According to Deadline, famed Canadian director Julien Christian Lutz, also known as Director X, is taking on a remake of the 1972 blaxploitation crime drama Super Fly. X has famously produced high-budget, cinematic music videos for Missy Elliot, Rihanna, Miguel, Zayn, Fifth Harmony, Drake, Kanye West, and more. This year he directed the music videos for Miguel's "Sky Walker" and DJ Snake’s "The Half."
Watchmen screenplay writer Alex Tse is drafting the remake with Joel Silver producing. Silver previously produced The Matrix trilogy and Predator, among others.
The original Superfly was directed by Gordon Parks, Jr. and starred Ron O’Neal as the lead character Youngblood Priest, a cocaine dealer trying to leave the drug world behind. The film is famous for not only its controversial use of drugs, but by its more successful soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield. It was followed up by Super Fly T.N.T. in 1973 and The Return of Superfly in 1990. Deadline reports that the role of Youngblood Priest could be played by Grown-ish star Trevor Jackson.
Outside of music videos, Lutz directed the 2015 Canadian Drama Across The Line, and the 2016 ballet film Center Stage: On Pointe, a sequel to the 2000 film Center Stage.
