George Tillman Jr.

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George Tillman Jr. (born January 26, 1969) is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director.Tillman is most notable for directing the films Soul Food (1997) and Men of Honor (2000).

He is also the producer of the Soul Food: The Series on television and the four films in the Barbershop series: Barbershop, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Beauty Shop and Barbershop: The Next Cut.

He directed the 2009 biopic Notorious, about the late Brooklyn-born rapper The Notorious B.I.G., and directed and produced the drama The Hate U Give (2018). Tillman was nominated for the Black Film Award for Best Director for Soul Food (1997).

Tillman was also nominated for the Black Reel Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Notorious (2009).

Early life

Tillman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father, George Tillman, worked at the American Motors plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and his mother was a secretary. Throughout his early childhood, Tillman would borrow his father's 8mm camera and would start to shoot things with Milwaukee's Public-access television cable TV channel. By age eight, Tillman got his hands on his very first television script, All My Children, and wrote his first soap opera as well as his first five-minute show. Tillman recalled, years later, to an interviewer in regard to receiving the All My Children's script," I told them about a certain plot change that I wanted and I thought I could help the characters out…That was the beginning for me, the writing."

In 1975, Tillman became inspired to create his own films after seeing the film, Cooley High. To Tillman, Cooley High spoke to the African American audience in both tears and laughter, and Tillman decided he wanted to contribute to that medium, but did not necessarily know if he wanted to become an actor, writer or director. In 1973, when Tillman watched Five on the Black Hand Side and Claudine in 1974, he felt empowered and knew he wanted to become a filmmaker. "Those were the films that made me realize that African American films- this is before they started calling some films of that era Black exploitation films-spoke for us, and I wanted to be involved with that."

Tillman went to John Marshall High School in Milwaukee and he took Mass Communications Magnet Classes. As a teenager, Tillman made amateur videos and created Splice of Life, which was a program for a local Public-access television. After high school, Tillman attended Columbia College in Chicago and majored in Film and Video. Tillman decided to move to Chicago because he thought a lot was happening there creatively. "There is a lot of theater there, and there are a lot of things happening in Chicago that I wanted to be a part of, so that's where I went to film school," according to Tillman. While in film school, he created a 30-minute short, Paula, which was a story of a 17-year-old, single African American mother who works in a diner and motivates the people around her. Paula's success attributed to numerous awards including the Black Filmmaker's Hall of Fame Award "George Tillman Jr.". and winning the Midwest Regional, Dramatic Category, of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' 19th Annual Student Academy Award competition (1992). In 1991, Tillman graduated from Columbia College and became a part of a directing and producing partnership with his fellow college, Robert Teitel, and together made their company, Menagerie Films. During that time, Tillman supported himself by being a production assistant. He helped work on various commercials, but he always knew he wanted to direct. "Usually, I was the first guy on the set and the last guy to leave—eighteen hours of hard work. And I just felt like if I want to direct, why am I doing this?" Tillman's only experience of being close to a director was made was when he worked on the film, Mo' Money. The writer of Mo' Money, Damon Wayans told the union that he wanted more African Americans to be a part of the crew, which is the major reason why Tillman got hired. Tillman was a set dresser and was able to see how they made the film. At that point, Tillman realized that if he wanted to direct he had to write his own script to make everything happen. "It was going to be a long road from being a PA (production's assistant) to a director."

Tillman began to write his script for Scenes for the Soul, and sent the script to New Line, but they passed on it. Initially, the budget to produce Scenes for the Soul was a million dollars, but Tillman and his partner, Tietel, could not raise a million. The amount they had raised was $150,000 and that was over a period of two years. Tillman had to resort to his film short, Paula, and decided to have a screening. He invited investors to come donate from anything to $500 to $5,000. By the end of the screening, Tillman and Tietel raised $130,000 and with that, started shooting.

Personal life

Tillman is married to actress Marcia Wright. Tillman and Wright have one child together and would like to move back to Chicago in the near future. "For me as a filmmaker, being familiar with my environment is important. I don't want to get caught up in this whole Hollywood thing…Chicago keeps me grounded," which Tillman stated in the introduction of Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago and the Movies.

