With the exception of brief appearances by Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Hudson and Halle Berry, as well the in memoriam tribute to Lena Horne, last Sunday’s Academy Awards production was every bit the “whiteout†critics anticipated. While most of the outcry has been over the lack of Black acting nominees in this year’s field, it’s worth noting that only two Black directors (John Singleton for Boyz N The Hood and Lee Daniels for Precious) have ever been nominated for Academy Awards; neither of whom actually won. Before the Academy has viewers believing there aren’t any Black filmmakers willing to make films outside the “urban†genre, BlackEnterprise.com has assembled a list of 10 great directors who’ve stepped behind the lens to create multicultural projects with mainstream appeal. –Janée Bolden, with additional reporting by Anslem Samuel
- F. GARY GRAY, THE NEGOTIATOR (1998), A MAN APART (2003), THE ITALIAN JOB (2003), BE COOL (2003) & LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (2009)
Felix Gary Gray acquired a lengthy resume as a music video director before hitting pay dirt with the 1995 ‘hood favorite Friday. While he’s continued to create rap and R&B videos, his feature film credits include mainstream fare like The Negotiator (1998), A Man Apart (2003), The Italian Job (2003), Be Cool (2003) and Law Abiding Citizen (2009)–projects that have brought in nearly half a billion dollars in combined earnings. Quite a man of action when it comes to suspense films, Gray’s skills as a director have served him just as well working with Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Kevin Spacey as actor/artists Christina Milian and Jamie Foxx.
- ANTOINE FUQUA, THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS, (1998), TEARS OF THE SUN (2003), KING ARTHUR (2004) & SHOOTER (2007)
Perhaps best known for directing Training Day (2001) and more recently Brooklyn’s Finest (2009), the Pittsburgh native’s first film, The Replacement Killers (1998)–which starred Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun-Fat–was anything but urban. Projects like the international thriller Tears of the Sun, which starred Bruce Willis, the Mark Wahlberg action flick Shooter (2007) and the hugely successful King Arthur (2004), which grossed more than $200 million worldwide, are just a few examples of this director’s range.
- SPIKE LEE, SUMMER OF SAM (1999), 25th HOUR (2002) & INSIDE MAN (2006)
The Brooklyn-bred filmmaker born Shelton Lee has earned a reputation for helping build the careers of Black actors like Samuel L. Jackson, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington in projects that have exposed how race and class operate in American life. Still, Lee’s work has not been limited to Black issues. Over the years Hollywood heavyweights–including Edward Norton, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, John Leguizamo and Adrien Brody–have signed on to star in Lee’s mainstream projects, including 25th Hour (2002), Summer of Sam (1999) and Inside Man (2006). The latter raked in a whopping $184 million at box offices worldwide.
- ALLEN & ALBERT HUGHES, FROM HELL (2001) & THE BOOK OF ELI (2010)
The Hughes brothers started making movies when they were just 12-years-old and premiered their urban classic, Menace II Society (1993) at Cannes Film Festival when they were only 21. After the creating Vietnam period piece Dead Presidents (1995) and the controversial documentary American Pimp (1999), the twin directors completely stepped outside color lines to direct Johnny Depp
and Heather Graham in the 2001 thriller From Hell, about Jack The Ripper‘s infamous serial killing spree in Victorian Era London. The project grossed nearly $75,000,000 worldwide. It would take another nine years before the Detroit natives’ next joint feature, 2010’s decidedly non urban, The Book of Eli, which earned nearly twice as much as its $80 million budget and starred Denzel Washington as a blind man in a post apocalyptic wasteland who helps actress Mila Kunis escape from Gary Oldman‘s tyrannical rule.- KASI LEMMONS, THE CAVEMAN’S VALENTINE (2001)
Like her husband Vondie Curtis-Hall, Lemmons acts as well as directs. Her projects include Eve’s Bayou (1997) and Talk to Me (2007), both which focus primarily on African-American subject matter. However, her fearlessness behind the camera probably became most apparent when she took on the task of directing Samuel L. Jackson in the 2001 film, The Caveman’s Valentine, about a Juilliard trained homeless man trying to track down a killer. Although the film went underappreciated, some could argue the daring project was a precursor to Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.‘s The Soloist.
- JOHN SINGLETON, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS (2003) & FOUR BROTHERS (2005)
Singleton made his presence as a director known soon after graduating from USC’s Filmic Writing Program in 1990. When he released Boyz N The Hood just a year later, the film helped Singleton become the youngest person to ever receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. While he’s known for grooming young Black talent like Nia Long, Taraji P. Henson, Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, Tyrese and Tyra Banks in urban fare like Boyz, Poetic Justice (2003), Baby Boy (2001) and Higher Learning (1995), mainstream pictures like Four Brothers and 2 Fast 2 Furious have brought in bigger box office earnings ($92 million and $236 million worldwide, respectively) for the multi-talented auteur.
- TIM STORY, FANTASTIC FOUR (2005) & FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2007)
A graduate from the USC film school, Story got his start directing music videos for the likes of Gerald Levert, India.Arie and ‘N Sync and made a pair of independent projects before making a name for himself in Hollywood with 2002’s Barbershop. Generating more than $75 million with his first feature film, Story began his shift mainstream with 2004’s Taxi–co-starring Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon–which resulted in more than $68 million in ticket sales worldwide. However, it wasn’t until the California filmmaker landed the job of directing the superhero blockbuster Fantastic Four (2005) and its 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer that he proved his mainstream bankability. To date, both films have collectively grossed over $619 million worldwide.
- SANAA HAMRI, THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2 (2008)
Having done videos for everyone from Prince and Lenny Kravitz to Jay-Z and Mariah Carey, Hamri knows her way around a camera. Making her feature film debut in 2006, directing Sanaa Lathan in Something New got the opportunity to direct an episode of ABC’s popular TV series, Desperate Housewives in 2007 before return back to film in a big way. The following year, the Moroccan-born filmmaker completed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, which grossed $44 million.
- GEORGE C. WOLFE, NIGHTS IN RODANTHE (2008)
A Tony Award-winning playwright/director, Wolfe made waves early on in theater, winning an Obie Award for his off-Broadway play “Spunk,†but made a name for himself with the musical “Jelly’s Last Jam,†which received 11 Tony Award nominations and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. The awards and accolades continued from there, with 1996’s “Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk†and 2002’s “Topdog/Underdog†being just a sampling of his impressive resume. Before taking his directorial vision from the big stage to the big screen, Wolfe showed his acting chops in movies like Garden State and The Devil Wears Prada before filming 2008’s Nights in Rodanthe. Starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, the film grossed over $84 million worldwide.
- SYLVAIN WHITE, THE LOSERS (2010)
Initially garnering accolades and awards for his short film work, White transitioned into commercials and music videos. One of his first full-length features was I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, the third chapter in the popular horror franchise, but it was 2007’s Stomp the Yard that introduced the French-born director to mainstream audiences. The dance flick generated more than $75 million worldwide. Last year, White attempted to expand his international appeal with the action film The Losers, which starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba and Chris Evans, but the project only generated $23 million domestically.