In 1980, I was offered the opportunity to direct Richard Pryor in a dramatic movie based on a James Kirkwood novel called Some Kind of Hero about a returning Vietnam veteran re-adjusting to society, but first I had to be interviewed by Mr. Pryor himself, who had director approval. I was a white, Jewish male from a left wing political artistic family from the upper West Side, and for some reason the late Don Simpson, the head of production at Paramount studios at the time, thought we might be an interesting match. He wasn’t wrong.
Simpson was a risk taker, later becoming one of the industry’s most successful movie producers, partnering with Jerry Bruckheimer, with dozens of successful Hollywood films; Beverly Hills Cop, starring Eddie Murphy, being the most inspired. I, however, had just finished directing Boulevard Nights, a film about gang violence in the Los Angeles Chicano community starring
...Keep reading this article on Hollywood Reporter.
