Deon Taylor Channels Phil Jackson While Directing The House Next Door
Synopsis: Carl Black (Mike Epps) is about to face off with the neighbor from hell (Katt Williams) in The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2. Carl has only ever wanted the best for his family, but after surviving the events that led to his (not-so-)bestselling book, he’s moving everyone to his childhood home, where he must contend with not only dealing with his wife Lorene (Zulay Henao) and kids Allie (Bresha Webb) and Carl Jr. (Alex Henderson) but everyone under the sun who drives him crazy: Cronut (Lil Duval), Freezee (Andrew Bachelor), Rico (Tyrin Turner), along with an entire neighborhood of characters who seem to attract strange activity after dark. And nothing could be freakier than their new neighbor, Dr. Mamuwalde (Williams), who may or may not be a vampire. From Co-Writer/Director Deon Taylor (Fatale, Black and Blue), as the Meet the Blacks universe expands, it will be up to Carl to figure out what his neighbor is up to in the middle of the night before it’s too late for him and his family.
Mike Epps, Katt Williams, Lil’ Duval, and Snoop Dogg are a few names in the star-studded The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 horror-comedy: the sequel to Meet The Blacks (once again helmed by Director Deon Taylor). Taylor is known for his recent works such as Fatale, Black and Blue, and Intruder. The Director took time out of his busy schedule to talk about his latest project.
Dapper Dr. Feel (DDF): Does your creative approach differ from genre to genre?
Deon Tayor (DT): I think the approach is always the same. In order for me to do a project, I have to be excited about it for some reason. That reason changes at different times of my life. I do understand the film is art. The idea is for you to keep painting. I see directors doing a movie every eight years. I don’t know how to do that. It took me so long as a Black director to get a movie made. Once the door was ajar, I put it into my mindset that I’m not going to stop.
DDF: What inspired you to make the first Meet the Blacks?
DT: I made Meet the Blacks at a time when I was over making films, then Mike Epps made me laugh and told me he wanted to do a horror film. I was like that’s an interesting idea.
DDF: So, that’s why you’ve been putting out movies frequently?
DT: Yes, you don’t want to stop. Especially when you are conscious of the time you are living in. If you have an opportunity to run you should run. Don’t let anything cool off, because we can’t afford that. If we lived in a different environment where I could point to 5 or 6 Black filmmakers and say they can afford to make one film and [take] three years off, then I would do it.
DDF: What was your approach to this film?
DT: I had finished the first Meet the Blacks and I was doing the press tour for The Intruder with Dennis Quaid. Everywhere I went with Dennis during the press tour, someone would always ask “When are you doing Meet the Blacks 2?” White people, Black people, Asian people were all asking about a Meet the Blacks sequel. So Finally Dennis Quaid was like “Hey, are you going to do another Meet the Blacks?” That experience stayed with me for a year and a half then finally my friend from New York, Omar, was like “Son, we gotta make another Meet the Blacks son.”
DDF: What was it like on set with all the talents?
DT: Not only are you a Director, but you are also an usher for energy. It’s like everyone has energy. I credit that to basketball a lot, how I pulled this movie off…and the first one. The first one was Charlie Murphy, Mike Epps, and Mike Tyson. They are all on set. Everybody’s got an agenda. Everybody had something they wanted to do. For me, it’s about becoming invisible with your ego.
If you ever played on a successful basketball team, everyone plays a role. When you have Mike Epps, Lil Duvall, Micahel Blackson, Gary Owen and you add Katt, it’s like the Brooklyn Nets. Katt said it best, he was James Harden on set. Sure he could drop 50 but we didn’t need for him to give 50, we needed him to facilitate. That’s what he did in this film. He stood back and played a vampire in the heavy and let the comedy happen around him.
DDF: So you are Doc Rivers coaching the Celtics huh?
DT: Lol. I don’t want to be Doc, I wanna be Phil (Jackson). Lol
DDF: Any stories from Epps and Williams about their experience on Friday After Next?
DT: Every day there was something. That’s the beauty of these movies, the memories you get to keep. You don’t realize Mike and Katt had so much history outside of what we know as public. Like, how they remember starting and doing shows together. You don’t know how long Micheal Blackson has been in entertainment or how long he and Gary Owens have known each other. You realize this is a community of talent that has been evolving around each other for the past 20years.
DDF: Are there some special moments that stick out in your mind from Meet the Blacks and A House Next Door?
