“Biker Boyz” got its start
and its name nearly three years ago when Michael Gougis,
a freelance journalist writing for the now-defunct Los Angeles
New Times, stepped into the world of African-American motorcycle
clubs in Southern California. The “Biker Boyz” feature
was an in-depth tour of a seldom-seen world, guided by Manuel
Galloway—a motorcycle racer ironically known in the
streets as Pokey—who is one of the fastest men on the
scene. Pokey granted Gougis, an outsider, unprecedented access
to gatherings of hundreds of bikers and their rides, from
Japanese sport bikes, to chromed-out American cruisers, to
huge cruisers with nearly all the accoutrements of a passenger
car. The bikes highlighted in the article were stretched-out,
lowered and nitrous-oxide enhanced drag cycles like the one
ridden by Pokey at triple-digit speeds in dangerous surface-street
races.
More impressive than the detailed descriptions
of motorcycle races were the article’s well-crafted
studies of the men riding the bikes and the motorcycle culture
to which they subscribed. Populated by both blue-and white-collar
workers, predominantly Black motorcycle clubs were described
in the article as having more in common with the Rotary Club
than the Hell’s Angels; organizations with rules and
codes that serve as a sort of fraternal order. Prospective
members are brought in by a sponsor and are expected to represent
their brothers well whenever wearing the club’s insignia,
or “colors,” in public.
Gougis expounds, “This is a whole
society that revolves around the motorcycle. These people
build bikes, they reengineer them, they race them, they ride
them, they get together with other people who ride... It
is a world that nobody on the outside of it knows about,
that nobody outside of it wants to know about. It is completely
self-sufficient. It survives on its own and once you’re
inside, it’s just the most amazing social structure—very
organized, very rigid, very protective of its members from
the outside world.”
The article’s vivid description of
this underground was undeniably filmic, which was immediately
apparent to producer Stephanie Allain. “Gougis captured
a fascinating sub-culture that I don’t think the average
person really knew about. I certainly didn’t,” she
affirms.
Allain knew her first task would be to
turn Gougis’ factual article into a fictionalized action
adventure screenplay. She met with screenwriter Craig Fernandez,
who recalls, “I went into a meeting with Stephanie
Allain, and the first thing she said was, ‘Have you
read this?’ She laid down the article, which was a
really fast and interesting read. Right away, I told her
I knew how I could turn it into a film script.”
Fernandez continues, “The original
story from the article had a really strong theme. It discussed
the old school guys and their old traditions…and then
there is a new generation of bikers who are more about the
race and less about the respect. We knew the drama would
have to come from the conflict between these two factions.”
The initial script found its way to Gina
Prince-Bythewood, the writer and director of “Love & Basketball.” While
Prince-Bythewood liked the script, she didn’t think
it was up her directing alley, although she knew of someone
she believed would be perfect to take the helm: her husband
Reggie Rock Bythewood. “I thought Reggie would be really
great for this project. I asked him to read it and he did,
and something just clicked for him.”
An accomplished writer, as well as
an up-and-coming director, Reggie Rock Bythewood had earned
acclaim for his directorial debut film “Dancing in
September,” as well as his screenplay for Spike Lee’s “Get
On the Bus.” In addition to agreeing to direct the
film, Bythewood brought his own vision to the “Biker
Boyz” screenplay, that of an urban Western with a
new definition of what it means to be the “fastest
gun in the West.”
To read about the cast Click Here |
