Charles Burnett is one of the great, unsung directors of the last 40 years. “Killer of Sheep” “My Brother’s Wedding” and “To Sleep With Anger” are three of the finest films ever directed by an African-American director.
Burnett, called by The New York Times “...the nation’s least-known great filmmaker and most gifted Black director,” hasn’t directed a film since 1999’s “Annihilation Fish,” beyond that he’s mostly dabbled in docs.
A few years ago, Amazon Studios had hired Burnett to helm “Steal Away” about the daring theft and escape of Robert Smalls, a slave in 1862 Charleston, SC. Andy Froemke wrote the script.
Sadly, in a recent interview with “Our Weekly,” Burnett says “Steal Away” is in “development hell.”
He also talks about his dream project, a screen adaptation of Hungarian writer Arthur Koestler’s novel “Darkness at Noon” which still “ferments in his psyche”. Can someone please fund this guy? He’s a major talent.
Burnett was honored last year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with a Governor’s Award for “his remarkable contributions to film and to American culture, with two of his films —“Killer of Sheep” and “To Sleep with Anger” — in the prestigious Library of Congress National Film Registry.”