Earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, director Matty Rich came down to showcase a short film privately to investors in the hopes to get funding to make it into a feature film or even a TV series. Titled “C+U+R+E,” the shorts centers on a Black kid with healing powers.
Rich is best known for directing the 1991 indie film Straight Out of Brooklyn and the Disney film The Inkwell, which starred Larenz Tate and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Blackfilm.com caught up with Rich as he spoke his latest project.
Where did the concept for cure come in from?
Matty Rich: It was based on a script that I wrote. I wanted to come up with the idea of what if there was a kid that lived in an inner city, kid of color, who possessed the gift that literally could heal the world. And he was a descendant of a man back in the A.D. world who wasn’t a God, but possess the gift of healing from God. So what if you had an unlikely person that you would never think of that possess this spiritual gift that could heal everything that’s plaguing the world right now? Unfortunately, even Corona, COVID-19.
So you made this short in the hopes that investors see it and put money in for a feature film?
Matty Rich: Yes, that’s the goal. To use this as a catapult like I did with Straight Out Of Brooklyn to get people behind it, just investors or even studio execs. When people see the teaser, they see two different things. I screened it at AFI, when I first finished it, to a big audience, and I did a QA and people said this is a feature film. And then the other group of people said this would be a great series. So I’m open to both of the opportunities.
You took it a Sundance for a private showing, and before COVID started, how far along did you get?
Matty Rich: Well before COVID started, I did the teaser, and screened at Sundance. I have really great response from that. I was on my way to talking with people who are interested in investing and things of that sort. I also talked to a couple of executives about it. Unfortunately, the world got shaken and we’re indoors at this point.
Is it harder now trying to get investors as opposed to 30 years ago?
Matty Rich: No, I actually think it is easier. Because when I did Straight Out Of Brooklyn, there were no there was no GoFundMe. I was the first one, actually Spike Lee came before me, to create the whole platform of GoFundMe going to the directly to the people itself like I went to. I spoke to people on WBLS radio station and also WLIB in New York. I talk to the people and said, I had a short clip that I wanted people to come down and invest. People showed up to the screening room in Manhattan. That’s how I got that movie off the ground. It’s easier to do it now because reaching people, so you’re just a click away. There’s so many streaming opportunities here. I have not shown it to the streamers yet, but that’s one of my goals.
Is it better to make a movie or series out of this?
Matty Rich: I’m a little torn at that because I’m a film guy. That’s what I do. I’m a filmmaker. So I say this. I see things as a beginning middle and the end to it. I can see it also as a film because I wrote it as a film, but then I can also see it as an extended series also. What I would like to do is do the film first and then and then focus on the series.
With 30 years in, how do you stay in the business?
Matty Rich: You have to learn how to adapt. The word “adapt” is important to me because when I got the opportunity to meet Yves Guillemot who runs Ubisoft the gaming division, and they asked me, “Did I ever make a game?” I said “No.” “Do you know how to write?” and I sad “Yes, I know how to write.” They needed help on a video game that needed focus, that needed direction. I never wrote and directed a game but I adapted to that situation I adapted to that platform. Then I went on to move to Paris and I’ve ran their gaming division for over 200 artists every day for the video game 187 Ride or Die, and also ran a team in Hong Kong and ran a team and Seoul Korea so I learned how to adapt, to be a narrative writer, as far writing scripts. I can write TV series, but also writing video games, working in the augmented reality space. Also I adapted as an artist. So when one door closes, I look at all the other opportunities that are ahead of me.
So having worked in the gaming world, why not adapt the game for the big screen?
Matty Rich: With everything that I do I see things and just not as a one off opportunities. I see Cure as a feature film with TV series potential, and it also has a gaming potential, the same thing with Caller 100. It’s a film but then I also see a gaming opportunity. I think like a studio exec would think, where you look at a property that you want to make and you ask yourself how many streams of revenue can I create out of this? And if you can’t create other streams of revenue, that’s okay. It’s just maybe a one off movie. But that’s how I think.
With C+U+R+E, are you waiting for COVID-19 to stop?
Matty Rich: My goal is that I’m talking to people and I’m continuing to talk to more people, executives and independent financiers about this. Even though we are indoors that we’re still doing business. There’s still business to be done. This will pass. When it will pass? No one knows. But Hollywood will continue to go on. What’s going to happen is that we’re going to have to learn how to make projects safely, first, safely to protect not just the actors but the crew and everyone involved. Instead of bigger crews, it will be a smaller crew. It will be more on that independent level to keep people a little bit more safe right now until there’s a cure or a vaccine. So, if things are moving with C+U+R+E, and it was moving before COVID, I hope that this will become something that will be a part of what I’m doing in 2021 or 2022.
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May 03, 2020 at 05:35AM
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Director Matty Rich On Hoping Short Film C+U+R+E Gets Expanded For Feature Film Or TV Series - Blackfilm
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