Hollywood said 'no' to Deon Taylor, so he made his own path

Deon Taylor doesn't take no for an answer when it comes to filmmaking. And it's a word he hears all the time.

When no one wanted to make his first film, he made it himself and even persuaded Rutger Hauer to be in it. When the studio said they couldn't afford Oscar-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti for his latest, "Black and Blue ," Taylor opened up his wallet and paid Spinotti himself. And when he realized the press schedule for his racially themed action film didn't include places like Dallas, Cleveland, Detroit and his hometown of Gary, Indiana, he made his own plans to reach those markets.

Taylor knows that some people think he's crazy for all the extra things he does. But that refusal to be dissuaded was the only way this kid from Gary, who never had any formal filmmaking training, was going to become a director. And after 15 years of doing it his way — independently— Hollywood is finally taking notice.

This image released by Sony Pictures shows director Deon Taylor, left, and Naomie Harris on the set of Screen Gems "Black and Blue." After making successful movies independently for 15 years, Hollywood is starting to take notice of Taylor. This year he has two major films in theaters. “The Intruder” became a solid hit in May, and his police thriller “Black and Blue” opens nationwide Thursday. (Alan MarkfieldSony Pictures via AP)

This year Taylor has two films being distributed by a major studio, Sony Pictures' Screen Gems: "The Intruder," a thriller with Michael Ealy and Meagan Good that became a solid hit in May, and "Black and Blue," a fast-paced police corruption tale starring Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson, that opens nationwide Thursday night. It's something he's just starting to process himself.

The 43-year-old is a bundle of enthusiasm on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles in his Hidden Empire Film Group offices where he's on speaker phone fielding interview questions with Gibson and Harris from smaller websites (another of his initiatives). His office is covered in posters of his movies, storyboards for his next project, "Fatale," which is due out next year from Lionsgate, and even a basketball hoop.

The last item is a nod to Taylor's professional basketball career, where his filmmaking ambition really started to develop. In 1998 he found himself playing under contract in East Germany. It was freezing there and he didn't speak the language so he spent most of his free time watching the boxes of DVDs that his girlfriend would send him, learning about the craft from the commentary tracks. It was there he came up with an idea for a horror movie, wrote what he thought was a script ("It was a novel") and when he got back to California decided to fully commit to becoming a filmmaker.

This image released by Sony Pictures shows director Deon Taylor, left, and and actor Tyrese Gibson on the set of Screen Gems "Black and Blue." After making successful movies independently for 15 years, Hollywood is starting to take notice of Taylor. This year he has two major films in theaters. “The Intruder” became a solid hit in May, and his police thriller “Black and Blue” opens nationwide Thursday. (Alan MarkfieldSony Pictures via AP)

"I completely went like an Aquarius after this dream and forgot everything I was doing in my former life," he said. "I became consumed by film."

For six years, he knocked on doors first trying to get someone to make his film and then trying to get money to make it himself. On the journey, he discovered that there were some "lines" in Hollywood that people weren't prepared to cross just yet.

"I had a horror movie, and I'm a black director," Taylor said. "I would walk into rooms and they'd be like, 'What do you got? 'Boyz n the Hood?' And I'm like, 'No I've got this great horror movie' and they're like, 'No no, slow down.'"

FILE - This Oct. 21, 2019 file photo shows director Deon Taylor at a special screening of his film, "Black and Blue", in New York. After making successful movies independently for 15 years, Hollywood is starting to take notice of Taylor. This year he has two major films in theaters. “The Intruder” became a solid hit in May, and his police thriller “Black and Blue” opens nationwide Thursday. (Photo by Christopher SmithInvisionAP, File)

Along the way he met Robert F. Smith, the billionaire philanthropist, and they started Hidden Empire Film Group, which they run with Taylor's wife Roxanne Avent. He learned on the fly what he liked and what he didn't in low-budget filmmaking and that's when he developed a love for cinematographers and all the craftspeople that make a film look and sound good.

"I'm looking at it like basketball now. You go like, 'Who's my shooter? Who plays defense? Who rebounds?'" he explained. "I started looking at film like a sport like, 'Oh, you got to go get a team.' And I start searching for stars in that world."

Movies changed Taylor's life. As a kid whose family didn't have enough money to travel, he learned about places and people through films. "Boyz n the Hood" showed him Los Angeles. "Do the Right Thing" did that for New York. And he started thinking about his own projects as a way to educate his 14-year-old self.

