B-boy Blues Film Begins Casting

B-Boy Blues, the 1994 breakthrough novel about a middle-class black gay professional who finds love with a banjee boy -- what we might now call a homo-thug -- is about to become a movie. And they're about to start casting next month!

The project is a joint venture between the book's author James Earl Hardy, and writer/director Maurice Jamal (The Ski Trip, and the yet-to-be released Dirty Laundry).

The book itself was groundbreaking because it was the first book to deal with how issues of class and gender (butch/femme) play out in the black gay community.

What will be interesting is to see how those issues are dealt with in this film adaptation. It's been 13 years since the book debuted (and Hardy wrote a total of six books dealing with the same characters), and the black gay community has been dealing with a lot of the issues raised by the series.

The two say that the film "will pull from the most compelling and entertaining elements of the book, while bringing a new sensibility as the film reaches a broader audience."

The two first began discussing the project after receiving a barrage of questions from audience members at a panel discussion about the possiblilty of a screen version of B-Boy Blues. Hardy received emails like "We saw you at a Starbucks with Maurice Jamal. What are you guys working on?"

Clearly, the kids are anxious.

So if you think you got what it takes to land a role in the upcoming flick, visit B-Boy Blues: The Movie to find out about upcoming casting calls.

See the Trailer to Jamal's upcoming film Dirty Laundry: