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Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan)
can attribute their friendship and the launch of their careers
to a single childhood moment - the day they discovered hip-hop
on a New York street corner.
Now some 15 years later, she is a revered music critic and
he is a successful, though unfulfilled music executive. As
they lay down the tracks toward their futures, hip-hop isn't
the only thing that keeps them coming back to that moment
on the corner...
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa (THE WOOD),
BROWN SUGAR stars Taye Diggs (HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE
BACK), Sanaa Lathan
(LOVE & BASKETBALL), Mos Def (MONSTER'S BALL), Nicole
Ari Parker (REMEMBER THE TITANS), Boris Kodjoe (LOVE & BASKETBALL)
and Queen Latifah (THE BONE COLLECTOR).
The screenplay is written by Michael
Elliot (LIKE MIKE) and Rick Famuyiwa based on a story by
Elliot. The film is
produced by Peter Heller (LIKE MIKE) and co-produced by Trish
Hofmann (IGBY GOES DOWN). BROWN SUGAR marks Earvin "Magic" Johnson's
first feature film as an executive producer.
"I always felt like all the great love stories weren't
ones that had black people in them. I just wanted to create
something really romantic that by the end of the movie, touched
you," says Screenwriter Mike Elliot of his motivation
for BROWN SUGAR.
Elliot decided to base the story
on lifelong friends who, as adults, come to the realization
that they are also in
love with each other. Once he had worked with the basic concepts
of the love story, Elliot placed Sidney and Dre against a
background he was intimately familiar with, the world of
hip-hop music. "I had the desire to create a love story
inside a world that I loved. It just made sense," Elliot
recalls. |