Deon Taylor attends the special screening of "Black and Blue", hosted by Screen Gems and The Cinema Society, at the Regal E-Walk on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Christopher SmithInvisionAP)

"As I grew as a filmmaker I started to think: What are you saying? There are so many filmmakers out here, black and white, who aren't saying (expletive)," Taylor said. "Adversity became the center of my films."

With "Supremacy," he tackled a real life case of a white supremacist who takes a black family hostage; In "Traffik," it was sex trafficking in the United States. And, for Taylor, it's all been building up to this moment with "Black and Blue," which he helped infuse with themes about police distrust and justice.

Harris, who was taking a year-long hiatus after the grueling promotional tour for "Moonlight," said she came back early to work with this "maverick" director.

Deon Taylor and the cast and crew of Black and Blue attend the special screening of "Black and Blue", hosted by Screen Gems and The Cinema Society, at the Regal E-Walk on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019, in New York. (Photo by Christopher SmithInvisionAP)

"Everybody got really emotionally invested in the movie in a way that I haven't seen on any other movie set," Harris said. "And that's all Deon because he sets that tone."

Taylor's films also routinely make their money back and then some, but they have another common thread too: Bad reviews often follow. Besides, "Black and Blue" — currently his highest-rated — they're all under 35% on Rotten Tomatoes.

"They're independent, risky films and everyone doesn't get it. I remember making 'Traffik' and thinking, 'They're going to hate this,'" he said. "Not the people, but the people that write are not going to understand what's going on in this movie... It's very often that a certain group of critics get it and a certain other group does not."

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Naomie Harris, left, and Tyrese Gibson in a scene from "Black and Blue," in theaters on Oct. 25. (Alan MarkfieldSony Pictures via AP)

He likens it to how Tyler Perry's films are received by critics versus the people who go out to the theaters to see them.

"There was a time when I read something (about a Perry film) and I wanted to cry," he said. "I thought to myself, does this person understand that my mom, who is 70 years old, and all of her friends, they leave church and go to the theater on Sunday evening and they pay their money and they absolutely love that film. You know why? It's speaking to them," he said. "Art is art and sometimes you have to step back if you're not breathing that same air."

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Naomie Harris in a scene from "Black and Blue," in theaters on Oct. 25. (Alan MarkfieldSony Pictures via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Naomie Harris, left, and Tyrese Gibson in a scene from "Black and Blue," in theaters on Oct. 25. (Alan MarkfieldSony Pictures via AP)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A $8 billion defense package approved by the U.S. House of Representatives over the weekend will “strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain,” Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te said Tuesday, in a reference to key rival China.

The funding will also “help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region” Lai, currently Taiwan’s vice president, told visiting Michigan Representatives Lisa McClain, a Republican, and Democrat Dan Kildee at a meeting at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei.

In the face of “authoritarian expansionism,” Taiwan is “determined to safeguard democracy and also safeguard our homeland," Lai said.

Also known as William Lai, U.S.-educated former medical researcher is despised by Beijing for his opposition to political unification with the mainland. In recent elections, the pro-unification Nationalists won a narrow majority in the legislature, but their influence on foreign policy and other national issues remains limited.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and and upgrading Taiwan's military hardware. Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the U.S. for latest-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams main battle tanks and the HIMARS rocket system, which the U.S. has also supplied to Ukraine.

Taiwan has also been expanding its own defense industry, building submarines and trainer jets. Next month it plans to commission its third and fourth domestically designed and built stealth corvettes to counter the Chinese navy. as part of a strategy of asymmetrical warfare in which a smaller force counters its larger opponent by using cutting edge or nonconventional tactics and weaponry.

Lai, of the pro-independence ruling Democratic Progressive Party, won the January election handily and takes over next month from President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing has sought to isolate for the past eight years.

China is determined to annex the island, which it considers its own territory, by force if necessary and has been advertising that threat with daily incursions into waters and air space around Taiwan by navy ships and warplanes. It has also sought to pick away Taiwan's few remaining formal diplomatic partners.

While Washington and Taipei have no formal diplomatic ties in deference to Beijing, McClain emphasized the need for the entire world to observe the strength of the relationship.

“Peace is our goal. But to do that, we have to have relationships and we value your relationship. Not only militarily, but economically,” she said.

Kildee said the timing of the visit was especially significant given the recent passage of the funding bill to “provide very important support to insure security in this region.”

"It’s important for the people of Taiwan, it’s important for the people in the United States, it’s important for the entire world,” Kildee said.

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, from left Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Mark Alford, center left, a member of the House Armed Services Committee shakes hands with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, U.S. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, left, meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Kildee and Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Lisa McClain, left, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Lisa McClain, left, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)