In this Corporate Age of Hollywood, where movie productions now are decided according to risk versus return calculations, as opposed to the merits of a story along with the talents of the Director, Actors, and Script writers, originality is no longer a valued commodity. The order of the day, and that is day in and day out, is Rehash.

Hundreds of production assistants, once assigned to Pitch Markets and Pitch Sessions, are now tasked with sifting through the thousands of scripts already owned by the studios. Their new purpose is to sort them according to the level of success in their initial release decades ago, assess the production cost of updating the story – which includes the packaging(salaries associated with attaching a director and prospective actors) and then submitting the “packaged” prospects for “greenlighting” by the decision maker(s).

When you add to this, the endless parade of sequels(The Expendables 2, Madagascar 3, The Dark Knight Rises, The Bourne Legacy, G.I. Joe Retaliation are all scheduled for summer 2012 release), one cannot help but wonder if there is any original thought remaining in Tinseltown.

The additional implication for American moviegoers of color, is that because of our historically minimal representation in Hollywood films(aside from the offensively stereotypical), the Corporate Age of Hollywood all but guarantees that for the forseeable future, there will be no significant change on the horizon in terms of the projects and opportunities for work. This goes double for African American actors, as well as Hollywood offerings that appeal to the African American audience.

Ultimately, real change begins when all those of us who are fed up with the status quo, step up, speak up, and endeavor to create the types of projects that we wish to see.

Here at Imajen, we have pledged to do our part. Stay tuned, relief is on the way.

Over the coming months we will be rolling out information and teasers surrounding our new creation, along with images that will be displayed in the gallery, and culminating in the release of the first in a series of novels planned to chronicle the exploits of our mysterious Young Miss.

Also in development is a series of shorts; an original take on an increasingly popular genre in both film and FPS video games. Once completed, the video shorts will be uploaded onto the Imajen site, as well as an additional internet channel to be announced.

Needless to say, none of the attendees could accomplish the task, and although Cailloux did offer to extend the challenge until the end of the month, his point was quite impactful. “All too often, Black heroes/heroines, created by Black artists, are merely a colored knock off of a white character by design, or later become one by default. If you take the time and energy to create a unique character, the last thing you should EVER do, is use parallels to a popular or pre-existing character, even if the intent is simply to make the character more easily understood or received. The same popular reference that you use, to aid in the character’s reception, will devour and replace said new character in the mind of the person receiving the reference. In essence, what you are doing is giving the viewer/receiver, the perfect reason to disregard your character.”

We agree with Cailloux, and issue the challenge to you, the Imajen public. Name a Black hero or heroine, created by a Black artist(or writer), and then describe him/her without using any references to popular white characters. It is a great exercise, and an excellent perspective-shifting activity.

The New Years’ conversation did not end with this topic. Our next articles will address some of the other initersting perspectives, including the “great opportunity on the horizon” for black heroes. Stay tuned, here and otherwise…2011 is going to be a very interesting and impactful year.

Now, if you were to ask the same person to name a fictional Black female hero? Well, you may as well ask them to solve nuclear physics question while you’re at it, because you’ll likely get the answer to that one first. To make matters worse, the list of fictional female heroes is far more extensive than the four listed here, just as the number of black female heroes is not. The typical question is whether there is an audience or demand for black female heroes.

We say, based on the widespread response that we get to Kinah, the heroine of Ancients & Immortals’ Archangels In Exile series(from women from all around the globe), the answer is a resounding “yes”.

So, to that end, this summer, Imajen will introduce the newest and most exciting Original heroine to be produced in the last Century. She is destined to change the game, so be sure to stay tuned to Imajen.com, because this is something that you definitely won’t want to miss!

As you will note the distinction of the dot com on the latter, Imajen TV denotes our original video page on the Imajen.com site that will remain dedicated primarily to the Ancients & Immortals properties, while ImajenTV.com – a spinoff site – will be dedicated to the promotion and premiere of a wide assortment of Imajen programming.

Imajen is continuously striving to push the creative envelope, to produce images and stories that eclipse the stale and rehashed ideas being offered by far too many production companies.

Stay tuned…with Imajen TV and ImajenTV.com, the cutting edge is about to get sharper.