DT: I remember being in the room with Mike Tyson, Charlie Murphy, Mike Epps, and Paul Mooney. They were talking about Eddie Murphy and their careers in the ’80s. You hear stuff and you are just like “Damn this [is] historically crazy. Now you see Charlie is gone, Paul Mooney is gone, and it makes you feel blessed to do a movie like A House Next Door. Every now and again you have a Harlem Knights or a Wayans film, but I am happy to get this calibur [of] film together because these are all the people we love.
DDF: What does the audience have to look forward to?
DT: Fun, entertainment, a couple of jumps. I think we live in a world where we remake things and that’s cool, but I think Meet the Blacks and A House Next Door are their own thing.
If your mom gives you $20 to watch a film or you spend your last $50 to go on a date, I want to make sure you enjoy it. I’m trying to give you some message like to be an artist. I can give you that in the context of it, but my biggest job as an artist is to entertain you and make sure you have a good time.
DDF: How do you make movies that deliver a message without boring the audience?
DT: I think about how I can give my daughter something in a film. Like Traffik, you get the thrills like A Quiet Place but you ask yourself does this stuff happen in real life? Yeah, it happens in real life. Critics don’t understand because most people don’t present the films this way.
Take The Intruder, for instance, it is about a Black couple and there’s an evil that’s trying to separate them. They have to overcome that evil and they become closer through adversity. We have to be free thinkers to tell these stories and not [be] programmable.
If I’m going to tell the John Lewis Story next, which I am, my job is to make that story real, authentic, and entertaining so you can go see it. I have to make films that people will go see, talk about, and remember.
You think Glory starring Denzel, when it comes on TV, I will watch it right now? Why? Because it was just a dope movie. The message and truthfulness educated you on the battalion, but you were entertained.
DDF: How do you develop a good ending for a film?
DT: That’s just being a fan of movies. Anybody can lie to you, Felipe, and be like “I try to process how the characters think”. Part of this is [because] I don’t have any film school, no one has ever taught me film or tv writing. Everything I have is because I love movies, because I watch them like you. Like, I just watched Wrath of Man and I was like “Yo, that’s crazy!”
I treat my films like rollercoasters: here goes the twist, here goes the turns, and people exit the theater excited. Our little production company makes these little films but gets A and B+ cinema scores.
DDF: I saw your post about the film All Falls Down and thought to myself “It would be dope to see Deon make a version of All Falls Down.
DT: That would be dope!
DDF: What are your top three horror films?
DT: I want to say The Exorcist, but it’s in its own category. You can’t beat that horror film. It’s in everyone’s top 3. It’s the GOAT of horror movies.
Event Horizon, the first Strangers, and Nightmare on Elm St. The girls in white jumping rope and singing the Freddie Krueger song were scary when I was young.
But for now, check out The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 availabe in theaters everywhere. I, personally, really hope Deon does make his version of Falling Down with a cool ass one shot. If he does, you best believe I will ask to be a part of that project.
The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 stars comedy superstars Mike Epps (Next Friday, Netflix’s The Upshaws) and Katt Williams (Friday After Next, Scary Movie V) with Bresha Webb (Ride Along 2), Lil Duval (Scary Movie V), Zulay Henao (The Oath), Tyrin Turner (Menace II Society), Alex Henderson (Creed), Michael Blackson (Dutch), Andrew Bachelor (Holidate), Gary Owen (Ride Along), and Snoop Dogg returning from the first film. Danny Trejo (Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn) and Rick Ross (Hip Hop artist) join the supporting cast for the sequel.
ABOUT HIDDEN EMPIRE FILM GROUP
Hidden Empire Film Group (“HEFG”), founded by Black filmmaking team Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent Taylor in partnership with investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith, is a next-generation film production, distribution, and marketing company. HEFG has partnered with major distributors including LIONSGATE on the steamy thriller FATALE starring Michael Ealy and two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank and TRAFFIK, starring Paula Patton and Omar Epps as well as SONY SCREEN GEMS on the timely and insightful crime thriller BLACK & BLUE starring Academy Award® nominee Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Mike Colter, and Frank Grillo and the psychological thriller THE INTRUDER starring Michael Ealy, Meagan Good, and Dennis Quaid. Upcoming projects include the John Lewis biopic FREEDOM RIDE; the psychological thriller DON’T FEAR, which completed principal photography during the pandemic; the psychological thriller SILENT JOHN to be directed by Aisha Tyler; the next installment in the Meet the Blacks franchise, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR; and CJ Entertainment’s horror title GRAVE HILL. Learn more at https://hiddenempirefilmgroup.com/
