From Black-ish to Black-ish, and everything in between, Kenya Barris never stops creating groundbreaking works that centre on nuanced Black people and delve deeply into racial tensions in the United States. Barris has recently become engaged with the forthcoming animated series Entergalatic created by Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi and the remake of the 1992 comedy picture White Men Can’t Jump. We still don’t know much about the remake, even though the animated series is premiering on Netflix this week.
That’s why, during an interview with Entergalatic, Steve Weintraub of Collider probed Barris for fresh information on White Men Can’t Jump. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson feature in the original White Men Can’t Jump as two hustlers who exploit their basketball abilities to extort money from unwitting street prey. Barris wants to add a message of unity and mutual respect to the remake, which is central to the film’s story of two individuals from vastly different socioeconomic backgrounds falling in love.
Barris explained his motivation for creating a new version of White Men Can’t Jump as follows. That friendship between Woody and Wesley was the beginning of something truly extraordinary, right? In addition, I believe it was all about the merging of cultures. And I feel like that’s going to be a defining feature of the stories I want to tell in the near future. It’s about people from many walks of life who come together at the appropriate time to share something they know is special but that no one else believes in. For his part, Barris utilised the opportunity to heap praise on the remake’s current cast and crew.
Jack Harlow, a rapper nominated for a Grammy, and Sinqua Walls, an actress, play the leads in the new White Men Can’t Jump. Blake Griffin and Ryan Kalil, two professional basketball players, are also executive producers. The original script was written by Barris and Doug Hall, a story editor on Black-ish, and award-winning music video director Calmatic will helm the adaptation. Numerous well-known musicians have lent their talents to the White Men Can’t Jump version. Barris claims that the remake’s musical foundation is solid.
This is what he had to say: This man Jack Harlow is incredible. The wonderful Sinqua (Walls). The music for it is being composed by DJ Drama, and we expect it to follow the same vein as the music for “Above the Rim,” which we are also remaking. I believe that music is emotion, and it is our goal to reinstate large-scale musical scores in films so that they seem as integral to the experience as the narrative itself. Since the late ’90s, DJ Drama has been a mainstay in the music business, thus his inclusion on the soundtrack’s creative team comes as no surprise. The DJ has collaborated with stars like Flo Rida and Lil Wayne, among many others, on Drama’s Generation Now record label.
There is currently no set date for the release of the White Men Can’t Jump remake. The first episode of Entergalactic may be viewed on Netflix starting this Friday, September 30.