Trying to Write Across Color Lines

“Crash and Burnham” is a screenplay spiced with gritty dialogue that tells the story of young African Americans who run an illegal gambling operation from their personal computer as they attempt to strike it rich on the Internet.

But the author, C.D. Kline, is Cynthia Kline, a blond, blue-eyed Beverly Hills businesswoman and self-described “nice Jewish girl from the Upper East Side of New York.”

Mark Brown was raised on the hard streets of Washington, D.C., but said he learned “proper English and dialect” while attending a private school that was “94% white.”

The African American screenwriter, best known for the upcoming hip-hop movie “How to Be a Player,” is now shopping a spec script called “Weekend With Grandpa”--a comedy with a white cast about two kids who take a road trip to visit their grandfather in a nursing home.

“I believe a good writer can write about whatever area in life he wants--be it black or white--if they do their proper research,” Brown said.

“It’s no different than writing a period piece from a different time frame in Ireland,” Kline said. “I’ve only been to Ireland once, but I’ve been to many more black communities than Ireland. We don’t have to live within where we come from anymore. We can experience anything by virtue of television, film and, certainly in Los Angeles, by going to clubs.”

The issue of how much cultural insight filmmakers need when crossing color lines recently faced Dale Pollock, the 46-year-old white producer of “Set It Off,” a film about four African American women who rob banks.

Pollock said there was some initial concern at the studio over how the black media might respond and considered leaving him off the press junket.

“There was a feeling that the black press did not respond well seeing white producers on a black film,” Pollock recalled. “But we’re not ashamed of who we are and what we have done here. The important thing was we did participate and there was no backlash and no negative feedback.”

But Pollock had not only done his homework, he pulled together creative talents from both races to make the film, which has taken in about $20.7 million at the box office.

“I had a black director, one black male writer and one white female writer,” he said. “I had a white [director of photography], a black script supervisor, a black prop department and we had a very racially mixed crew--which we did intentionally.”

Pollock said he tried unsuccessfully to find a black woman to direct the movie. “The irony is, I remember interviewing a black female director who said, ‘I don’t know anything about these characters. I wouldn’t know anything about telling their stories.’ ”

He ultimately chose director F. Gary Gray (“Friday”), who Pollock said not only brought a special visual shooting style to the project but also had firsthand experience growing up in a tough, urban environment.

The writers included the original screenwriter, Takashi Bufford, and Kate Lanier (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”), who Pollock noted grew up in Harlem.

“I think in this case it’s important to keep the dialogue realistic--not having it cliche dialogue or dated black dialogue,” the producer said. “I wanted to make sure we had someone who was pretty current and knew the rhythms and knew slang.”

Pollock said that he doesn’t agree with those who argue that only blacks should do black films and whites do white films.

“To me, it’s sort of critical that we not restrict storytelling,” Pollock said. “The idea that only white people are capable of telling white stories and only African Americans are capable of telling African American stories, I completely disagree with that notion.”

Screenwriter Brown believes blacks are often better prepared to write for white audiences than the reverse. “A black person has to deal with the proverbial white world on a day-to-day basis,” he said, “but very rarely does the average white person have to deal with an all-black world.”

Phil Beauman, who co-wrote the hip-hop film “Don’t Be a Menace” with Shawn and Marlon Wayans and now co-produces the WB Network TV show “The Wayans Brothers,” has spent years writing comedy with blacks. He believes that African Americans are not given enough of a chance to write for white audiences.

“To me, there are so many great African American writers out there that could easily write for white shows,” Beauman said, “but I don’t think people give them a chance. For some reason, people think they can’t write for ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Friends.’ ”

Kline, meanwhile, believes she has struggled to get “Crash and Burnham” produced simply because she is a white woman trying to interest black production companies in her script, which is about educated, urban blacks and does not contain violence or drug usage but encourages the use of the “information superhighway” as opposed to street-corner business.

Her agent--a young, black Beverly Hills attorney named Loyst P. Fletcher--said he shopped Kline’s script around to various black production companies and got a positive response before they knew she was white.

“Doors are going to slam when they hear that a white girl is writing this kind of screenplay,” Fletcher said. “They think, ‘What could a white, Jewish girl from New York know about young African American males?’ But reading the script, it is actually very accurate. It accurately portrays me.”

One of those who liked--but ultimately turned down--Kline’s script was Martin Jones, executive vice president of production at United Image Entertainment, a company co-owned by actor-director Tim Reid.

“We are still a boutique production company,” Jones said. “We make two or three movies a year and we’ve already picked our next six productions.”

Still, Jones agreed that Hollywood at large tends to stereotype writers. “I can see people back off on both sides of the fence,” he said, “because people want to put everybody in a box.”

Kline said that she wanted to produce her own script, and she sought out a black co-production deal with a major black star attached.

One of those Kline attempted to woo to her project was the rapper Coolio, who she believed was perfect for the part because of his international exposure not only in music but also within the positive messages to youth culture. His music was recently associated with the film “Dangerous Minds,” which starred Michelle Pfeiffer.

Kline met with Coolio three times, but ultimately, the two sides never got far enough to make a deal.

In a telephone interview, Coolio said: “It was a decent script and it had potential,” but the deal never jelled.