(STICKY) PREACHER’S KID IS NOW IN MOVIE THEATERS! (FINALLY!)
by ControlFreak on Jan.29, 2010, under FEATURED, LETOYA NEWS TV, NEWS, VIDEOS
ALL profits from opening day ticket sales will be donated towards Haitian relief.
PLEASE GO AND SUPPORT! Let us know what you thought about the movie.
Stephen Seidel and Amber Deylon report from the Preacher’s Kid Premiere Red Carpet. LNN interviewed LeToya and all the other guests.
More after the jump
Today is the day! Preacher’s Kid finally hits movie theaters! The feature film starring LeToya Luckett, Tank, Kiki Sheard, Trey Songz and more can be seen at select locations across the country. Check for a location near you HERE.
More infos about the movie HERE.
Below are pictures from the night.
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PREACHER'S KID IN MOVIE THEATERS NOW!
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January 29th, 2010 on 8:26 pm
u doing your thang LNN lol
January 29th, 2010 on 8:26 pm
YEEESSS I'M GOING WITH MY 4 BROTHERS AND SISTERS TONIGHT!
January 29th, 2010 on 8:30 pm
Too bad It doesn't play anywhere near me. I'll get the bootleg from the streets.
January 30th, 2010 on 1:12 am
You go LNN! Good Job. I'm on my way to the movies as we speak
January 30th, 2010 on 1:13 am
Thanks Letoyanews for supporting Letoya like you do. I hope the movie hits #1 at the box office
January 30th, 2010 on 1:14 am
#1 are u serious???????????????????!!!!!!!!!
January 30th, 2010 on 1:58 am
Yes bitch. It's sold out in Houston! (ANd I'm not calling you a bitch)
January 30th, 2010 on 3:05 pm
I saw the movie last night and was surprised. Even though Im a huge LT fan, I thought this movie was going to be on some Tyler Perry type shit….lol. It was actually good from the writing and everything. Letoya, the big screen is your thing. As an aspiring actor myself, I know good acting when I see it, and Toya did the damn thang. Just WOW!!! When you see the movie…really get into her acting.
January 30th, 2010 on 5:00 pm
damn lnn i didnt kno yall had a gay white boy on yall staff lol figures letoya's fan base in the white world would be gay lol
January 30th, 2010 on 6:52 pm
i think she earrned new fans when she released she aint got nothin on me
January 30th, 2010 on 6:54 pm
Thumbs up LNN. I went to see the movie and LeToya is truly gifted. I hope she gets other roles after this.
January 30th, 2010 on 7:39 pm
Is the movie going to be released outside of the USA?
January 30th, 2010 on 8:27 pm
Working this whole weekend so I'll get to see the movie on Monday. I hope people are not saying it's good because Letoya's in it. And by the way, I enjoyed your report. Your hosts have a good chemistry and energy.
January 30th, 2010 on 9:10 pm
You did it! Props to you guys…
January 31st, 2010 on 11:46 am
Giving the starring role in the new movie Preacher’s Kid to platinum-selling recording artist, Letoya Luckett, was not part of anyone’s plan, not even Letoya’s. Nonetheless, to my mind, there was a plan, a destiny, a design, set in motion by the grand designer himself.
Letoya, a founding member of Destiny’s Child, was initially set to play a substantial, yet, supporting role, in the film. A couple of days before production was scheduled to begin in Atlanta, the young actress originally chosen for the starring role; the one the studio, the producers, even the film’s writer/director, Stan Foster, had been raving about, tearfully withdrew from the project. The next day, Stan phoned Letoya and offered her the title role.
Forty-eight hours later, just a day before the cameras rolled, the entire cast sat down to read through the script. I remember the moment Letoya took her place at the table; quiet, humble, smiling nervously. It was the chance of a lifetime and she knew it. A star-making vehicle if ever there was one– especially for a talented young artist who had been jettisoned from the successful singing group she co-founded just as the trio was about to warp into super-stardom.
Preacher’s Kid is Letoya’s first big movie, but you wouldn’t know it. Her performance is nothing less than wonderful. She takes her character from youthful innocence to full-grown, love-sick, lasciviousness, and back again. The role of faithful, dutiful, preacher’s daughter, Angie King, would demand the best of even the most seasoned young actor. Yet, on-screen, Letoya makes you love Angie and want the best for her– when she’s doing right, and even…when she’s doing wrong. Angie King is Letoya’s role. It was meant only for her. And, despite the fact that, in the beginning, no one knew, so it is.
I know how Letoya felt as she took on her role that day at the table. She wasn’t the only cast member benefiting from God’s grace. Originally, I had been cast in a small supporting role, until I got a call that Stan wanted me to come back and read for the part of Letoya’s father, Bishop King. During the preceding weeks, Stan had auditioned many of black Hollywood’s best—certainly bigger names than mine, more recognizable faces—the kinds of actors that bring people to the theaters. Was I better than all those other actors? I doubt it. In fact, I wasn’t submitted for the role in the first place, or for any role in the film. Later, after I had been cast as the Bishop, I asked my LA agent why I’d not been submitted for the film from the beginning. He insisted that the producers had only been interested in casting from a list of “name” actors. Were it not for another agent (a much smaller agent) in North Carolina, I would never have made it into the audition mix at all. Or would I?
If you believe in divine order, in grace, in undeserved merit, as I do, then you understand, as I do, that a power greater than the agents, the producers, and, the all powerful studio, was in motion from the beginning– moving not only on behalf of Letoya and myself, but on behalf of Stan Foster’s brilliant script, magnificent cast, and crew.
