Director John Singleton made his name in Hollywood with the powerful urban drama "Boyz N the Hood". He covered similar territory in "Poetic Justice", but switched gears for the remake of too-cool-for-school PI story "Shaft". Now he takes the action up a notch for hot-rod sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious".
This film has been more successful than the original. Why?
Because it's a better movie. It's about a pulp subject but my approach was to try and make it more fun. The first movie took itself so seriously, you know? And I just felt, this is about cool cars, good looking kids, and a lot of hot girls. Like those B-movies in the early 70s. It's just a big-budget version of those types of films. And that's the way I wanted to do it.
Your career has changed a lot since "Boyz N the Hood"...
You know, I really wanted to do this picture because, at the beginning of my career I was just trying to make a name for myself, and making really serious, hard-hitting movies. And the thing is, as a result of me making those really serious films, people took me too seriously. So I said, "OK, I'm gonna flip it up on them and make something more popcorn. A kind of lighter film that'll make a whole lot of money. It's not like I started off doing this type of movie and then have to try and get legitimacy. I already have legitimacy as a filmmaker and now I'm trying to do stuff that's just fun. Until I find a cool tangible subject again that I want to tackle.
Well, "Baby Boy" was pretty serious. Aren't you making a sequel?
I don't know. Tyrese wants me to, but we'll see. "Baby Boy" is one of my favourite films, and Tyrese keeps telling everybody we're going to make a sequel. I mean, we have a story right now but we don't know where we're going to take it.
You collect comics. Does that influence your films?
Yeah, very much so. I love comics. I like to do everything I used to do when I was 14-years-old. I try to keep focused on the things that really make me happy and just do those same things. The movies look the way they do because I have a sense of comic book panels. I think they very much influence the way I frame a film - storywise, I still use film as a reference, but all the dynamic angles and stuff. If you look at the first race in the movie, it's very much like a comic book.
