Coming to theaters next Friday is Red Tails,which depicts the challenges and heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and features an all-star cast which includes Terrance Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tristan Wilds. With production by the universally-acclaimed George Lucas, you’d think that Red Tails could be headed towards an incredibly successful run at the box-office… Right? Some think otherwise.

The story follows a crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground and then are called into duty. As the war in Europe continues to take its toll on Allied forces, the Pentagon brass has no recourse but to consider unorthodox options—including the untried and untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program.

George Lucas, who’s made billions of dollars from his *Star Wars* movie series and animated features, has been making the television rounds this week in promotion of this new film. Along with promoting, Lucas voiced his trials and frustrations with convincing Hollywood investors to put up marketing dollars in order to finance a successful release of the film to theaters with very little interest in return. The fear is that an “all
black action movie” is a risk to investors looking to score big financially from ticket sales. With many big-budgeted films also depending greatly on international ticket sales, black movies have proven not to produce much money outside of the states as well.

Big-budgeted action films with over $100 dollars sunk in to its production rely desperately on it’s story, marketing, directing and cast. Outside of the do-know-wrong resume’ of Will Smith, there aren’t many castings of lead African-Americans in big budgeted films, let alone, one with a majority black cast set to carry the movie.

Case in point, the drama surrounding the possibility of a new casting in one of the most famous characters in movie history. British-born and current Hollywood stud, Idris Elba has been mentioned in talks with possibly being the next candidate to take over the Bond series as the legendary *James Bond* character. There have been websites and discussions both for and against the casting of Elba, but outside of any racially-driven complaints against it, many believe that his hiring wouldn’t be as financially successful because Hollywood hasn’t proven it’s
ability to bank on African-American leads in films of it’s caliber.

Comedies such as rapper/actor Ice Cube’s *Barbershop* and *Friday* movie franchise, have been successful in theaters while Tyler Perry has continued a successful run in Hollywood with his comedic dramas over the past decade. But a criticism that comes with these types of films are that they highlight and depend greatly on African-American stereotypes (both positive and negative) which can present a depiction of blacks in the most general and predictable forms. But regardless of how successful these films are, the bulk of it’s marketing and production dollars are financed by producers like Perry themselves.

With Hollywood’s reluctance with supplying big bucks on African-American ensemble films which are backed by huge dollar signs and marketing pushes,Lucas, along with Oprah Winfrey and Perry provided over $35 million dollars themselves in order to get *Red Tails* in the theaters. These heavyweight titans of media entertainment have now left the fate of “Black Hollywood” in the hands of the consumer! The dollars we spend on the movie’s opening weekend will tell film production companies, movie investors and critics whether similar future projects will be worth taking a risk with. With Mr. “Star Wars”, Ms. “Daytime Television” and Ms. Madea all backing this project, it’s all on you – the consumer, to decide the fate of African American movies such as redtails moving forward in Hollywood.