah Kelley (Hairspray)

2. Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad)

3. Khalid Abdalla (Kite Runner)

ACTRESS (UNDER 21)

1. Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray)

2. Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)

3. YaYa DaCosta (Honeydripper)

BEST COMEDY

1. Lars and the Real Girl

2. Knocked Up

3. Walk Hard 

BEST FAMILY FILM (Live Action)

1. Enchanted

2. The Astronaut Farmer

3. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep

BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION (Network or cable, including mini-series) 1. Five Days (HBO)

2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)

3. Pu-239 (HBO)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

2. Lust, Caution

3. La Vie En Rose

SONG (title, singer and movie)

1. "Falling Slowly" Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Once)

2. "Come So Far" Queen Latifah, Nikki Blonsky, Zac Efron and Elijah Kelley (Hairspray)

3. "Do You Feel Me" Anthony Hamilton (American Gangster)

SOUNDTRACK

1. I'm Not There

2. Once

3. This Christmas

BEST COMPOSER (composer and film)

1. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (Jesse James)

2. Johnny Greenwood (There Will be Blood)

3. Marco Beltrami (3:10 to Yuma)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. Darfur Now

2. Ghost of Cite Soleil

3. Mr. Untouchable  

THE NEXT SCARFACE?

In American Gangster, two of Hollywood’s finest, Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington (Training Day, Glory) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator) lead a spectacular cast of accomplished and rising stars—including veteran actress Ruby Dee, the versatile Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jerry Maguire Oscar®-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Armand Assante, rappers RZA, Common and T.I.—in a blistering tale of a true American entrepreneur.  Universal Pictures will release American Gangster nationwide on November 2nd.

American Gangster also brings together an outstanding team of Oscar® caliber filmmakers; producer Brian Grazer, director/producer Ridley Scott and screenwriter Steven Zaillian for a cinematic event that tells the true juggernaut success story of Frank Lucas (Washington), a cult superstar from the streets of 1970s Harlem, who rose to the heights of power by becoming the most ruthless figure in his business.  Lucas was taken down by Richie Roberts (Crowe), an outcast cop driven to bring justice to the streets.  

Filmed on location in New York and Thailand, American Gangster spans the years during the height of the Vietnam War, 1968-1974.  Lucas and Roberts’ efforts in the post-Boomer society—separately and, eventually, together—would mark the beginning of the end of an era of complicit lawlessness that claimed thousands of lives.  And in one corrupt city during one turbulent time, two men living on different sides of the American Dream had no idea they would move from mortal enemies to reluctant allies on the same side of the law.

The legend of heroin smuggler/family man/death dealer/civic leader Frank Lucas was first chronicled seven years ago in a New York Magazine article by journalist Mark Jacobson.  In 2000, executive producer Nicholas Pileggi—who co-wrote the screenplays for Goodfellas and Casino with Martin Scorsese—introduced Jacobson to Lucas, thus beginning a journey in which Lucas recounted his outrageous rise and fall to the journalist.  From watching his cousin murdered by the KKK in La Grange, North Carolina, to earning mind-boggling figures in drug sales to facing a lifetime in prison, Lucas had one stunner of a true tale.   

Jacobson’s subsequent article, “The Return of Superfly,” unfolded the complex story of a desperately poor sharecropper who moved to Harlem and slowly bypassed the usual suspects of its burgeoning heroin scene to rule a New York City empire.  Through selling a purer product at a cheaper price to thousands of addicts in the Vietnam-era streets, Lucas amassed a fortune calculated in the tens of millions—and the eventual attention of the law.  Had he not been pushing an illegal, deadly substance new to this country, Lucas would have assuredly been celebrated as one of the keenest businessmen of the decade, if not the century, for his family-run enterprise.

Growing up penniless in a small Southern town, Lucas arrived in New York in 1946 as a self-described “different sonofabitch.”  For two decades, he worked side-by-side with Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (the inspiration for the 1997 film Hoodlum, starring Laurence Fishburne), serving as the kingpin’s right-hand man until Johnson’s death in 1968—tutored in the ways of gangsters like Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano.  And upon Johnson’s death, Lucas seized the reins.  He changed the name of the game to the hot new import heroin and immediately put his stamp on the city—with a gun to the head of anyone who dared challenge him.  

