Jumping the Broom: The Director's Cut

Jumping the Broom: The Director’s Cut

By Curtis Wallace

Last Saturday, October 16, I flew out to LA to meet with the other Producers of Jumping the Broom and see the Director’s cut of the film. This was the first time that the film had been shown to an audience. I could not have been happier with the movie.

At this point in the process, there is still a lot of work to be done on the film before it is ready for theaters; including color correction, work on the sound and finalizing the music. But even at this early stage, the movie was incredible.

Having worked on this project for the last year and a half, going into the screening room on the Sony Lot was a little reminiscent of the four times I walked into a hospital with my beautiful wife, Julaina, to see one of our children born. You are filled with excitement and expectation about the great event that is about to take place, but also a little nervous and apprehensive. All you really want is a healthy mother and child.

I felt the same way about seeing the movie for the first time. So many people have invested so much of themselves to get to this point and you just want everything to be ok. Well, just like it was with the births of our children – the movie exceeded expectations.

As Producers on the film, the primary job that Bishop Jakes and I had was to make choices. Do you make this addition or deletion to the script, do you cast this person or that person for a certain role, where do you film the movie? For Jumping the Broom, one of the big choices was picking the house that serves as the location for most of the movie. The hard part is that you don’t know until you see the finished product if all of those thousands of choices will coalesce into something special or not.

Not to pat ourselves on the back too hard, but we now know that we made some great choices. The performances by the cast are great. I cannot say enough good things about the cast - Angela Bassett, Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Loretta Devine, Meagan Good, Julie Bowen, Valarie Pettiford, Brian Stokes Mitchell, DeRay Davis, Pooch Hall, Romeo Miller, Tasha Smith and Mike Epps – they all delivered. The location was beautiful – the house we chose really becomes a character in the film. In the editing process, our Director, Salim Akil, and Editor, Terilyn Shropshire, made impeccable choices in putting the film together.    

The movie is funny, moving and takes you on an emotional rollercoaster. I can’t wait until it comes out on May 6^th.

Before I go, I want to thank everyone who was a part of making this film happen. Our partners at Sony Pictures Entertainment, especially Michael Lynton, Devon Franklin and Peter Nelson were incredibly supportive. Our Producing partners Tracey Edmunds, Elizabeth Hunter and Glendon Palmer made this a partnership of 2 plus 2 equals 5!

I also want to thank Angela Bassett who appeared at the Potter’s House Friday October 22,  to take part in the Woman Thou Art Loosed Conference. Check back next week for a clip of Angela’s appearance at Woman Thou Art Loosed!