Sister Souljah is known as a Bronx native, an activist, a hip hop lyricist and a mentor, but readers may be more familiar with her as the author of best-selling novels The Coldest Winter Ever, No Disrespect and her latest read Midnight. She recently sat d
Sister Souljah is known as a Bronx native, an activist, a hip hop lyricist and a mentor, but readers may be more familiar with her as the author of best-selling novels The Coldest Winter Ever, No Disrespect and her latest read Midnight. She recently sat down with the Defender to talk about her books, movie projects and our youth.
DEFENDER: When will The Coldest Winter Ever movie finally release? I read about Jada Pinkett- Smith playing Winter Santiaga or is that not finalized? SS: Jada Pinkett-Smith was never intending to play Winter Santiaga. It was a rumor printed by…a magazine without calling me. In ’98, I did a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus, and when I showed up for the panel, Jada Pinkett-Smith was on the panel. She gave me her contact information, and I sent her an advance reader of The Coldest Winter Ever…She called me up in the middle of the night and said, “Hey, this has got to be a movie.” And I said, “I would love for it to be a movie” because I saw it as a film in my mind when I was writing it. I went out to California, took some meetings for the film, ended up making a deal with Jada Pinkett-Smith, HBO and myself. Jada and I were the executive producers of the film. HBO bought the option and the film rights. Down the road…HBO decided not to do the film…I bought the film rights back. Jada still wants to be involved on the production side, so now I’m back in talks about the film version, but I’m still at the contract stage.
DEFENDER: Most people would assume that Midnight would be a continuation of The Coldest Winter Ever. You said you wanted to start from the beginning. Will there ever be a sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever? SS: What I’m writing now is the continuation of Midnight that will connect with The Coldest Winter Ever, so it becomes a trilogy. If people want a sequel, they should read Midnight, or they’ll be missing puzzle pieces to the third book.
DEFENDER: What made you pick the character Midnight as your next lead character? SS: Midnight did not make that many appearances in The Coldest Winter Ever, and yet, wherever I traveled, he was the person that all of the readers were most fascinated with.
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