DavidTalbert Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Think one Tyler Perry is enough? Too bad, because now there's two. According to the Hollywood Reporter, there's a new multihyphenate on the scene who also has "chitlin circuit" roots. His name is David Talbert and his first major release, First Sunday, is out in theaters starting today (read Patrick's interview with Talbert here). But instead of waiting to see if he can reel in the dough the way Perry can, Fox Searchlight has already scooped up the filmmaker for a follow-up. Titled Baggage Claim and based on Talbert's 2005 novel, the movie will follow a flight attendant who travels the country on a 30-day mission to find a husband. Included among the men she considers are a politician, a preacher and a tycoon. And according to the Hollywood Reporter, the movie will be aimed at a black audience.

Like First Sunday, Baggage Claim will be written, directed and produced by Talbert, who comes to Hollywood following (and amidst, I'm sure) a successful playwriting career -- according to the IMDb, the Los Angeles Times apparently called him "one of the most prolific theater makers in America" and Wikipedia claims his plays have grossed more than $75 million. Sounds to me like Sony, which is distributing First Sunday via its Screen Gems banner, should have held on to Talbert for longer. If Talbert really is the next Tyler Perry, he's poised to be a home run hitter as far as box office profits are concerned. We'll see on Sunday if Sunday has Sony weeping and Fox cheering, or if this is just another case of bad punditry.

This week on The Write Stuff, Cinematical speaks with David E. Talbert, writer and director of the new comedy/drama First Sunday. The film stars Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan as friends in a desperate situation who decide to rob a local church. At the church, they find a lot more resistance than they bargained for, in the form of Loretta Devine, Chi McBride, and Katt Williams.

Cinematical: Are you excited about the movie coming out?

David E. Talbert: Oh man, I'm wearing my wife out! We've been riding around looking at these billboards. Every time somebody tells me there's one that's popped up, I gotta go and find it.

Cinematical: You got your start as a playwright, and you've been doing that successfully for 15 years. Did you always want to be a writer?

DET: No, I was a radio announcer when I was in college and after. Somewhere in there, I had a breakup with my college sweetheart and I started writing "Somebody done somebody wrong" poems. And I was writing and crying and listening to Al Green every night. Then one night my Al Green record scratched, and when it scratched, I started reading those poems and I said "Wow, these aren't that bad." From there I wrote a long-form play and I put it away until about five years later when I saw the play Beauty Shop. I saw how much audiences were going crazy over it, and that's when I got bit.