Movies are rated on
a Scale of 1 to 4 stars with 4 stars being best.
By El Mayimbe
Luke Cage: Hero for Hire
By
Ben Ramsey
Draft Date: 11/01/03
RATING:
BAM!
The comic book hits just keep coming! How is everybody out there?
In light of The Punisher (I wasn't thrilled) there is still hope
out there for dope comic book films from secondary comic characters.
Case in point? The upcoming LUKE CAGE: HERO FOR HIRE to be directed
by John Singleton written by Ben Ramsey (The Big Hit) and Tyrese
Gibson starring as the Luke Cage. Off the bat I want to say that
this script was entertaining and funny as hell to read. I never
read a script like this one. It is written in a very hip-hop kind
of style. For example there is description like AN ARMY OF GANGSTAZ
pull out their guns, or another example like BOOYAH! HE BUSTS
BIG SEYMOUR IN THE HEAD WITH A FLYING ELBOW! Yeah there is a lot
of that. Also since this is a comic book movie there are a lot
of slugs like BAM! WAPOW! WOOOSH! SMASH! CRAAAASH! CRRRUNCHH!
My personal favorite slug: when the bad guys pull out their guns
together: CLACK-CLACK-CLACKITY-CLACK!
This ain't yo momma's comic book movie, this is LUKE CAGE! You
feel me! Back in the eighties I remember Luke Cage when he was
known as POWERMAN.
WHOOSH!
FLASHBACK
Let me give you a detailed background of Luke Cage from
the comics.
Long
before W. 42nd St. meant Disney Stores and digital multiplexes,
Luke Cage rented an office there, above a crummy movie house that
played Westerns because they were cheaper than porn flicks. The
plaster peeled from the walls, the only furnishing was a threadbare
mattress and every Clint Eastwood line was audible through the
floorboards.
"'Least
I'll know any CLIENT who comes THIS far must want me BAD,"
reasoned Cage.
It was a far
cry from the Avengers Mansion across town, where Captain America
could unwind after a hard day's crime fighting with some butler
service, or the Fantastic Four's multimillion-dollar headquarters
with its high-tech comforts.
But the man
who called himself Hero For Hire was used to the short end of
the stick.
Once he'd been
a kid named Carl Lucas, roaming the streets of Harlem, stealing
purses and robbing liquor stores with his friend Willis Stryker.
Eventually he'd grown up to become an honest working stiff, while
Stryker stayed a career criminal. They'd remained pals anyway
— until they both fell for the same beautiful woman.
When Reva Connors
chose Lucas, the insanely jealous Stryker framed his onetime friend
by planting heroin in his apartment and tipping off police. Sentenced
to Seagate, a maximum-security prison down South, Lucas found
a daily routine of brawls with other prisoners and beatings from
a brutish prison guard named Rackham. His downward spiral continued
as he got word that Reva was killed in one of Stryker's drug deals
gone wrong. "Now I'm living for ONE thing an' one thing ONLY,"
he swore. "To get OUT. Get out an' get WILLIS!"
Thus, in exchange
for parole, Carl Lucas agreed to be a human guinea pig in a scientific
experiment. But the nefarious Rackham turned the knobs up to their
maximum settings — and energy flooded the prisoner's body,
beefing him up to maximum strength and rendering him nearly invulnerable,
in that sort of way explainable only through comic-book physics.
Frightened, disoriented and very strong, Lucas smashed through
the prison wall and made his way back to Manhattan to find Stryker.
But he figured he might as well use his newfound superpowers lucratively.
So he got into a blue-and-yellow costume, printed up some Hero
For Hire business cards — and changed his name to Luke Cage.
Before the first
issue of "Luke Cage, Hero for Hire" hit newsstands in
mid-1972, Marvel Comics already had several black superheroes
in the fold: The groundbreaking Black Panther had first popped
up in the pages of the Fantastic Four's magazine in 1966; the
Falcon had given Captain America street credibility for the past
three years.
The
same year as the Black Panther's debut, however, a militant black-power
party of the same name was forming in California. And by the time
Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee started looking for the first
black superhero headliner in a modern mainstream comic book, somebody
named Black Panther would no longer do.
As
it happened, the entertainment industry had lately become enamored
of "Shaft," the box-office hit that had given birth
to the blaxploitation genre. Seeking exactly the same kind of
streetwise character and exactly the same kind of enthusiastic
multi-racial audience, Lee floated the idea of "Hero For
Hire" — a fugitive with a chip on his shoulder. Marvel
editor Roy Thomas came up with the Luke Cage name, artist John
Romita designed the gaudy yellow costume and writer Archie Goodwin
and artist George Tuska took it from there. Inker Billy Graham,
the sole African-American on the creative team, would later be
promoted to full-time artist.