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Career

Scenes for the Soul, Tillman's 1994 film, was shot in Chicago and directed and wrote his own feature-length film Scenes for the Soul. Tillman had thirty days to shoot the film, and on top of that, he had to work with a number of actors who never appeared before. Tillman intertwines three stories based on a day in the life of a diverse group of African Americans. Tillman completed editing the film in 1995. Tillman returned to Hollywood with the printed Scenes for the Soul and a few hundred dollars on hand. Tillman was able to sell his film to George Jackson and Doug McHenry, who bought it for Savoy Pictures for $1,000,000. However, Savoy Pictures went bankrupt before the film was released in theaters.

Tillman, who was disappointed that his film did not make it to screen, travelled to Chicago and wrote the screenplay for Soul Food. "I wanted to make a film about a black family in Middle America," Tillman told the Chicago Tribune. "This is my family," I wanted to make a film for everyone to see and say, "this is my family." When Tillman's screenplay came to an end, he returned to Hollywood. Tillman made sure to focus on female characters and share a touching tale about the importance of family.

When Tillman's agents decided to sell the script, they marketed it as a low-budget initiative that was independently produced and low-budget, and asked musician Kenneth Edmonds if he wanted to contribute and record a soundtrack album. Edmonds and his partner/business partner, Tracey Edmonds, had recently formed a television and film production firm at the same time as demanding his musical abilities. Both Kenneth and Tracey Edmonds loved Tillman's screenplay so much that they decided to make Soul Food their company's first production. "I read the script and went crazy over it," Edmonds said. The novel was so good, and the characters were so realistic."

The Edmonds were able to discuss with 20th Century Fox to underwrite the film for $6.5 million. In the beginning, 20th Century Fox wanted to have a more experienced producer, but the studio changed their mind after they saw some of Tillman's previous work. Soul Food's filming began in October 1996 as Kenneth Edmonds served as the executive producer, and Tracey Edmonds and Robert Teitel were the producers. Originally, 20th Century Fox would have liked to have more pre-production work and begin filming sometime in 1997, but the leading actresses, Vika A. Both Fox, Vanessa L. Williams, and Nia Long have other commitments they needed to attend to, which made them unavoidable for the next year. Tracey Edmonds was worried about not having the same cast, so the project was canceled on a "date to accommodate everybody." We had only 38 days to shoot the movie, but we couldn't wait a day over it." Soul Food's Chicago location took place due to Tillman's tenacity.

Tillman was pleased with the Edmonds' filmmaking, saying, "I was able to bounce a lot of ideas off of them." They were there every day to see what was going on, but they didn't interfere with what I was doing. "They let me film the movie."

Soul Food was launched on a thirty-day calendar on November 6, 1996. Tillman finished the film on schedule because he had so much of the major ideas planned out in advance. "I knew all the shots," Tillman told Murray during an interview. I knew the destinations...It was based on my own experiences, so it wasn't difficult for me."

Soul Food is born out of Tillman's drive to tell a modern African family a motivating and straight from the heart. It is based on three sisters who live in Chicago—Maxine (Vivica A.) Fox (Wenia L. Williams), a full-time housewife and mother, pays little to no attention to her own personal life; and Bird (Nia Long), a hairdresser married to an ex-convict. The sisters are battling to keep their families together after finding out that their mother is put in a hospital and their annual big Sunday dinner is postponed. Though focusing on the main aspects of family history and marriages, Tillman was able to leave a lasting impression on the audience. "George Tillman Jr. writes and directs with a minimum of flash, reminding us that behind a lot of clichés are simple truths," Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly writes about Soul Food.

Soul Food made $11 million in September 1997 and first weekend. Tillman's success was confirmed by $14 million by the end of its first week, because the film earned twice the money it was originally expected to make. "The shows were sold out, people were laughing, screaming, and it was just amazing," Tillman told Murray later. Soul Food's launch was $43 million, but it also excelled in video sales. Initially, it was expected that Soul Food would be able to attract white moviegoers, particularly after all the good news from the first week, but it didn't work out that way. After finding out that only 12 percent of the film's ticket buyers were white, Tillman said, "I do find occasionally that white audiences are still not going to black films as much as I would like." I believe we're still working on it. However, I'm really happy with where the film ended up." However, despite a lack of white supporters, it was still true that African American audiences are able to make a film a commercial hit. "This segment is definitely sizable, and Hollywood is just starting to understand it," Trout & Partners president Jack Trout said in relation to black audiences.