Fascinated by Jacobson’s article, Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer optioned the project for Imagine Entertainment and met with Pileggi and Lucas to discuss the gangster’s exploits.  Grazer was fascinated by the cautionary tale of a man with “the dream of corporate America who found a way to make a deal with individuals in Southeast Asia that could lead him to the highest grade of heroin.”  He continues, “After he had this heroin, he would make a deal with U.S. military officers to import it in body bags of U.S. soldiers traveling from Vietnam back into America [the so-called Cadaver Connection].  I thought that was a remarkable, inescapable and interesting idea.”  The producer would take this option and turn to veteran screenwriter Steven Zaillian to pen a script based on Lucas’ life.  

Oscar® winner Zaillian was equally fascinated with the unlikely relationship between this multimillionaire thug/entrepreneur and this complicated cop-turned-prosecutor.  He was certain to weave a shattering parable that didn’t just dramatize Lucas’ rise and fall but told of the juxtaposed path of his chief tracker and nemesis.
Roberts, who spent the late 1960s to early ’70s as an Essex County, New York, detective, was the man ultimately responsible for bringing down the folk hero.  Grazer and Zaillian thought that what made this story especially compelling was not just Lucas—who lived by a strict code of family and community as he pushed poison into thousands of lives in the very community in which he lived—but also Roberts, who found his own destiny interwoven with that of the drug kingpin.  

Washington, initially resistant to portray a man whose complex rise to power meant the death of so many, was captivated by the script and came aboard for the lead role.  He was intrigued by the intricate story of Lucas’ life and believed the businessman who had hurt so many was, in fact, trying to redeem himself through years of penance.  
To prepare for the role, Washington says he, “got in a room with Frank, turned on the recorder and talked with him.  I didn’t try to imitate him, necessarily, but Frank’s such a charmer; that’s key to his character.  I played Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter and did the same thing with him—just hung out with him, got him alone and got the truth—or, hopefully, got some version of it.  But with Frank, I said, ‘Don’t tell me anything I don’t need to know.  I don’t want to have to testify.’”  

In his research, the New York native learned more than he thought possible about the drug trade, specifically, the Country Boys’ Blue Magic.  “In those days, as the story is told, heroin was sold for $50,000 to $60,000 a kilo at 50 percent, 60 percent purity,” he comments.  “Frank found it 100-percent pure for $4,200 a kilo and sold it on the street at a higher purity and lower price than his competition.  You can do the math.  He made an incredible amount of money, at one point claiming about a million dollars a day himself.
“However, what interested me in the story was not to glorify a drug dealer, and I told Frank that when I met him.”  Interestingly, Washington wrote the biblical passage Isaiah 48:22 [“There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked”] on his shooting script to remind him of Lucas’ journey and quest for redemption.  

Game for a third collaboration with the director and a third with producer Grazer, Crowe signed on for the part of the complicated and hardened police officer Roberts.  He was interested in how Zaillian’s story captured the time and place in which the corrupt New York City, the borough of Harlem and the slightly simpler world of Roberts’ New Jersey operated as satellites of one another in the drug-fueled era.  Corruption had become so rampant within the Narcotics Special Investigations Unit (SIU) community, according to journalist Mark Jacobson in “The Return of Superfly,” that “by 1977, 52 out of 70 officers who’d worked in the unit were either in jail or under indictment.”  Roberts was the exception to the norm, and Crowe admired what he learned of the man.

With the two lead talents in place, the filmmakers filled out the enormous all-star ensemble with more than 30 principal roles.  Working behind the scenes to bring this remarkable story to the screen, Scott and Grazer also assembled a crew of top-notch craftspersons.  They include acclaimed cinematographer Harris Savides (Zodiac, The Yards), BAFTA-winning production designer Arthur Max (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down), Academy Award®-winning costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator, De-Lovely), two-time Oscar®-winning editor Pietro Scalia (JFK, Black Hawk Down) and composer Marc Streitenfeld (A Good Year).

Executive producers of the drama include Nicholas Pileggi, Zaillian, Branko Lustig, Jim Whitaker and Michael Costigan.

JAY-Z OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF HIS NEW ALBUM, AMERICAN GANGSTER, DUE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6

 

 

JAY-Z Creates Original Material to be Released in Conjunction With Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s American Gangster

 

(New York, NY; Thursday, September 20, 2007):  On November 6, Roc-A-Fella Records and JAY-Z will release the new album AMERICAN GANGSTER.  Separate from the official motion picture soundtrack, this collection of all-new original material is a musical journey and lyrical interpretation of snapshots from the upcoming motion picture American Gangster,  which pairs Oscar® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.  Based on the true story of criminal mastermind Frank Lucas, who came up from the streets of New York in the ’70s, the film is produced by Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer and directed and produced by Ridley Scott.  It opens on November 2.

