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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