Talbert the 'First'

HOLLYWOOD MAY CONSIDER "First Sunday" creator David E. Talbert to be the next Tyler Perry, but it's more accurate to say he's the first Tyler Perry.

Perry, or course, perfected his game crafting plays for urban black theater, where he built the brand that's the foundation of his movie success.

Talbert, though, has been writing plays for the same circuit for 15 years. He's also a brand name - he's had a dozen touring productions that have been consistent sell-outs, and won five NAACP Image Awards out of a whopping 24 nominations ("Fabric of a Man" won best playwright). His latest play, "Love in the Nick of Time," featuring Morris Chestnut, played at the Merriam Theater for a sold-out week early last year.

"I've had enough plays at the Merriam that all of the ushers know me," Talbert said, laughing.

Now Perry's movie success has led Hollywood to consider the work of other black playwrights, and Talbert is the beneficiary.

"He's [Perry] certainly had the opportunity to do some wonderful things, and I'm happy for him. And that kind of success always helps. Hollywood follows trends, and it didn't hurt at all that his films have been successful," Talbert said. "He's doing for me what myself and other playwrights did for him in theaters."

Hollywood's bet on Talbert paid off handsomely over the weekend - the low-budget "First Sunday" grossed $19 million, coming within half a million dollars of besting "The Bucket List" as the No. 1 movie in the country. "First Sunday" played on 700 fewer theater screens, and had by far the best per-screen average ($8,585) of any movie in the top 15.

It's not just studios that score by aligning with Talbert and Perry. Stars like Ice Cube see it as a way of tapping into a different demographic. Perry, Talbert and others tailor their plays - centered on faith and family - to an audience not always comfortable with the language and ethos of hip-hop. For Cube, "First Sunday" is chance to build a fan base among an audience that might not be comfortable with, say, "All About the Benjamins."

"Ice Cube, even with the success of the 'Barbershop' movies, is concerned that he's going to be typecast as a thug," Talbert said. "He was worried that his character in this movie would come off as too much of a heavy."

Talbert assured Cube that his character would be the likable hero of the piece - a father so desperate to provide support for his son that he turns to stealing from church coffers.

Tracy Morgan plays his bumbling sidekick, Chi McBride the pastor and Katt Williams the skittish choir director. Talbert said he was incredibly lucky to have Cube, a veteran of a couple of dozen movies, on hand to help him master the job of directing. Talbert's method turned out to be organized chaos. One raucous scene in a packed courtroom (Keith David plays the judge), Talbert kept five cameras running to cover the major players, and just let the energy of the scene take over.

"Ice Cube turned to me and said, 'You know, David, at some point you're going to have to yell "cut." That's the director's job,' " Talbert said.

The one-for-all, all-for-one spirit of the production helped give the movie its genial personality, he said, and created chemistry among cast members.

Ludacris and Mike Epps were the original leads, but moved on as script revisions pushed the timetable back. The project was stalled until Cube saw the screenplay (he's producer), and Morgan signed about two seconds after he met with Cube to read for the part.

"They had instant chemistry," said Talbert, who described Morgan (a stand-up comedian who's a regular on NBC's "30 Rock") as a "revelation."

"Tracy's character is a guy who's had some tough times in his life, going back to childhood. And you can't play that character as well as Tracy does without drawing on real-life experiences. When Tracy's character tells the story about his mother saying she was going to 'beat the candy out of him,' that wasn't my line. That's from Tracy's own life.' ".

Most of the dialogue is pure Talbert, though, honed on more than a decade as a working playwright.

"I know that people like these stories. The plays have been the barometer of that. I've toured the country with successful shows, and even though they've been under the radar of Broadway, they consistently sell out. Now, it's a matter of transferring that same theater audience to the movie theater." *