I laid into Ice Cube a little while back for co-signing ridiculously low brow fare for so-called urban audiences in the form of a screen adaptation of yet another “chitlin’ play.” But it appears that he’s about to get some company on my shitlist as today brings news of another stupid ‘hood comedy that has been conceived, and is being written and directly entirely by black people. If there are indeed racist executives or creative people in
Lottery Ticket is a treatment by one Abdul Williams about what happens to a teenager in the ‘hood when he wins a huge lottery but must wait in the projects as it’s a 3-day weekend, and the lottery office won’t be open. Rogue Pictures bought this garbage and will retain Abdul to write the script with his friend, music video director Erik White, to helm it once it’s done. Williams previously wrote the scripts Bling (groan) for Miramax and Welfare Queen for Queen Latifah to star in at Focus. This guy apparently knows the projects well as his uber-generic script titles seem to mirror the dilapidated malls in urban areas featuring equally uninspired names for stores like Gold Valley, Drug Store, and of course, the ubiquitous Beauty Shop. As long as there are urban terms, this guy will never run out of ideas for films. I look forward to Make It Rain: The Movie appearing on his increasingly full slate next.
It’s not that I don’t want films about the ‘hood to be made, exactly. It’s a significant part of the black American experience and shouldn’t be ignored. But expand the horizons a bit, my people. Every rapper and low budget urban movie house is clogging up video stores, music stores, and bootleggers with direct-to-DVD flicks about the projects. We’re up to our eyeballs in Killa Season and State Property, and those are – sadly – some of the better ones! Time to move on.
After all, what is the point in getting out of the projects if you take them with you everywhere you go?