George Lucas Banks on Black Director Anthony Hemingway for Blockbuster Success of “Red Tails”

George Lucas Banks on Black Director Anthony Hemingway for Blockbuster Success of "Red Tails"

George Lucas wants to end his career on a high note and he’s banking that “Red Tails,” the Tuskegee airmen biopic, with it’s all black cast will do just that. He’s also banking on this movie opening doors for other black films, which Tyler Perry hasn’t had much luck converting to the mainstream. Queen Latifah may just be the one to do that, but we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out this weekend when “Red Tails” opens, if black director Anthony Hemingway will break the mold. Will it lead the weekend box office or will it come in the top five. It’s a sad commentary that “Red Tails” opening January 20, won’t be because studio executives wanted to make this film a reality. No. It’s happening because George Lucas paid for everything — including the prints, the NY Times reports.

“I’m retiring,” Lucas said. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.”

He was careful to leave himself an out clause for a fifth “Indiana Jones” film. But otherwise, “Red Tails” will be the last blockbuster Lucas makes. “Once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to do,” says Rick McCallum, who has been producing Lucas’s films for more than 20 years. “He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker.”

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To execute his popcorn vision of “Red Tails,” Lucas turned to Anthony Hemingway, a 36-year-old director who made his name on TV shows like “The Wire.” Hemingway, who had never directed a feature film, comes from the church of David Simon, which values moral murkiness over naïveté, documentary detail about East Baltimore over an ethnography of the Ewok village. It was like hiring a “Hill Street Blues” veteran to direct “Return of the Jedi.”

But from the beginning, Lucas wanted “Red Tails” to have a black director. “I thought, This is the proper way to do this,” he said. Indeed, to scan the credits in “Red Tails” is to see Lucas’s fidelity to African-American filmmakers. There are two black writers and a black executive producer. Terence Blanchard, a Spike Lee collaborator (“Jungle Fever,” “Malcolm X”), wrote the score, and Art Sims, another Lee veteran, designed the one-sheet. Source: New York Times

Well, I would urge all my readers, no matter what your ethnic background is, go out and see “Red Tails” and learn how the Tuskegee Airmen, despite the racism raging against them, stood proud and fought for their country.  I hope “Red Tails” will be a blockbuster hit, not because of a black director or that it was promoted by black heavyweights such as George Lucas’ black girlfriend, Mellody Hobson, Rev. Al Sharpton or Spike Lee and Richard Parsons (who had baby mama drama some time ago) but because people support the movie to learn about the contributions of these black airmen. This movie, if it makes it big-time, will open the door for other black directors. As I said, Tyler Perry hasn’t quite gotten it right yet, but I am placing my bet on Queen Latifah or a George Lucas protege to bridge that divide. Go out and support “Red Tails” this weekend!