Chris Rock with wife Malaak Compton.
Rock to star in "Will You Be My Black Friend?"
movie adapted from Devin Friedman's GQ piece
(AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
Chris Rock is a busy, prolific soul as of late. Not only is Rock starring in the remake of Death at a Funeral, opening April 23, 2010, IMDb Pro also lists Chris Rock as starring in "Will You Be My Black Friend?" -- a movie listed as "in development" as of this writing.
"Will You Be My Black Friend?" is based on the Cleveland-area bred Devin Friedman's GQ article of the same name, published in November 2008, during the pivotal, transformative presidential election.
A senior writer for GQ, Devin Friedman argues how non post-racial America is at this stage of the game, and deftly weaves his honest tale of finding color in his lily white world -- admitting acceptance of a Jesus flyer in Harlem from a black man that his wife says he would've rejected from a white man.
Oprah and Harpo Films have also "said yes" to producing "Will You Be My Black Friend?" -- but no word yet on whether Devin Friedman will make a cameo.
(I'll update my readers once Friedman answers my FB queries I just sent him: Will you be my white Facebook friend? Okay, kidding. Sure you get that a lot. Has "Will You Be My Black Friend" begun filming yet? Will you make a white cameo? Get screenwriting WGA credit? Thanks, Paula Mooney)
But Devin (sounds like black name) seems to have a penchant for bravely examining fish-out-of-water scenarios, like returning to his Shaker Heights, Ohio, high school -- or pretending like he belonged in the ultra white, ultra rich world of smoke and country clubs, where the only black folks he saw were Sidney Poitier and another guy who may have been a guest.
It's not hard to see why Chris Rock and Oprah would be attracted to the "Will You Be My Black Friend?" project that Friedman writes was met with laughs and then uncomfortable silence when he first pitched it in the WASP-y GQ editorial offices.
Friedman's New York area attempts at finding an African-American friend are made for movie scenes -- already shooting in my mind's eye -- and the voice-over style that Rock favors is totally apropos, with Devin's GQ article asides quipping about arugula, his old-fashioned pepper mill loathing and his wigger wanderlust already just needing a nice cut-and-paste beneath a DEVIN (V.O.) line in the script.
Those of us who've seen every episode of Everybody Hates Chris know Rock's character's humorously adapted take on having attended the "Corleone Junior High" miles and miles away from his Bed-Stuy neighborhood.
And many folks know the "A Foot in Each World" type of existence Oprah has lived -- suffering some of the same odd types of "She talk like a white girl" accusations hurled by folks who equate the ability to conjugate a verb with Oreo-double-stuffed-whiteness.
Chris Rock's ability to move boldly forward with creative intensity, tackling "dirty laundry" subjects like Good Hair -- not to mention Oprah's backing of the child-abuse baring Precious -- coupled with the teaming of the duo to now bring Will You Be My Black Friend? to screens around the world -- may prove to be box-office gold.
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