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| John Singleton |
John Singleton revolutionized the movie industry, but he almost revolutionized the science-fiction industry.
The revolutionary director John Daniel Singleton died on April 29, 2019, at 51. He died a week after suffering a major stroke. Singleton was a renowned American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was best known for directing the urban drama Boyz n the Hood in 1991. For that movie, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. At age 24, he’s the first African American and the youngest person be nominated for that award. Regina King called him “one of the greatest to ever do it”.
Many of his movies, like Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), were inspired by his experiences growing up in South Los Angeles. Besides dramas, he also directed action films like Shaft (2000), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005). The last movie he directed was the Taylor Lautner thriller Abduction in 2011.
He often said he was inspired by classic science-fiction films. When he was nine his father took him to see Star Wars. It changed his view of movies and led him to aspire to become a film director. He also said that Steven Spielberg films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) inspired him. Former Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker said in a series of tweets memorializing Singleton. “John Singleton was a Jedi level geek. The only thing more fun than seeing a Marvel or Star Wars movie was arguing with him about it: shot for shot. Line for line.”
In the 1990s he almost made a superhero film when he pitched his idea to Wesley Snipes about a movie based on the comic book hero Black Panther.
Despite his love of the genre he never made a science-fiction film. But he got close. Back in 2007 he almost directed a film that could have changed everything.
In November of 2007, Variety reported that John Singleton was signed on to direct a movie called “Executive Order: Six”. It’s about a “small, snowbound town, who band together to fight a mysterious horror that turns out to be an alien being unleashed by a plane crash.” XO:6 was written by Philip Eisner who’s best known for 1997’s Event Horizon and The Mutant Chronicles (2008).
The story was inspired by storyboard artist, director, and writer Robbie Consing. Consing is best known for his work on movies like by Jurassic World (2015) and Venom (2018). I reached out to Consing and he said that the beginning of the idea was post 9-11: What if a plane crashed in the middle of nowhere, and there were no bodies?
That led to the movie deal with Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media. The studio filed for bankruptcy back in 2015 but was in it’s prime at the time. The movie was set to go but John Singleton left the project to work on the A-Team reboot movie. But he left that project in 2008 and A-Team was directed by Joe Carnahan. Singleton didn’t direct another film until Taylor Lautner’s thriller Abduction in 2011. He never directed another film but produced films like Hustle & Flow (2005), Black Snake Moan (2006), and Through a Lens Darkly (2014).
The genre doesn’t have a strong commitment to diversity. It’s getting better but still needs help. Back in 2014, I wrote an article listing directors of color who should direct science-fiction films. I still think Singleton would have been a game-changer for the genre. Ryan Coogler, a black director, changed the superhero genre with Black Panther. Star Wars added more characters of color and is racking up billions at the box office.
Today directors of color like Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay are changing the game. A sci-fi movie directed by John Singleton could have changed everything over a decade ago.
What do you think of the movie? How do you think the genre would have changed if he’d directed a sci-fi movie? Let us know in the comments below!
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