Hood Talk: Is There Industry Beef Between Adam Deacon & Noel Clarke?

Noel Clarke has been back in the UK after a 5 week working jaunt to LA having meeting after meeting whilst getting a little family time in. Hardly a vacation, as he explained in his latest blog post yesterday.

In this blog Noel told it like it was without exposing who it was. Noel’s better than me, cause I’ll call a mutha out in a heartbeat. That is MY Style! You f*** me over, I’m calling you out! What am I protecting you and your trife ways for? Loyalty done!

As a fan of both Adam and Noel ,and a follower of both of on Twitter, I noticed there hasn’t been much tweeting between the pair like there usually has.

The last thing I remember is Adam tweeting Noel to call him. That was during the World Cup. Since then…a whole lot of nothing [unless I missed a few], but my memory is good…trust me.

Adam seemed to have a few stressful days on Twitter where he ranted indirectly last week about the industry [whether that was related to what was going on as a result of Noel’s blog who knows]. Yesterday it was Noel’s turn followed by this extract from his blog post titled ‘LA BLOG’ 

Source: CLARKE UNCENSORED: ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS (NSFW)

“… now people I know are using the HOOD thing, and doing their own thing with it like it’s cool. I’m not gonna bad mouth anyone. But they should ask themselves if it is cool? Really?

Not the film. The film is fine. I support the idea. I encourage you all to go do your thing, I got love for everyone I’ve worked with and they know I have. I have supported them, in public and behind the scenes on projects, with advice, hooked them up with other people who gave them work, got things done for them that I wouldn’t for other people… I want them all to succeed, get out of their area if they want and do big things, and I was gonna help them do that. but why steal my shit to do it? Is that right?

I sat on my arse when I was broke as a joke and made up the whole HOOD thing, now it’s getting used without me to make cash, and exploit people who won’t know it’s not me doing it. don’t tar me with that brush.

It’s simple you do someone else’s thing WITH them, it’s a collaboration. You do someone else’s thing WITHOUT them. It’s called stealing, or as the lawyers have been calling it… Copyright infringement. (look it up)

…(Jack of all trades, master of at least 2… Accept no imitations)

P.S. Your thirty pieces of silver are in the post.”

LOOK it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on here.

Master of at least 2: KiDULTHOOD & AdULTHOOD

Accept no imitations: ANUVaHOOd??

Adam is writing, starring and directing a film called ANUVaHOOd which he stated: “I would say it’s a KiDULTHOOD meets Friday type of thing.”

I even peeped the unusual uppercase/lowercase spelling of ANUVaHOOd on the Twitter Page/Official website which is synonymous to that of Noel’s films. 

No Inspector Clouseau here folks, just a very observant woman. And yes, at this point I’m thinking Noel IS associated with this film [somehow] even if he’s not starring in it just based on little things like that.

However before all of this, I thought nothing of it, especially as I saw Adam stand next to Noel with my own eyes during a Q&A for 4, 3, 2, 1 the movie and tell us, the audience, that he has ANUVaHOOd in the works and that it’s a KiDULTHOOD meets Friday comedy. My fellow tweeters @C1aire_Lucas @JadeMLawrence @KevKevv were present at that Q&A, and I have the audio on my You Tube Channel. 

So, if that is the case, was Noel helping Adam on the project? Did things progress in a way in which Noel didn’t like, whilst he was here or in LA? Who knows? Maybe Noel will talk about it. Maybe he won’t, and just leave it at that blog post.

The references in Noel’s blog as well as a tweet in response to a tweeter where he stated he “wasn’t taking digs [at Adam I’m assuming] but stating facts” suggests he’s not a happy camper in that respect at all. I honestly thought the idea of ANUVaHOOd was blatantly linked to Noel Clarke through Adam, that this movie has Noel’s blessing AND him credited on it somewhere. Obviously not! This movie has nothing to do with Noel Clarke. 

I peeped on IMDB this morning, Adam’s character in ANUVaHOOd is called Jay. Jay is also Adam’s character in KiDULTHOOD and AdULTHOOD. Alright back up....hold up....!

OK, so what is this…a spin-off?? 

It can’t be...can it? It hasn’t got Noel’s name on it with the writing, directing or even the acting. If this Jay is the same Jay from Noel’s two films, then the film has to have Noel credited somewhere, otherwise this is totally ludicrous. If it's not the same character, are there no other names aside from Jay to use for this character and film? 

Can you see why he’s mad? Can you see the references in his blog post making sense?

The whole title and character name is a little too close for comfort if you ask me. Where Noel wrote “exploit people who won’t know it’s not me doing it..” makes a WHOLE lotta sense. There are Noel Clarke fans out there who think this ANUVaHOOd project is somehow associated with him, especially as fans really want a third ‘hood’ installment from Noel. Noel has made it perfectly clear that probably is NOT going to be happening as he wants to venture onto new and different things.

