BLAIR UNDERWOOD’S SOUL TO KEEP
The multi-talented Blair Underwood, no stranger to genre fans having appears in films like DEEP IMPACT and GATTACA as well as having been the target of one of the countless BLAIR WITCH parodies (THE BLAIR UNDERWOOD PROJECT), has lined up a new genre pic for himself to star in and produce. He was original set to direct the project – entitled MY SOUL TO KEEP – but as he told FANGORIA, he was recently given the choice star or direct.
‘It’s a supernatural thriller/love story,’ Underwood explains. ‘I directed the second unit in Ethiopia a couple of years ago. I’m setting the film up at a studio right now, though I shouldn’t say which one. I’ll be producing it. The studio let me know, ‘You can star in it, but we’re not going to let you direct and star,’ just because of the genre really. It’s on the scale of an epic. They want to make the film, they want to invest in the film and they’re saying, ‘We believe in you,’ but it’s the scale of the film. It came from a book. I bought the rights to this book called My Soul To Keep about five years ago and it’s finally happening, which is nice.’
The book, by Tananarive Due, bounces across history from ancient Abyssinia up through 20th century New Orleans and focuses on a character named Dawit contemporized into the name David that will be played by Underwood.
‘He’s an immortal who has lived for 500 years,’ Underwood says. ‘He’s from a group of 58 men from this ancient village in Lalibela, Ethiopia – it’s an actual village and that’s where we shot the film. The Ethiopia stuff is just the flashbacks. We’ll shoot most of it in Virginia, probably, some in Miami and then some in South Africa. It’s on the fast track if all goes well.’
Courtesy of Fangoria
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