Tillman and Teitel joined 20th Century Fox for two years and changed the name of the company from Menagerie Films to State Street Pictures, which was their way of respecting the early film years in Chicago.

Tillman was invited to begin a new project starring Steve Martin and one based on African American figures such as Dorothy Dandridge, Marvin Gaye, and Richard Pryor. "I love Marvin Gaye," Tillman told Murray in an interview. "I love Marvin Gaye" -- there's something about him and his struggle that I think will make a good film. It's so cool to see how someone was both highly skilled and at the same time so insecure." In relation to Tillman's upcoming film, the Irish Navy's first African American master deep sear diver, Carl M. Brashear, will be based on the heroic life of his first African American master deep sear diver. It's a project that Tillman hopes to be similar to famous classics like An Officer and a Gentleman and Glory. "I love characters people can identify with and relate to," Tillman told Painter, "I love characters we can learn from everyday." With a lot of films today, we're getting away from that."

After seeing F. Gary Gray in The Negotiator (1999), Tillman's next big hit was Men of Honor, starring Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr., Tillman was inspired to do this film after finding that there were no opportunities for African American directors to work with big time celebrities and he wanted to change that. He was incredibly impressed with the script when he first got it on paper while editing Soul Food. "I think a great script is when you have a wonderful other world, which some people can explore and others don't know about" a great other world, and that others don't."

It was Tillman's first time as an African American filmmaker "working in a white film world." Tillman became a little afraid while working with De Niro and Gooding because he knew both were well-known actors. He knew De Niro would take up to fifty questions and knew from his study that he wanted the director to have all the answers. "I remember calling him one day and saying, 'Bob, I want to know how you work on a set because I want to make it simple for you,'" says the singer. "I love what you did with Soul Food, so you won't have any problems with me," Tillman told me. He knew that he'd always had to know the back-story to his character, which he knew. Tillman loved what Gooding had in his first film, Boyz n the Hood, and wanted to portray the character. In order to get the look he was going for in the film, Tillman had to do his research on both actors. "It all depends on a person, on an actor, and it's my job to figure it out."

The transition between Soul Food and Men of Honor was difficult for Tillman. Tillman was not designed to create any of the visual effects that Men of Honor possessed. He had a difficult time dealing with the crew because he felt he had to prove himself. "You have to tell everyone that you know what you're doing right away." According to Tillman, "it must be done right away." Tillman's second most difficult part was shooting everything in a confined number of days. "There were moments when I was shooting four and five scenes a day because they were trying to fit so much in the schedule." Tillman knew there was a lot to do, especially because the film cost $32 million to produce. Tillman was also required to consider shooting under water and on top of the water. However, Tillman pushed through all the obstacles and came out proud with the overall product.

In theaters on November 10, 2000, Men of Honor was unveiled. Particularly overs, the Men of Honor was a hit. The film earned $85 million.

Though Tillman was editing Men of Honor, his production partner Robert Teitel gifted him with the Barbershop script, which was written by Mark Brown. Both Tillman and Teitel knew that Barbershop was going to be comedic but that the audience was already struck an emotional chord. Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, and Cedric the Entertainer are among the barbershop's based on the social life of a South Side barbershop. Sherod Lindsey, the popular R&B musician, has three original songs included in the film.

Tillman and Teitel submitted the script to Twentieth Century Fox, but they were unable to pass it because they were not familiar with the script. With Fox 2000 and Fox Searchlight, the same was said. The two were a little disappointed when they discovered MGM due to the services of one of Men of Honor's chief, Alex Gardner, who had consulted with it, and they bought it.

Barbershop began filming in Chicago in 2001. The film, which was once a laundromat, was now the scene for the barbershop in the South Chicago neighborhood, and it was now a laundromat. Tillman, who was created in 1997, had a more optimistic outlook on African Americans.

Because the company understood how important and cost-effective it would be, MGM invested $12 million in marketing the film alone. "If a studio get behind an African American film, which has universal themes, and sells it like every other movie," Tillman says. Both Tillman and Robert made it a point to participate in the marketing campaign in order to be certain that the film was produced as a touching yet comedic piece.

Barbershop was first introduced in theaters on September 13, 2002 and raised the grand total of $77, 063, 924.

Tillman wrote The Longest Ride, a 2015 romance based on Nicholas Sparks' 2013 book of the same name.

State Street Pictures, his production company, has recently agreed to a first look at Sony Pictures Television's first look at it.

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