Money Or Die
Superfly The ’70s classic gets an update courtesy of Director X…
Considered one of the great blaxploitation movies, 1972’s Super Fly has been ripe for a remake for years. Except that the circulating script had little to do with the original story of a drug dealer who wants to make a million dollars and then quit. When it was sent to filmmaker Director X, he didn’t, er, dig it. “I said, ‘We need to stay true to the source material. If I’m going to make Super Fly, I want to make Super Fly.’”
Modernising the story, the Across The Line helmer still kept the basic premise of a successful narcotics peddler – Youngblood Priest – looking for a way out of the game. Casting American Crime star Trevor Jackson in the lead, Director X moved the action to Atlanta, judging that Harlem is no longer the epicentre of African-American culture. “There’s a Whole Foods on 125th [Street] in the heart of Harlem,” he says. “It’s not the same.”
Directed by Gordon Parks Jr. and starring Ron O’Neal, the original was particularly memorable for Curtis Mayfield’s seminal track ‘Pusher Man’. “At first, I didn’t want to put it in,” X admits. “I wanted to find a modern record. But the standard was it had to be at the level of ‘Pusher Man’. We’d always hear these records but nothing really fit the scene.” In the end, he couldn’t resist.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is the discontent in the black community towards a film that lionises a cocaine dealer. “People are still upset,” X says. “Especially coming off Black Panther, there is a contingent in the community that do not want to see young black men being criminals again. I understand that. But at the same time, we shaped this SuperFly to be a more Hollywood kind of hero. He helps people, he doesn’t like guns and he doesn’t want to kill anybody.”
ETA | 14 SEPTEMBER / SUPERFLY OPENS IN TWO MONTHS.