 

The conceptual, full body of work of the new album balances the line between pure entertainment and real life.  JAY-Z draws upon past experiences, speaking to the harsh reality of the drug trade still taking place in our nation's cities.  While not glorifying the Frank Lucas story, JAY-Z articluates the lure of a gangster's life and stands an example of one who chose to leave those streets behind to go on and become one of the most successful African-American entrepreneurs of our time.

 

Throughout AMERICAN GANGSTER, JAY-Z brings the audience into a world rich in familial relationships, hustling and the lasting effects of drugs on a community.  Through its musical tone, the album complements the story as told in the major motion picture release.

 

About the Film

 

Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, Steven Zaillian and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster.  Washington stars as Frank Lucas, a brilliant entrepreneur and self-made embodiment of the American Dream who comes from nowhere to rule the inner-city drug trade, and Crowe is Richie Roberts, an outcast cop zeroing in on who is outfoxing and outplaying all the familiar Mafia families as he closes in on this unexpected new streetwise superstar.

THE KING ON THE BIG SCREEN

There has NEVER been a big budget Elvis Presley feature film. If Hollywood decided to "green light" an Elvis movie who would you want to star as the King?

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE!

Screened the TRANSFORMERS this weekend and I was BLOWN away. Check out the "official" review on FOX 4 NEWS on July 3. In the meantime who is your favorite Transformer? I'm runnin' with Bumble Bee a true soldier for real ask Puff Daddy...

5 MOVIES YOU GOTTA SEE (RIGHT NOW)!

 

1. GRINDHOUSE -- Do yourself a huge favor and see this movie as soon as possible. Hopefully you are lucky enough to snag a couple of tix to the advance screening so you can see this crazy, sleazy, cool flick without having all of the many surprises ruined. Both Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have both out done themselves and are at the top of their game. (Opens April 6)

 

2. 300 -- Sure most people have already checked out this super cool movie, but go see it again and again. "300" gets better each time you watch it. I'll probably see this groundbreaking new age sword and sandal epic 300 times before it's released on DVD. I've seen greatness and it is "300." (In Theaters Now)

 

3. REIGN OVER ME -- Both Adam Sandler and Kansas City native Don Cheadle deserve Oscar nominations for their stellar performances. Adam Sandler is the best he's ever been at doing the dramatic thing and Don Cheadle is solid as usual in this film that will have grown men crying more than they did while watching the TV classic "Brian's Song" back in the day. (In Theaters Now)

 

4. SMOKIN' ACES -- So you missed this action-packed flick when it was out earlier this year? Well, you missed one heck of a crime caper directed by my good buddy Joe Carnahan. Do yourself a favor and cop the movie when it's released on DVD and check out Jeremy Piven's deliciously over the top performance. In a perfect world his performance would elevate "The Piv" to A-List status. In the real world he's the best kept secret in the biz. (On DVD April 17)

 

5. NORBIT -- Yes, it's really bad! But you have to it to believe it. Then again why waste your time or money when you can just check out "THE NAMESAKE" which is an excellent film. (Both "NORBIT" and "THE NAMESAKE" are in Theaters Now)

 

 

GRINDHOUSE ROCKS!

I can't "officially" review the new movie "GRINDHOUSE," Quentin Taratino's and Robert Rodriguez's sleaze-filled exploitive saga until Friday, April 6 on FOX 4 NEWS but I can say that I was totally "blown away!" by the experience. Yeah, I saw the flick, which is a double feature ("PLANET TERROR" directed by Robert Rodiguez and "DEATH PROOF" directed by Q.T.), this past weekend in LA with my good friend and man did we have a good time. Watching the movie was like the best time you've ever had at the drive-in theater(LOVED the fuax trailers!!!). Crazy man crazy! Not to give anything away but I knew I loved THANKSGIVING for a reason. It's always been my favorite holiday!

If you want to catch a sample of "GRINDHOUSE" check out the "HOT" preview at MYFOXKC on the ENTERTAINMENT page. And then let me know the sleazest movie you ever saw in the traditiion of GRINDHOUSE...  You know stuff like "ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES," "DRAGSTRIP GIRL," "DETROIT 9000" and "I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN."

My personal favorite "DOLEMITE"... Welcome to the GRINDHOUSE!

IS WILL FERRELL THE FUNIEST PERSON MAKING MOVIES TODAY?

I loved "TALLADEGA NIGHTS" last summer and "STRANGER THAN FICTION" was exceptional. Now my man Will Ferrell is back in the really, really, really funny comedy "BLADES OF GLORY" which opens Friday, March 30. So is the dude who delivered such comedy classics as "OLD SCHOOL" and "ELF" the funniest person making movies today?

