*A month after “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett opened up about his his 2019 hate crime attack, comes the announcement that he will make his directorial debut with “B-Boy Blues,” an adaptation of James Earl Hardy’s best-selling book from 1994.
According to Page Six, the movie “chronicles the troubled relationship between two black men — Mitchell Crawford, a 27-year-old journalist, and Raheim Rivers, a 21-year-old bike messenger, or B-boy, who meet at a Greenwich Village bar in 1993,” the outlet writes.
“B-Boy Blues” will go into production in New York City on Oct. 17.
Last month, Smollett discussed his controversial hate crime attack with activist Marc Lamont Hill.
READ MORE: Jussie Smollett Opens Up About 2019 Hate Crime Case: ‘They Won’t Let This Go’ [WATCH]
Smollett appeared in an Instagram Live with Hill, during which he discussed his ongoing trial.
“It’s been beyond frustrating, and I certainly am not going rogue,” he said about the controversial case. “I’m still taking the advice of my attorneys and everything like that, but I don’t really see, honestly, what staying quiet has really done, like, where it has gotten me. … It’s so much bigger than me.”
Smollett was charged last year with 16 felony counts for falsifying a police report claiming two men attacked him on Jan. 29, 2019 in Chicago, while spewing racist and homophobic slurs. The charges were dropped after he agreed to forfeit his bond. A special prosecutor charged him again in February.
Two Nigerian brothers claim they were paid $3,500by the actor to carry out the attack, in an effort to boost his profile because he was unhappy with his salary on “Empire.”
Smollett has denied the charges, calling the case against him “bulls–t.”
“They won’t let this go,” Smollett told Hill. “It doesn’t matter — there is an example being made. And the sad part is that there’s an example being made of someone who did not do what they are being accused of.”
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