And the book's
first issue was duly trumpeted as a "blazing new Marvel milestone!"
But the series never became the newsstand hit Marvel had hoped
for: To boost sales, Luke Cage eventually got turned into a guy
called Powerman, and after that he was teamed with a white partner,
a martial-arts whiz called Iron Fist who was another of Marvel's
B-characters, and the title finally folded in 1986.
Luke Cage, however,
developed a solid cult following, including a fan in Hollywood.
Director Francis Ford Coppola's actor nephew, Nicolas, changed
his last name to Cage in homage to his favorite comic-book character.
Shortly after
setting up shop, Cage finally got his chance to cross paths with
his old pal. Stryker, however, had by now — in patented
Marvel fashion — himself become a super villain who used
an array of deadly gadgets and called himself Diamondback. The
two faced off in a battle to the death on the rooftop of a midtown
garage. Briefly, it seemed that Diamondback would prevail, but
then, in another quirk of comic-book physics, he fell through
a skylight and accidentally blew himself up with one of his own
bombs.
"It's OVER,
Reva honey," Cage murmured. "An' if you can't really
call that REVENGE — it's sure some kind of justice."
With
vengeance checked off the to-do list, Cage went back to eking
out a living as Times Square's resident black comic-book superhero.
While The Fantastic Four got the Daily Bugle headlines for battling
invading alien hordes, Cage took on their leftovers as his own
clients, mostly good people who were in something over their heads.
His villainous adversaries tended to dress like movie pimps and
have names like Cockroach Hamilton. But then, he was used to the
short end of the stick anyway.
BAM!
Back
to the Script Review!
In
the screenplay Ramsey stays faithful to the comic origins of Cage
but contemporizes him for today's audiences. Luke Cage is a playa
and he talks like one. I forgot to mention that there is also
a lot of pimp and playa talk in this script. Enough to piss off
little Spike Lee and turn him into the Incredible Hulk but I enjoyed
the hell out of it. The story takes place in an around Harlem
not Times Square. The main villain of the piece is WILLIS STRYKER
who will become DIAMONDBACK. The structure is very solid for a
comic book origin movie and is structured similar to Batman Begins.
Carl Lucas (who will become Luke Cage) is a reformed street hustler
who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. He's sent to Seagate
prison and put on Death Row. With six days left before his execution
and his chances for winning an appeal slim, his lawyer WARREN
JOHNSON introduces Lucas to a biophysicist DR. NOAH BERNSTEIN
with an opportunity to save Lucas's life. Bernstein is doing research
in human cell regeneration and would like for Lucas to participate
in an experiment that if successful, could counter the damages
of any disease -- perhaps even aging. Of course, Lucas agrees.
He gets injected with a cellular mutagen designed to accelerate
cell growth. The experiment goes wrong and Lucas is back on Death
Row. We are then treated to some back-story between Lucas, Striker,
and Lucas's lady REVA. Stryker pimps hos and is trying to take
over the New York Crime Scene a la Jack Nicholson in Batman. Page
26: Execution day. They try to deep fry Lucas like Kentucky Fried
Chicken but instead LUCAS'S MUSCLES BEGIN TO SWELL, bursting at
the sleeves. Buttons pop off of his shirt as his pecs swell. His
convulsions are so strong that THE CHAIR STARTS TO TEAR FROM ITS
FOUNDATION. Bolts pull out of the floor. Lucas, to the tune of
Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos!" punches
hole through the wall and escapes from Seagate. Act I ends on
page 32 with Chuck D singing "Death Row? W-What a brotha
know!"
In the beginning
of Act II we meet CLAIR TEMPLE who argues with her kid sister
HOPE. By Page 40 Lucas is back in his old stomping grounds of
Harlem but it looked like the place has slipped downhill since
he was last there. He goes over to Dixie's Bar And Grill, hooks
up with his friend DIXIE who fills in Lucas on what has been happening
since Lucas has been gone. She hooks him up with a room to stay
in above the bar. Dixie tells Lucas that he got a second chance.
Lucas can't hustle kitchenware anymore. The game has changed.
He needs to get a life. On a stroll through the mean streets of
Harlem, Lucas stops a stickup kid who just robbed these Jewish
merchants ED and MINNIE. The stick up kid runs into Lucas, gives
him some lip and Lucas chucks his ass through the windshield of
a nearby car.
A Police car
screeches to a halt and NEW YORK'S FINEST leap out, guns drawn
on Lucas. Minnie intervenes and tell the cops that Lucas foiled
the robbery. Now the really cool part. The cops ask Lucas for
his name. Lucas stops himself. He looks across the street at and
old movie theater playing a NICHOLAS CAGE MOVIE. A reverse homage!