WHAT IS THE BEST BLAXPLOITATION FILM EVER?

Aiiight in preperation for our Celebration of Black Film and upcoming premiere of our documentary "The 100 Best Black Movies(Ever)" on Saturday, February 3 at The Gem Theater I gotta ask what is the best blaxploitation flick ever? Yes, the blaxploitation era is way cool but what's the coolest movie? I'm rollin' with "Superfly" or maybe "Truck Turner." Can't really decide...

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY AND WHO WOULD YOU THANK IF YOU WON AN OSCAR?

Yeah, it looks easy. Your name gets called and suddenly you've won Oscar. It's NOT that big of a deal except everything about your life will now change and that millions of people are watching and hanging on every word that flies out of your mouth. As we saw Monday at the Golden Globes vets like Meryl Streep can handle the pressure. However, some speeeches are NOT so elegant like Forest Whitaker who stumbled and mubled through his speech after winning the Globe for Best Actor. What would you say?

THE BEST OF 2006

10 BEST FILMS

1. Dreamgirls (Paramount)
2. United 93 (Universal)
3. Tsotsi (Miramax)
4. V for Vendetta (Warner Bros.)
5. Borat (20th Century Fox)
6. The Pursuit of Happyness (Columbia)
7. Idlewild (Universal)
8. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (Rogue Pictures)
9. Stranger than Fiction (Columbia)
10. Hostel (Lionsgate Films)

THE REST

11. Children of Men (Universal)
12. Casino Royale (Columbia)
13. The Devil Wears Prada (20th Century Fox)
14. Bobby (The Weinstein Co.)
15. Akeelah and the Bee (Lionsgate Films)
16. Miami Vice (Universal)
17. The Departed (Warner Bros.)
18. Lucky Number Slevin (The Weinstein Co.)
19. Inside Man (Universal)
20. Miss Potter (The Weinstein Co.)

10 WORST FILMS

1. Phat Girlz (Fox Searchlight)
2. Lady in the Water (Warner Bros.)
3. Snakes on a Plane (New Line)
4. The Wicker Man (Warner Bros.)
5. Mission Impossible III (Paramount)
6. Man of the Year (Universal)
7. Friends with Money (Sony Picture Classics)
8. The Da Vinci Code (Columbia)
9. The Lake House (Warner Bros.)
10. Apocalypto (Touchstone)

10 BEST DVDS

1. The Boondocks (Sony Home Entertainment)
2. Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season (Universal Home)
3. When the Levees Broke (HBO)
4. The Wire: Season 3 (HBO)
5. Miami Vice – Unrated (Universal Home)
6. Akeelah and the Bee (Lionsgate Films)
7. Lucky Number Slevin (The Weinstein Co.)
8. Entourage: Season 2 (HBO)
9. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner Home Video)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Buena Vista)

10 BEST SOUNDTRACKS

1. Dreamgirls (Columbia Records)
2. Marie Antoinette (Verve Forecast)
3. Miami Vice (Atlantic/Wea)
4. Idlewild (La Face)
5. Tsotsi (Milan Records)
6. Madea’s Family Reunion (Motown)
7. Stranger than Fiction (Sony)
8. Step Up (Jive)
9. Bobby (Island)
10. Running with Scissors (EMI America Records)

10 BEST CDS

1. St. Elsewhere Gnarls Barkley (Downtown)
2. Corinne Bailey Rae Corrine Bailey Rae (Capitol)
3. Fishscale Ghostface Killa (Def Jam)
4. Kingdom Come Jay-Z (Roc-a-Fella)
5. Once Again John Legend (Sony)
6. King T.I. (Atlantic/Wea)
7. Hell Hath No Fury Clipse (Re-Up Gang/Star Trak)
8. Game Theory The Roots (Def Jam)
9. Hip Hop Is Dead Nas (Def Jam/Columbia)
10. G-Unit Classics DJ Whoo Kid and 50 Cent (Shadyville)

10 BEST SINGLES

1. “Crazy” Gnarls Barkley
2. “Show Me What You Got” Jay-Z
3. “We Fly High” Jim Jones
4. “Daydreamin’” Lupe Fiasco ft. Jill Scott
5. “Snap Your Fingers” Lil’ Jon ft. E-40 and Sean Paul
6. “Change” Joy Denalane ft. Lupe Fiasco
7. “Shine” Luther Vandross
8. “Pulling Me Back” Chingy ft. Tyrese
9. “That’s Right” Ciara
10. “Me, My Baby, My Cadillac” Sleepy Brown

What were some of your favorites of 2006?