Today on The Neil Haley Show, Neil Haley will interview Deon Taylor of Fatale.
FATALE is the story of Derrick (Ealy), a successful and married sports agent who after a one night stand with police detective Valerie Quinlan (Swank), finds his life upended when she entangles him in a murder investigation. Directed and produced by Deon Taylor, the film opens in select theaters nationwide on December 18th.
Deon, a prolific director who did not attend film school nor had any prior filmmaking training, will have had 3 films distributed by a major studio in theaters within the last 2 calendar years (2020’s FATALE and 2019’s BLACK AND BLUE and THE INTRUDER)
His films have grossed more than $75M at the box office WW and opened in the top-10 for opening weekend:
THE INTRUDER (May 3, 2019) - #2 with a Weekend B.O. of $10,855,054
BLACK AND BLUE (October 25, 2020) - #6 with a Weekend B.O. of $8,376,846
MEET THE BLACKS (April 1, 2016) - #8 with a Weekend B.O. of $4,055,940
TRAFFIK (April 20, 2018) - #9 with a Weekend B.O. of $3,941,338
Deon grew up in the projects of Gary, IN with his family. His mom worked multiple jobs to put food on the table
He moved to Sacramento, CA started playing HS basketball where he caught the eye of San Diego State and received a full scholarship where he would go on to be named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year
He then went on to play professional basketball in Germany from 1998-2002
When he was playing in Germany, his girlfriend (now wife) Roxanne Avent was sending him DVDs and Blu-Rays where he watched ‘the making of xyz’ or ‘behind the scenes’ of those films where directors, writers and filmmakers like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg would show and explain what and how they did their jobs. Watching those scenes taught him filmmaking, and he soon realized that he wanted to become a filmmaker.
He wrote a screenplay called 7eventy 5ive’ but renamed ‘Dead Tone.’ in 2003 when he moved to LA and was rejected over and over. 6 years after his rejection, he decided to make the film himself and then from there he became an independent filmmaker
Additional projects for 2021 and 2022 include FREE AGENTS (with Lionsgate) and MEET THE BLACKS 2: THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR (starring Mike Epps, Katt Williams, Bresha Webb, Tyrin Turner and more) and GRAVE HILL with CJ Entertainment
Taylor also made news earlier this year when he helmed DON’T FEAR, which he wrote during the pandemic and filmed in a bubble with strict guidelines in 17 days
