This African-American director won several awards as a film student at USC which in turn led to a contract with the powerful Creative Artists Agency. John Singleton's assured directorial debut "Boyz N the Hood" (1991) received major studio backing, a $6 million budget and a showcase at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. An urgent, powerful coming-of-age tale, the film found a spark of hope amid its bleak, violence-ridden South Central Los Angeles setting and became one of the top-grossing features ever made by a black filmmaker. Almost unanimously praised by the critics, the film earned Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. The latter nomination made history as Singleton became not only the first black but also the youngest filmmaker cited in the category.
As a follow-up, Singleton helmed the 1992 Michael Jackson video "Remember the Time", featuring Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson in an Egyptian setting. His second feature "Poetic Justice" (1993) was a modern romance set in turbulent South Central L.A. that paired singers-turned-actors Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur. While the film received a warm reception at the box office, critics were less than enthusiastic. "Higher Learning" (1995), which charted relations on a multi-racial college campus, did over $13 million at the box office its opening weekend and eventually earned close to $39 million. As with "Boys N the Hood", both films examined contemporary relationships set against everyday violence and while each started out strongly, the endings seemed forced and disjointed.
For the first time in his career, Singleton was a director-for-hire on his next project, the true story of a nearly all-black town on the Florida panhandle that was destroyed by white rednecks in 1923. While anticipated as an important film of substance, "Rosewood" (1997) was virtually overlooked by all audiences at the box office, an ironic twist in a year that also saw the release of the bigger-budgeted "Amistad", another based-on-fact but little known story. Singleton then turned his attention to his loose remake of "Shaft" (2000), which garnered much ink in the press over lead Samuel L Jackson's confrontations with producer Scott Rudin and screenwriter Richard Price. His follow-up was the much more personal "Baby Boy" (2001), which could be seen as a companion piece to his debut film, as it focused on a young black man who fails to live up to his potential. Taking actor-model Tyrese, the star of "Baby Boy," with him, Singleton next jumped aboard to helm "2 Fast, 2 Furious," the critically panned high-octane 2003 sequel to the sleeper thriller "The Fast and the Furious."
As a director, he has been attached to the proposed—but heretofore never realized—screen version of August Wilson's play "Fences,” which was acquired by Eddie Murphy. Singleton, unlike other film directors who came into prominence in the late 80s and 90s and seem driven to put themselves in movies, has kept a low on-screen profile. He did have bit parts, however, in "Boyz N the Hood" (as a letter carrier) and "Beverly Hills Cop III" (1994, as a firefighter). He also made a brief appearance in Mario Van Peebles blaxsploitation spoof, “Baadasssss!” (2004). He returned to regular duties, producing the critically acclaimed “Hustle & Flow” (2005), starring Terrance Howard as a middle-aged pimp hoping to reinvent himself as a rap star. Howard earned rave reviews for his complicated performance, generating the first genuine Oscar buzz that year.
Singleton then directed “Four Brothers” (2005), a remake of John Wayne’s “The Sons of Katie Elder” (1965) set in the streets of modern-day Detroit. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Andre 3000, Tyrese Gibson and Garrett Hedlund as four adoptive brothers (two black, two white) whose mother is gunned down in a grocery story robbery, “Four Brothers” was a straight-forward and unabashed revenge thriller that either pleased or disappointed critics for its simplistic narrative. Despite the mixed reviews, “Four Brothers” faired well at the box office, earning over $55 million in its first few weeks of release.