COMPANY TOWN : THE BIZ : Filmmaker Hopes All-Black Film Will Make It to the Mainstream

First-time filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee, 29, wants to make mainstream Hollywood movies with characters “who just happen to be black.”

The problem is, he wants to do so in a marketplace where few, if any movies with all-black casts have ever crossed over to broader audiences, including those directed by his older, high-profile first cousin Spike Lee.

The younger writer-director’s debut movie, “The Best Man,” a $9-million romantic comedy produced by Spike Lee’s company and to be released next month by Universal Pictures, will be Hollywood’s latest test case.

An ensemble film about a group of old college pals who reunite for a friend’s wedding, it’s the latest in a recent wave of movies from black filmmakers that aim to eradicate racial stereotypes, show positive role models for African Americans and focus on issues that cross cultural barriers.

Positive trade reviews from this month’s Toronto Film Festival likened Malcolm Lee’s work to Lawrence Kasdan’s classic reunion film “The Big Chill” and Mike Newell’s independent hit “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”

But unlike those movies, “The Best Man,” which stars Taye Diggs (“The Wood,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”), features an all- black cast with no major crossover stars such as Eddie Murphy or Will Smith. This creates a huge marketing challenge for Universal, which hopes to reach beyond the film’s primary audience of African Americans.

“For the most part, movies with African American casts go into the marketplace with an uphill battle if they aspire to reach a crossover audience,” acknowledged Universal Pictures marketing president Mark Shmuger, who hopes “The Best Man” will be the kind of movie that audiences of all races “will discover.”

Yet even a movie as popular and profitable as 20th Century Fox’s 1995 film “Waiting to Exhale,” which grossed $67 million domestically, “never really crossed over,” according to a top Fox executive. “At best, we got 18% to 20% crossover,” the majority of which were white females.

Studio executives say African American movies that succeed financially typically gross $40 million to $45 million at the domestic box office, but rarely do any significant business overseas.

“Waiting to Exhale” grossed more than that because of what a Fox executive attributed to strong repeat business among African American women who identified with the film’s strong protagonist.

Overseas however, “Waiting to Exhale,” based on Terry McMillan’s bestseller and directed by actor Forest Whitaker, grossed just $14 million.

Two other recent Fox movies, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” ($37 million domestically) and “Soul Food” ($42 million domestically), each grossed less than $2 million internationally.

“Because these movies do no business overseas, you have to make them for a price,” said one studio head.

Universal’s Shmuger hopes that “The Best Man” will strike as powerful a chord with audiences as “Waiting to Exhale” did. Both films deal with such universal themes as fidelity, love, friendship and betrayal.

In a phone interview from New York, Lee said he wanted to make a film that was “very commercial” and that would reflect characters similar to himself and the people he grew up with who were educated, intelligent and leading interesting lives.

“Rarely did I see myself and people I grew up with on screen,” said Lee, who was born in Queens, grew up in Brooklyn and was an English major at Georgetown University.

Lee recalls relating to only a few films over the years, among them George Tillman Jr.’s family drama “Soul Food” and Theodore Witcher’s “Love Jones,” about middle-class singles in Chicago struggling with sex, love and intimacy.

“The Cosby Show,” said Lee, was one of the first TV shows he could relate to.

“I also saw that wedding pictures did really well at the box office and there hadn’t been a wedding picture with a predominantly black cast in awhile,” Lee said. (Charles Burnett directed a 1998 two-part TV movie for ABC called “The Wedding.”)

“The Best Man,” set over one weekend against the backdrop of a wedding, chronicles what happens when an advance copy of the best man’s thinly disguised roman a clef gets into the hands of his college friends, wreaking havoc on their relationships.

Lee says while his film is “not really autobiographical, certainly each one of the characters I’ve been at some point in my life.”

Although he doesn’t dismiss the ideal of someday directing a movie with an all-white cast, Lee says, “My ultimate goal is to make films with African American casts mainstream.”

He sees no reason movies, like music, can’t be colorblind to its audiences.

“All people love Lauryn Hill and Bob Marley,” Lee said. “I don’t see any reason for everyone not to go see a film like mine, which deals with universal themes with characters who just happen to be black.”

When asked why he thinks it’s so difficult for movies and most TV shows to cross over, Lee admitted he’s “not really sure, but it’s gotten to a point in our society that once someone sees a black face on the screen, they say, ‘It’s not for me.’ . . . There’s fear of the unknown and ignorance.”

