The coming-of-age drama about three young African-American men in South Central Los Angeles launched a decade's worth of similar films. Plus, "Boyz" made a film star of veteran character actor Laurence Fishburne, gave early career boosts to Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett, and Nia Long, and launched the movie careers of Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Regina King, and writer/director John Singleton. Here are 10 things you may not know about how Singleton and much of his cast rose from the troubled streets portrayed in "Boyz" to tell their own story on film.
2. It was on another backstage job, this time on Arsenio Hall's talk show, where Singleton first met Cube. He promised the N.W.A. rapper he'd write a movie role for him, too. They'd meet again several times over the next three years before Singleton finally got to cast Cube as Doughboy.
4. Cast as Furious Styles, the movie's lone father figure, when he was just 29, Fishburne was already a seasoned movie vet, having been cast as a sailor in Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic "Apocalypse Now" when he was just 14. Singleton took "Coppola lessons" from Fishburne, learning second-hand everything the actor knew about the legendary director's technique.
6. The sense of danger from the South Central filming locations was real. "The set was about 10 blocks from my house. I could have walked, except that probably wouldn't have been the safest thing to do," recalled the movie's female lead, Nia Long.
Dialogue had to be re-recorded in the studio because of ambient noise -- real-life helicopters and gunshots. A Bloods spokesman, who called himself Bone, warned producers that if they filmed the climactic scene of Doughboy killing two Bloods on Blood turf, he couldn't guarantee that some angry Blood wouldn't retaliate and shoot Cube for real. Singleton shot the scene elsewhere.
8. "Boyz" cost just $6.5 million to produce. It earned back $57.5 million in North America.
10. "Boyz" was nominated for two Oscars, for Singleton's original screenplay and his directing. At 24, he was the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director and the first African-American.
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