Word: brewers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...writer-director Craig Brewer, 33, the film's July 13 release is the culmination of a five-year odyssey of slammed doors, we'll-call-yous and try-it-our-ways. Cast a rap star in the lead role, not a journeyman actor with zero marquee wattage. Make it in Los Angeles, not in your hometown. And, the Hollywood whisper went, could you please not be a white guy? Taylor Hackford had run up against similar prejudices in the 15 years it took him to make Ray. As Brewer recalls, "I'm sitting there sweating bullets, thinking...
...have dreams. Producers can catch the fever too. Stephanie Allain was a Columbia Pictures executive in 1990 when she signed Singleton, then just 22, to make Boyz n the Hood, which established the urban drama as a viable genre. When Allain could find no studio to say yes to Brewer's script, she sold her house and invested in the project. Then she alerted Singleton. "He loved it," says Brewer, "He said, 'All you need is me to go into the room with you.'" Still no takers. So Singleton put his house up for collateral and financed the movie...
...Brewer got to film it in Memphis, with its rich music tradition that nurtured styles from Sun Records rockabilly (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis) to Stax soul (Isaac Hayes, who has a small role here, and Otis Redding). "I wasn't making a black movie," Brewer insists. "I was making a Memphis movie. It's my love letter to Memphis...
...whores sings the chorus on her boss's song; another turns tricks to raise money for sound equipment. The track is engineered by a geeky white guy (DJ Qualls). When he's dismissed as a doofus white, Key replies, "No, he's just light-skinned"--which must be how Brewer, who has black and white friends from all strata of Memphis society, sees himself...
...member Jonathan V. Brewer ’07, who volunteered at the nursing home, said that the elderly residents that did not get a chance to visit their families on Mother’s Day were especially welcoming of the volunteers’ efforts...