Authors:
Precious ‘Mamazeus’ Nwogu
Jeymes Samuel has announced that his next project will be based on blacks living in the biblical era.
The singer-songwriter whose 2021 Western ‘The Harder They Fall’ was inspired by the need to introduce diversity in the genre, revealed in a new interview that his new feature titled The Book of Clarence will be set in the bible times in what he described as “the biggest franchise in the world.”
“The Bible’s the biggest franchise in the world. The biggest superhero, the most famous superhero of all time is Jesus himself,” Jeymes revealed. “But when I used to learn about those things when I was a kid, I used to say to myself, Where did Jesus buy his sandals from? Did he walk around barefoot? Did he buy his clothes or did people just say, “Hey Jesus, wear this?” Was there a particular brand that he liked, or a particular tailor who made his shawl?
“The Bible just gives you bricks. But the mortar you’re meant to fill in yourself. I want to show who he [Jesus] bought them from and what that guy was doing. What the guy that sold him those sandals had for breakfast, for dinner. Who was in the hood? Who was the troublemaker, or the cool dude that the girls liked? Who was the kid with aspirations? Who was the nincompoop? That stuff is what fascinates me about that era. The Book of Clarence is all of that stuff. It’s a really awesome, awesome, awesome tale.”
‘The Book of Clarence’ will reportedly be set in 29AD and will see the filmmaker explore nuanced Black characters on a biblical backdrop.
“I want to tell the tales that we’ve never had before. We’ve never had Black people in the Bible days of cinema. Even when Andrew Lloyd Webber made something as nuanced as Jesus Christ Superstar, there’s no Black people in it, except Judas. Judas was the Black guy. “I’m going to betray you, Jesus.” What the hell? That’s what you’re giving us? That’s the Black guy? You saw what I did with the Western. I want to give people something to talk about.”
‘The Harder They Fall’ star LaKeith Stanfield has been confirmed as the film’s titular character.
