NEW YORK:
THE SUCCESS of Barbershop has levelled the playing field for 'urban' films, Earvin 'Magic' Johnson said at the premiere of Brown Sugar, the Taye Diggs-Sanaa Lathan confection that marks the hoop great's first executive-producer credit.
"Look at MGM this year," Johnson said last Monday night at the Ziegfeld Theater. Barbershop is the only film of theirs that made money, and the budget was so low. So what we want to do now is bring more product out to a marketplace that is obviously looking for this type of movie."
Finding a place to screen those films will not be tough, since Magic Johnson Theatres operates multiplexes in Manhattan as well as in Atlanta, Houston, Cleveland and Los Angeles.
Johnson said Brown Sugar will ride Barbershop's coattails.
"We're happy about that," he said, while escorting another 'project' recording artist Yasmeen, who has her first single out on Magic Johnson Music, his MCA label into the screening. "Barbershop succeeded because of word of mouth, and the same thing will happen with Brown Sugar."
Johnson, who acknowledged 11 years ago that he has HIV, added that he recently had another successful exam with his doctor.
"I just had my checkup two weeks ago," he said, "and I passed with flying colours."
- Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
