New Line goes with 'Flow' for Singleton

Grabs spec script in low- against mid-six figure deal

By MICHAEL FLEMING

NEW YORK -- New Line has purchased "The Flow," a script about the inner workings of the hip-hop business to be directed by "Boyz N the Hood" helmer John Singleton.

New Line president Michael De Luca plans to go with "The Flow" as quickly as Singleton can free himself up to direct it, with the film either preceding or quickly following the remake of "Shaft" that Singleton will direct at Paramount.

New Line bought the script by Cheo Hodari Coker and Richard Wesley in a low- against mid-six figure deal, and made a separate deal for Singleton to direct what the studio hopes will be an unflinching dramatization of a megabuck business.

"Flow" uses composites of real-life rap music world characters to tell its story. The rap world has been rife with plenty of controversy, sex and violence including the shooting deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Singleton, whose films include "Higher Learning" and "Rosewood," has long been targeting the remake of "Shaft," the 1971 blaxploitation classic that starred Richard Roundtree as a tough-guy detective. That pic is in good shape at Paramount under producer Scott Rudin, with a rewrite just in by Richard Price, sources said. The studio is trying to find the right actor to play the title character. Depending on the outcome of that search, "Flow" could either sneak in before or immediately follow "Shaft."

The "Flow" screenwriters came together from disparate paths. Coker is a 25-year-old journalist who has written for the Los Angeles Times, and such magazines as Vibe, Premiere and Rolling Stone. While he's written on various forms of entertainment, much of his coverage has concentrated on the players in the rap business.Wesley is the 53-year-old scribe whose credits include the Bill Cosby-Sidney Poitier pics "Uptown Saturday Night" and its sequel "Let's Do It Again." He is an assistant professor of screenwriting at NYU.

Coker is repped by Tollin/Robbins' Jeanne Williams, while Wesley is repped by Innovative Artists' Jim Garravante and attorney Jay Kramer. Singleton is repped by UTA. New Line execs Donna Langley and David Alper were instrumental in sealing the deal.