So what has happened here? Has Adam jumped on board with ANUVaHOOd KNOWING the demand for a third ‘hood’ installment, whilst ‘exploiting’ the people [audience] thinking this has Noel’s stamp on it?

“30 pieces of silver in the post?”

DAMN…tell em why you mad son.

I don’t blame you at all.

Follow Noel Clarke on Twitter

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HE WON!!! Noel Clarke

Remember I blogged some weeks ago giving major props to Noel Clarke and then prompting the Brits to vote for him for an Orange Rising Star Award? Well my man took the award home. Sitting amongst Academy Award winning and nominated stars Noel is now a known name and memorable face in one evening amongst the Hollywood elite and British public and film industry, who may just sit up and take notice of a new great black British export.

Being a fan of Kidulthood and Adulthood as well as the man himself, I'm feeling seriously proud for the man tonight.

Loving it!! Just love it when a brotha succeeds!!

Possible BAFTA for Noel Clarke? - Vote & Spread The Word!

"The UK's answer to Spike Lee"

Actor, Writer, Director & Producer Noel Clarke is up for an Orange Rising Star Award at BAFTA this year.

Of critically acclaimed Kidulthood [2006] & Adulthood [2008] fame he is well on his way to bigger and better things as a UK actor, writer and director.

I love me some Noel I even blogged about him and his movies a few weeks ago, and I'm a fan of both movies. I've already voted for the brotha, he has a strong enough fan base out there to make this potentially possible.

Click here to cast your vote for Noel Clarke. It took me less than 30 seconds.

I'm Really Feelin...Noel Clarke

I stayed up in the early hours watching Kidulthood [again], as I received Adulthood in the post from Play yesterday and decided to watch them both back to back. It had been a while since I'd seen Kidulthood and wanted to get familiar again with the characters and the story. I missed Adulthood in the cinema but would have been adding it to the DVD collection at some point, which was now.

I honestly think that any American who watches it won't have a bloody clue as to what is going on with regard to the dialogue. I don't use it a whole lot but I pretty much understand London street slang/UK Ebonics or whatever the hell you wanna call it so for me it was a breeze. I thought if I recommended these films to my US friends would they need to use the subtitles feature on the DVD? Probably, if they have a problem understanding people from Manchester, Birmingham and Scotland, then they are going to have a hell of a hard time understanding kids from London.

Noel Clarke is a very talented [and fine, yet very married] 33 year old actor, writer, director and producer. I really love the grit and honesty he brings to the screen in both movies, although the acting as a whole improves greatly in the sequel. He rarely leaves anything to the imagination on screen or when it comes to the dialogue. I've seen a lot of movies and compared to the US 'street' films produced I've not seen any come close, gritty or real compared to his writing and directing credited movies.
People overseas seem to have a one track view of London as being very civilised, populated by well educated and well spoken individuals. It couldn't be further from the truth and some of these characters in the film are very representative of some 'bad man' wannabe youths in good ol' London town. A town where the girls are slack and will sleep with a ton of men with a quickness. White girls adopting some broken down Ebonics laced dialect. And a bunch of youths whose national dress seems to involve a hoody or pants slung down below their buttocks, wielding weapons, selling, robbing and cussing anyone who as so much dares to look at them the wrong way. God forbid if you're from SE15 and you and your 'manz dem' decide to venture into the wrong area [endz] in SW9 you might end up beat up, maimed or worst still, dead.

Yes it all goes on here, we have our fair share of bullshit with the 'new generation' of youths and all the troubles that come with it and these films depict a handful of characters who unfortunately are representative of inner city London life for a lot of kids growing up. Don't get me wrong there are those keeping their head down and out of trouble [I was one of them] but whether you were brought up in the suburban areas or a crime infested council estate chances are you were pretty much close in association to some of these characters and knew of them whether you were involved in that lifestyle or not.

If you haven't and want to see a film depict teen London life in a more real way that hasn't been done before then check out Kidulthood and Adulthood. Listen closely and pay attention if you're not used to hearing our 'street' slang. There's sex, drugs, violence and blatant disrespect, but the film does serve a purpose and deliver a message.

Major props to Mr Clarke [who also stars in the film as Sam], I definitely look forward to his future projects coming and will be paying close attention to this young man's career going forward. Doghouse will most certainly get a look in from me because it's also starring in my East London white boy geezer crush Danny Dyer [who also has a bit part in Adulthood]. Sorry, you can't get more Canning Town than Danny 'Double D' Dyer.

You can check out his filmography on IMDB

Here is the Kidulthood and Adulthood trailers. Only watch the Adulthood trailer if you don't mind knowing what happened in the first movie as there maybe some spoilers with regard to the ending of Kidulthood.

Kidulthood

Adulthood