SUNDANCE '09 PODCAST: Michael Jai White

Actor and martial artist Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight, HBO's Tyson) is the co-writer and eponymous superfly star of Black Dynamite -- a pitch-perfect, two-fisted and two-footed throwback to '70s blaxploitation, directed by Scott Sanders. Premiering in Sundance's "Park City at Midnight" section and already picked up for $2 million by Sony Pictures, the film follows a plot that seemed yanked straight from Fred Williamson's filmography:

When "The Man" murders his brother, pumps heroin into local orphanages, and floods the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor, Black Dynamite is the one hero willing to fight all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honky House.

Before the festival even began, Michael Jai White and I chatted via this new-fangled Skype technology (okay, new for me, so I don't know how to improve the mildly robotic quality just yet) about his "period piece," the blaxploitation film he thinks would be nominated for an Oscar if it were re-released today, and why he would be thrilled to perform in a third Toxic Avenger movie.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

Black Dynamite plays again at Sundance on January 23 and 24 (official page), and will likely be released in U.S. theaters in 2009. To watch the trailers, here you go.

Posted by ahillis at January 22, 2009 7:47 PM