George Lucas has a new movie coming out called Red Tails. It is starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrance Howard it is directed by Anthony Hemingway. Lucas is saying that if it were up to Hollywood the movie would have never been made because Hollywood does not fund movies with all black casts and with a black director.
On the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night, Lucas told Stewart,
“This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I’ve been trying to get released ever since. “It’s because it’s an all-black movie. There’s no major white roles in it at all…I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don’t know how to market a movie like this.”
Red Tails is the story of the Tuskeegee Airman of Alabama. They were a group of black pilots flying in a segregated division of the United States Armed Services during World War II.
Lucas told the USA Today that failure of the movie could have serious ramifications for Black entertainment in general. Red Tails has a budget of $58 million dollars which is way above typical budgets for all black movies.
“I realize that by accident I’ve now put the black film community at risk. I’m saying, if this doesn’t work, there’s a good chance you’ll stay where you are for quite a while. It’ll be harder for you guys to break out of that [lower-budget] mold. But if I can break through with this movie, then hopefully there will be someone else out there saying let’s make a prequel and sequel, and soon you have more Tyler Perrys out there.”
