"BAD SANTA, HILARIOUS MOVIE!"

After seeing "Bad Santa" it's pretty safe to say that America is now officially scared of Santa. Scared and loving it. Billy Bob Thorton leads the stellar cast, in this character-driven, dark dramedy as the most depressing, despicable, rude, obnoxious Santa in the history of St. Nic (that's right, Ebenezer Scrooge ain't got sh*t on this Claus). His villainous, reluctant hero is one of the best seen characters shown on the big screen in a very longgggg time. Despite, or in spite, of Thorton's foul-mouthed, scene-stealing diatribes, "Bad Santa" is full of supporting players who shine equally as bright. First up is Tony Cox, who plays Santa's diminutive side-kick elf and also moonlights as Santa's partner-in-crime. He delivered one-two, fast and witty dialogue punches and even made you like his character without trying to win you over. While Cox's character certainly served his dutiful comic relief purposes, he was also written with dimension, which allowed you to see beyond what could have been a one-note, one-joke character. Bernie Mac also delivered a strong performance as the sharp- tongued Head of Mall Security. There aren't many un-P.C. movies made nowadays. Hats off to the Screenwriters, John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, who also served as writers on 2001's "Cats and Dogs". This one's worth the price of admission. Christmas sure won't sound the same after this.

EXPRESS YOURSELF: FADE 2 BLACK MESSAGEBOARDS

http://blackscreenplays.50megs.com/corkboard/Screenwriters.html

EVENTS

11.28.03 - 12.14.03 www.nyadff.org

01.23.04 - 01.26.04 www.indieblackfilm.com

02.16.05 - 02.16.04 www.paff.org

03.30. 04 - 04.04.04 www.hbff.org

04.03.04 www.milliganbooks.com/blackwritersontour.htm

04.22.04 - 04.24.04 http://lawrence.wayne.tripod.com/vipmemphis/

Below are produced Feature Screenplays either written by a black writer, directed by a black director, or written/directed by a person of non color (we'll let you marinate over that one for a moment), but contains some of the most memorable performances on screen by some of Hollywood's most talented black actors.  For example, we've included the "Matrix", written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski because of the excellent way they wrote several integral black characters into their future world without "yo' homie--ing" their dialogue or making them all "die first" (the NAACP should have honored them for having 5 black characters, with storylines, in "Reloaded") and "Shawshank Redemption" written by Frank Darabont and Stephen King, because that's not only f2b's favorite movie of ALL time, but without Morgan Freeman's flawed, but dogmatically wise character, that movie would be DOA (and again he stayed alive).  Feel free to email any unseen produced black screenplay links you know and we'll add them here.

(Disclaimer: The following screenplays are for educational purposes only and not intended for sale or profit.  The links will take you directly to the original site of the screenplay's location.)

"Bad Boys"                             http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/bad_boys.pdf

"Bamboozled"           http://blake.prohosting.com/awsm/script/Bamboozled.txt

"Basquiat"                                               http://you.co.il/scripts/basquiat.html

"Blade"                                                                                   http://www.un-official.com/The_Daily_Script/Blade.txt

"Blade 2" http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/clarke/38/scripts/Blade2.htm

"Cradle 2 The Grave" http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Cradle_to_the_Grave.pdf

"The Crying Game"                         http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/cg.html

"The Distinguished Gentleman"      http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/cg.html

"Do The Right Thing" http://blake.prohosting.com/awsm/script/dotherightthing.txt

"The Green Mile"                                                                    http://www.un-official.com/The_Daily_Script/The_Green_Mile.txt

"Jackie Brown"         http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/jackiebrown.txt

"Jerry Maquire"      http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/jerrymaguire.txt

"Malcolm X"                                                                            http://www.un-official.com/The_Daily_Script/xxx.html

"Matrix"                         http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/matrix_97_draft.txt

"Men in Black"                                     http://inflow.corky.net/scripts/mib.html

"The Negotiator"      http://www.angelfire.com/movies/moviefreak/negotiator.html

"Requiem For a Dream"   http://blake.prohosting.com/awsm/script/requiem.txt

"Royal Tenenbaums" http://home.online.no/~bhundlan/scripts/TheRoyalTenenbaums.pdf

"Rush Hour 2"                          http://www.moviemalls.com/papers/rushhour2.txt

"Sandman"               http://www.wordplayer.com/archives/SANDMAN.cover.html

"Save the Last Dance" http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Save_the_Last_Dance.pdf

"Scary Movie 2"          http://home.online.no/~bhundlan/scripts/ScaryMovie2.htm

"Shawshank Redemption" http://home.online.no/~bhundlan/scripts/ScaryMovie2.htm

"Sister Act"                                       http://scifiscripts.com/msol/sister_act.txt

"Training Day"                                                           http://sfy.iv.ru/sfy.html?script=training_day

"Virtuosity"                             http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Virtuosity.pdf

(Beyonce Knowles stands front and center with the cast of "Fighting Temptations".)

"The Fighting Temptations"                                                        --fade2black

Forget what the trailers say, this movie is actually a musical.  And a good one at that.  I've seen it twice and the singing gets better and better.  Had those trailers emphasizing the "booty-ology" of the movie been reduced, then maybe there would have been more room to add in those wonderful O'Jay scenes.  They sing a song in there that's so '40s barbershop it'll have you snapping your fingers long after the story's over.   The critic in me did want to see the story explore the conflict about gospel music being more of a draw to black churches than the sermons, but the music was so good that argument was lost.  You can wait until it hits video, but if you want to see a solid black musical on the big screen, hurry.

Standout Songs

• "He Still Loves Me"
• "Love Me Like A Rock"
• "To Da River"

Official Webby http://www.fightingtemptations.com/home.html

SCRIPTS SOLD:

NOVEMBER 2003                                                                      

Title: "The Pacifier"
Log line: An undercover agent who fails to protect an important government scientist and then learns the man's family is in danger. In an effort to redeem himself, he agrees to take care of the man's children only to discover that child care is his toughest mission yet.
Writer:    Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garent
Agent:    n/a
Buyer:    Walt Disney Co.
Price:      n/a
Genre:    Action Comedy
More:      George Zakk and Spyglass Entertainment's Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum & Jonathan Glickman will produce.  Derek Evans will Executive Produce.  Vin Diesel is set to star.

One of you brilliant Screenwriters reading this right now may be just the one to adapt:

 "Invisible Man" -- Ralph Ellison.  Perfect lead: Will Smith (get him back into that Six Degrees drama).

or...

 "Makes Me Wanna Holla" -- Nathan McCall.  Perfect lead: Nick Cannon (this story is reminiscent of a modern Malcolm X type journey). 

or...

 "Mr. S.: My Life With Frank Sinatra" --George Jacobs.  Perfect lead: Jamie Foxx (give him an opportunity to show of his drama chops).

or...

 "Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston" -- Valerie Boyd.  Perfect lead: Queen Latifah (the resemblance is uncanny).