Lucas responds Cage! Luke Cage! That moment was hilarious. Page
49: Ed and Minnie want to show Lucas their gratitude since they
got their six grand back. They pay Lucas some dough and AN IDEA
IS BORN! The next thing you know Cage is at Kinko's getting business
cards printed up:
LUKE
CAGE: HERO FOR HIRE. 1-800-555-CAGE
Page
50: The perfect midpoint of the script and for all you comic fans
who are dying to know what his costume is going to look like we
go inside a clothing store. Lucas is fitted with a DOPE BLUE AND
YELLOW WARM-UP SUIT. On his feet he wears YELLOW TIMBERLANDS.
On his face he wears sick-ass OAKLEY WRAP AROUND SHADES. Around
his neck he wears A THICK METAL CHAIN tied together with a HEAVY
LOCK.
A superhero
in Timberlands and Rocawear. That shit had me rolling on the floor.
Very clever. So there ya have it. The rest of Act II is Cage in
his new life as he faces some obstacles as a hero for hire. Act
II ends on page 89 where Cage is at his darkest moment and the
start of Act III from page 90 and on is just 26 pages of wall-to-wall
action.
I'm
very excited to see what John Singleton has in store for us. Like
I said earlier, a very entertaining weekend read. One of my favorites.
So until the next script review.
Long
before W. 42nd St. meant Disney Stores and digital multiplexes,
Luke Cage rented an office there, above a crummy movie house that
played Westerns because they were cheaper than porn flicks. The
plaster peeled from the walls, the only furnishing was a threadbare
mattress and every Clint Eastwood line was audible through the
floorboards. 
As
it happened, the entertainment industry had lately become enamored
of "Shaft," the box-office hit that had given birth
to the blaxploitation genre. Seeking exactly the same kind of
streetwise character and exactly the same kind of enthusiastic
multi-racial audience, Lee floated the idea of "Hero For
Hire" — a fugitive with a chip on his shoulder. Marvel
editor Roy Thomas came up with the Luke Cage name, artist John
Romita designed the gaudy yellow costume and writer Archie Goodwin
and artist George Tuska took it from there. Inker Billy Graham,
the sole African-American on the creative team, would later be
promoted to full-time artist.
In
the screenplay Ramsey stays faithful to the comic origins of Cage
but contemporizes him for today's audiences. Luke Cage is a playa
and he talks like one. I forgot to mention that there is also
a lot of pimp and playa talk in this script. Enough to piss off
little Spike Lee and turn him into the Incredible Hulk but I enjoyed
the hell out of it. The story takes place in an around Harlem
not Times Square. The main villain of the piece is WILLIS STRYKER
who will become DIAMONDBACK. The structure is very solid for a
comic book origin movie and is structured similar to Batman Begins.
Carl Lucas (who will become Luke Cage) is a reformed street hustler
who is framed for a murder he didn't commit. He's sent to Seagate
prison and put on Death Row. With six days left before his execution
and his chances for winning an appeal slim, his lawyer WARREN
JOHNSON introduces Lucas to a biophysicist DR. NOAH BERNSTEIN
with an opportunity to save Lucas's life. Bernstein is doing research
in human cell regeneration and would like for Lucas to participate
in an experiment that if successful, could counter the damages
of any disease -- perhaps even aging. Of course, Lucas agrees.
He gets injected with a cellular mutagen designed to accelerate
cell growth. The experiment goes wrong and Lucas is back on Death
Row. We are then treated to some back-story between Lucas, Striker,
and Lucas's lady REVA. Stryker pimps hos and is trying to take
over the New York Crime Scene a la Jack Nicholson in Batman. Page
26: Execution day. They try to deep fry Lucas like Kentucky Fried
Chicken but instead LUCAS'S MUSCLES BEGIN TO SWELL, bursting at
the sleeves. Buttons pop off of his shirt as his pecs swell. His
convulsions are so strong that THE CHAIR STARTS TO TEAR FROM ITS
FOUNDATION. Bolts pull out of the floor. Lucas, to the tune of
Public Enemy's "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos!" punches
hole through the wall and escapes from Seagate. Act I ends on
page 32 with Chuck D singing "Death Row? W-What a brotha
know!"
Page
50: The perfect midpoint of the script and for all you comic fans
who are dying to know what his costume is going to look like we
go inside a clothing store. Lucas is fitted with a DOPE BLUE AND
YELLOW WARM-UP SUIT. On his feet he wears YELLOW TIMBERLANDS.
On his face he wears sick-ass OAKLEY WRAP AROUND SHADES. Around
his neck he wears A THICK METAL CHAIN tied together with a HEAVY
LOCK.