Hi folks, Precious Roy here with some potentially cool news: Sony has acquired the rights to the 1972 blaxploitation classic SUPER FLY. Watchmen co-scripter Alex Tse is penning the screenplay, with Joel Silver producing. We’ve no word yet on whether Sony is moving to acquire the rights to the original Curtis Mayfield soundtrack—crucial to the film’s success, and in fact, more successful than the film itself. A better guess would be that a relevant artist like Kendrick Lamar will be tapped to do a new soundtrack, or cover "Pusher Man".
The original followed a drug pusher named Youngblood Priest (the greatly-missed Ron O’Neal), as he tries to retire from the business amidst crooks, betrayals, and a boss who wants to keep him right where he is. To get out, Priest must outwit and out-thug the entire neighborhood, and keep his girlfriend safe. If you’ve never seen SUPER FLY and need a frame of reference, CARLITO’S WAY is a shinier, more tragic version of a similar story.
It might seem to some an unusual time to remake this film, when pot is being legalized, the inherent racism in the War on Drugs is starting to become publicly accepted knowledge, and when police shootings of unarmed blacks are at an all-time high. Perhaps Sony sees the cultural parallels in 1972 and today, of Watergate and the Trump/Russia collusion, and is rolling the dice to see if lightning strikes again.
As protagonists go, Youngblood Priest is an anti-hero, through-and-through. He is not what you might call a ‘nice’ man; he’s a fair man, but fair like Solomon. If you play him around, like Fat Freddie did, well, your wife just might be turning tricks to make up what you owe him.
…or you might just wind up dead.
The film is already casting its crucial leads…. Hopefully, more news to come soon. I am not sure the world needs a new Super Fly. This could either be a highly cynical cash-grab, or they might just produce something for today, that resonates with audiences. Joel Silver has a reputation for the former, but this sock-puppet is hoping for the latter. Youngblood Priest served a cultural need back then, and it would be great if it could serve that same need today, albeit in a slightly different context.
Dark Horizons has the info about it here: http://www.darkhorizons.com/watchmen-writer-plans-superfly-remake/
Precious Roy