Unlike many of Spike Lee’s movies, which deal head-on with issues of racism and class, Malcolm Lee said “The Best Man” is “not about race,” nor is it his immediate priority to make those kind of movies--though he promises to “deal with race down the line.”

Lee hopes to bring to the big screen someday his project “Morningside Prep,” based on his experiences while attending a predominantly white prep school. “It’s a modern story of racism,” Lee explained. “It’s not old-fashioned, overt racism, it’s more covert and sly.”

“Morningside Prep”--which Lee made as a short student film that won awards and aired on Showtime--was optioned several years ago by Disney, where he had a $30,000 writing fellowship after graduating from Georgetown.

Disney never made his movie, though Lee said the studio originally wanted it to be “their black ‘Dead Poet’s Society,’ ” but he readily admits the script wasn’t up to snuff. “I don’t think I knew how to write.”

After leaving his yearlong Disney fellowship 10 months in, Lee went to New York University Film School in 1993, where he made short films that “made me a better writer.”

Lee said cousin Spike has been an ongoing influence in his career.

“He’s been more of a mentor, a guiding force, but at the same time we’re different filmmakers and different people from different generations,” said Lee, whose cousin is 13 years older.

“I haven’t defined my style as yet, but Spike is a very visual storyteller in a way I am not,” said Lee. Their fathers are brothers and both musicians.

Lee said the greatest education he has received in filmmaking was working as Spike’s apprentice on several of his movies, including “Clockers,” “School Daze” and “Malcolm X.”

Spike Lee said he’s glad his cousin “came out of the box with his own distinct voice,” because it will discourage people from thinking that the two have similar tastes simply because their related.

“It’s bad enough that people are going to say, ‘He’s Spike’s cousin.’ ”

Spike Lee made a point of not being on the set of “The Best Man,” which he produced with Sam Kitt and Bill Carraro, and gave only creative advice when asked on the script, key casting and editing.

As for “The Best Man’s” crossover potential, Lee said, “There are nuances in the film that reflect the African American experience, but at the same time it’s like Woody Allen’s humor. Even though some things are directed at New York Jews, everyone’s going to laugh at the jokes.”

When it comes to marketing “The Best Man,” Spike Lee said he is “trying to give Universal as much guidance as I can, to try not to get boxed in and just see this as a black film.”

Shmuger believes the movie has a shot at reaching a wider audience because “it’s . . . a glamorous Hollywood movie with stars who play out a very relatable universal premise.”

Shmuger said there are three phases to the marketing campaign. The first is aimed at creating a strong buzz among a core African American audience, ages 18 to 49. The second phase hopes to broaden awareness among a crossover audience, and the third, to reach all segments of the moviegoing audience a week to 10 days before the movie opens Oct. 22.

One veteran studio executive said that for black movies to cross over, “Their subject matter must transcend race, otherwise race is an issue.” The executive, who said “The Nutty Professor,” which starred Eddie Murphy and had an all-black cast of characters but one (the villain), achieved success (grossing nearly $279 million worldwide) because “it wasn’t about race, it was about funny.”

And Hollywood, he noted, “is not about race, but about making money.”

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Waiting to Cross Over

Movies with predominantly black casts rarely cross over to mainsteam audiences, nor do they sell overseas. Here is a list of some of those firms and how they fared at the domestic box office:

Movie/year of release Studio Gross (in millions) Waiting to Exhale, 1995 Fox $67.0 The Preacher’s Wife, 1996 Buena Vista 48.1 Soul Food, 1997 Fox 42.7 Money Talks, 1997 New Line 40.9 How Stella Got Her Groove Back, 1998 Fox 37.7 Set It Off, 1996 New Line 35.9 The Wood, 1999 Paramount 24.7 The Players Club, 1998 New Line 23.0 Beloved, 1998 Buena Vista 22.8 Don’t Be a Menace, 1996 Miramax 20.1 Booty Call, 1997 Sony 20.1 Half Baked, 1998 Universal 17.5 Eve’s Bayou, 1997 Trimark 14.8 How to Be a Player, 1997 Gramercy 14.8 Why Do Fools Fall in Love, 1998 Warner Bros. 12.4 Love Jones, 1997 New Line 12.3 I Got the Hook Up, 1998 Miramax 10.3 B.A.P.S., 1997 New Line 7.2 Foolish, 1999 Artisan 6.0 Get on the Bus, 1996 Sony 5.8 Down in the Delta, 1998 Miramax 5.7 Girl 6, 1996 Fox 4.9 Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.