Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘It’s Been Difficult,’ Says ‘Spell’ Director Mark Tonderai Who’s Holding Nothing Back

Director Mark Tonderai gets real during interview for the Halloween mystery thriller film Spell featuring Omari Hardwick and the oh so talented Loretta Devine.

Spell” follows Marquis Woods (Omari Hardwick) while flying his family to his father’s funeral in rural Appalachia. An intense storm hits causing Woods to lose control of the plane. He soon awakens wounded, alone, and trapped in Ms. Eloise’s (Loretta Devine) attic. Eloise claims she can nurse him back to health with a hoodoo figure she’s made from his blood and skin. Unable to call for help, Marquis desperately tries to break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.

EURweb correspondent Monique Loveless caught up with the director himself. Mark was open and honest about being black in the entertainment industry and Loretta Devine not getting the recognition she so deserves.

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Picture By Paramount Pictures

“Miss Loretta, she’s like on a different level.” Tonderai speaks about Loretta Devine taking on a different role from her norm, “That lady, she’s incredibly underrated. I’ve been talking to journalists and saying, look, you know, get on the back of the bandwagon for some sort of award for her because she’s a national treasure.” Mark even gets honest saying, “If she was white, they’d be respecting the hell out of her. She deserves respect and awards.”

On the television front, Tonderai continues to dominate. Directing episodic series for major streamers and networks, including Netflix’s “Locke and Key,” Hulu’s “Castle Rock,” and Fox’s “Gotham.” His directorial work on the BBC’s “Doctor Who” earned his episode the Visionary Arts Organisation Award for Television Show of the Year at the 2019 BAFTA in London.

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Picture by Paramount Pictures

I think there is this kind of like, you know, racial Renaissance happening, where now people listening to our stories because a lot of us have been held back,” The Gotham director speaks climbing the ladder in the film industry, “It’s been very, very difficult, frankly, to, to get a film, I just go into TV, and I wait for the perfect storm of films,” Tonderai goes on to say, “There’s no way they’re going to hire me to do a $60 million film, they’re going to have the whiz kids that just come up from commercials, that’s the undergraduate level.”

The film, which stars a predominately Black cast and is one of the first to explore Hoodoo culture. Spell is set to release in select theaters and at-home on PVOD from October 30, 2020.

Mark Tonderai
Mark Tonderai

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