It seems that many readers are in agreement with, or at the least are intrigued by Cailloux’s selections…with the exception of one, Kinah.

A large number of voters, have indicated they would like to see beyonce in the role of Kinah. Of course, in the practical sense, we wondered if Beyonce would be able to pull off such a role, as Kinah is a central character, whose actions drive a significant portion of the story. But the more intriguing question was, what was it that inspired the connection between Beyonce and Kinah? Granted she would have a far better chance of pulling off the Kinah role, than that of  Wonder Woman whom she was quoted as expressing interest in playing. But the question remains, why Beyonce?

When mentioned to the author himself, he merely smiled and shook his head subtly, as clearly he’s heard this nomination a number of times already during personal appearances. When we asked what struck him humorously, he replied “Blame it on photoshop, I guess.”

The exploration of that comment uncovered a very interesting back story on the creation of Kinah that we will be posting very soon.

Also present, were a number of African journalists representing media from Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Cameroon. Print, television, and online media were all represented, and over the course of the weekend, there were seminars, classes, career fairs, awards ceremonies, networking mixers, and even a couple of advance screenings of two soon-to-be-released Hollywood films; Chris Rock’s new documentary film, Good Hair, and the Walt Disney animated film, The Princess and The Frog.

Of course, Imajen was at the convention promoting Ancients & Immortals, and specifically Book Seven: Archangels In Exile, and just as has been the case in previous exhibitions, the response to this groundbreaking work was incredible.

We certainly would like to thank Urban Internet Television for the taking an interest in the property and conducting an on air interview to promote Ancients & Immortals to their viewers. We would also like to acknowledge the African journalists, who are becoming some of the most enthusiastic new fans of the property, and have invited the Imajen team to come to their respective countries to promote Ancients & Immortals, and the Archangels installments in particular, which are set in fictional locations in Africa.

The Urban Internet Television interview will be added to the video archives in the coming weeks, and we will also be announcing several exciting developments, which are a result of  suggestions made by NABJ Convention attendees – the newest fans of Ancients & Immortals.

Now, I must say that we have received some rather interesting nominees. Some of them make sense for visual reasons or “box office draw” reasons, while others, ahem…well, not so much. Nevertheless, as previously indicated, the top nominated names will be posted on the site for your voting consideration, so if you have a favorite, now is the time to speak and make your voice heard.

In the meantime, interestingly enough, after significant badgering we were able to obtain the author’s top picks for the main characters, his “dream team”, of sorts. Some of which are on the email votes list, and are readily recognizable to the average filmgoer, while others will have a number of you heading over to IMDB or Google to do a lookup. Alright, honestly, a couple of us had to research a couple of the names also…but regardless, with no further ado, here are Cailloux Williams’ casting picks:

Chike: Henry Simmons(1st), Boris Kodjoe(2nd), Dwayne Johnson(3rd)
Hondo: Djimon Honsou(1st), Henry Simmons(2nd)
Kinah: Sanaa Lathan, (a close 2nd and 3rd are Jamaican and African  actresses – names not given)
Sadiki: Don Cheadle
Jelani: Terry Crews(1st), Michael Clark Duncan(a close 2nd)
Chionesu: Dennis Haysbert
Baruti: Isaach de Bankole(1st), Sebastien Foucan(2nd)

Intriguing list, eh? We thought so too. Want to get in on the casting action? Drop us a note with your picks.

Of course we’re still working towards the big budget animated feature, and live action film that everyone wants to see, but in the mean time, this should tide over of the hardcore fans, and hopefully entice a few new ones. Stay tuned.

On the previously existing Imajen website(which has been referred to by some as an “old school” website because of the functionality), during the initial phase of the Ancients & Immortals promotions, Imajen offered limited edition prints of 12 of the more prominent characters to be featured in Book Seven; Archangels In Exile. As it was an introductory promotion, and the prints and posters are limited editions, there were only a small number produced – and of which a large number are hanging on the walls of Ancients & Immortals fans in Japan. Now we have conserved a number of the prints and posters, and may offer them on the website in limited quantities at some point, but in the mean time these items are mainly available at promotional appearances. We like to think of it as just another reward for fans that come out to an event and show their support.