Jussie Smollett to make film directorial debut with novel ‘B-Boy Blues’

Jussie Smollett is making his directorial debut with the film adaptation of James Earl Hardy’s 1994 novel “B-Boy Blues”, reports Deadline.

⁠Jussie Smollett to direct B-Boy Blues

B-Boy Blues follows the relationship of 27-year-old journalist Mitchell Crawford and 21-year-old bicycle messenger Raheim Rivers, who meet at a gay bar in Greenwich Village during the summer of 1993.

Rivers is known as a “B-boy” or “banjee boy,” which is a term that originated in ballroom culture to describe someone with a tough exterior. However, as Crawford gets to know Rivers, he discovers that though he is a loving father to his 5-year-old son, he has a history of violence.⁠

The film will be produced through Smollett’s SuperMassive Movies.⁠

Production

Smollet’s production on B-Boy Blues starts on Oct. 17 and is financed by SuperMassive and Tom Wilson, a Cleveland-based investor who funds independent, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC films. Smollett is a producer, along with author Hardy, Frank Gatson, Sampson McCormick and Madia Hill Scott.