Preacher’s Kid is anointed cinema, powerful, uplifting, and true to life. I’ve performed in more than 150 films and television episodes, everything from the Sopranos to Remember The Titans and the West Wing. Yet, I have never been so grateful to be part of such an important work.
A good portion of that gratitude has to do with the saints of the New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ, at 14th and University, in Des Moines, Iowa– the church where I grew up–where my mother taught Sunday School for more the forty years. Some of my thankfulness has to do with the members of Morning Star Baptist Church, another beloved hometown congregation. An additional portion of gratitude is associated with the preacher’s of my childhood; Rev. Alex Crawford, Bishop Goodman, Bishops Tindrell, Carter, and Patterson. It was the voices and the images of these good shepherd’s that both guided and inspired me as I worked on Preacher’s Kid.
In addition to being an attempt to do the best with the rich blessing I was given, my performance is a tribute to the people in the pews of those old churches, and to the men in the pulpit, to their faith and to their lives.
January 31st, 2010 on 5:54 pm
*clapping hands
January 31st, 2010 on 5:51 pm
I saw the movie and LeToya had me crying the whole time lol. I felt so proud of her.
January 31st, 2010 on 5:57 pm
I went to see it and felt that way too. She came a long way. From "Destiny's Child reject" to movie star. I'm impressed by her acting. She's definitely better than Beyonce. I wish they would've promoted the movie more. Like getting some ads on BET at least.
February 1st, 2010 on 7:16 pm
review from variety magazine
The setup is fairly standard: Angie (Letoya Luckett), is the gospel-singing sweetheart of the Augusta, Ga., church led by her unbearably pompous father, Bishop King (Gregory Alan Williams, doing a parody of sanctimony). Angie is over 21, but suffocated by Dad, and thus ready to be exploited by the first sharpie she meets — who happens to be Devlin (Durrell "Tank" Babbs), a semi-washed up singer who's touring the chitlin' circuit in an R&B opera called "Daddy, Can I Come Back Home?" (All assumptions about the not-so-ironic title are entirely appropriate.) With Devlin as her svengali, Angie joins the troupe, which includes the very funny Peaches (the wonderful Essence Atkins) and the show's female lead, Desiree (Tammy Townsend), who has the same designs on Devlin as Angie.
"It's the old-school pimp move," says one of Devlin's scabrous buddies, observing how Devlin woos Angie in private and degrades her in public. Angie starts learning lessons in theater, singing, showbiz politics and how to mask a black eye with makeup. What she never quite learns is how to roll with a punch.
Helmer Stan Foster, making his directorial debut, has reared a "Preacher's Kid" that's largely wooden, unlikely in many spots and, despite the few hard-edges of his script, could have used a tougher sensibility. The results are a movie that doesn't quite know what it wants to be.
The characterizations, too, are uneven — we can believe in an intelligent, virtuous and overprotected Angie who might allow herself to be seduced and mistreated (the psychology of abuse is knotty), but when the screenplay calls for it, she suddenly gets all sassy and defiant. The two Angie's don't make for a believable character, but Luckett is more noteworthy for her singing than acting. Likewise Babbs. The bright spots are in the supporting cast — notably Essence Atkins and Clifton Powell as the show's producer, Ike, whose hard-shelled/soft-hearted showman is in a tradition harking back to Warner Baxter and "42nd Street."
Production values are adequate at best, although the singing contains enough tremulous vibrato to starta rock slide.
February 1st, 2010 on 8:28 pm
With a title like Preacher's Kid, it's not entirely unfair to walk into the film expecting a "standard" faith-centered/gospel play-style drama. A plot summary makes expectations fall further in that line: sheltered 20-something choir girl Angie King (LeToya Luckett) leaves the home of her strict bishop father (GregAlan Williams) to join charming R&B star Devlin Mitchell (Durrell "Tank" Babbs) on a touring gospel play company. The story is another variation on the prodigal son tale, used many times over in entertainments both religious and secular.
But the film's writer-director is Stan Foster, whose most recent screen credit was for the screenplay for one of the best, most affecting entries in the genre, 2004's Michael Schultz-directed, Independent Spirit Award-nominated adaptation of his play Woman Thou Art Loosed (based on the novel by Bishop T.D. Jakes), and accordingly there's a bit more edge and heft than just the expected faith-affirming messages and lessons. Most striking of all Foster's self-referential, meta-commentary approach with the film's play-within-a-film conceit. While this angle allows Foster to poke some good-natured fun at the well-worn tropes of genre, both in on-stage action (e.g. broad character types in both old age and Madea-style cross-gender drag; the obligatory moment of gratuitous beefcake by the heartthrob lead) and more inside issues (such as the types of stars generally cast in such productions and the general day-to-day working conditions of such touring plays), it also reinforces how he employs those familiar genre conventions far more effectively than the norm. Indeed, at the core of the film is a well-meaning female lead caught between a Very Bad Guy in Devlin and a Very Good Guy (choir director Wynton, a bit of a thin role played by Sharif Atkins), but there's a fair amount of grey shading that makes the proceedings all the more believable. While his behavior comes to explicitly live up to his similarly-sounding namesake, Devlin's effortlessly charismatic manner is convincingly, understandably alluring–and hence all the more insidious as he preys upon Angie's naivete and attendant insecurities. Those qualities in Angie are nicely drawn from the start, and as such her more questionable decisions are understandable, coming from that place of honest unworldliness and a pure need to be accepted and belong in the "real" world outside of her father's orbit; accordingly, she is also is shown to not be beyond displaying some unpleasant behavior herself. The added complexity is also present in the smaller parts, from the play's pragmatic director Ike (Clifton Powell), who does his part in advising caution but knows better than to not say or do anything to upset the rather delicate production in any way; to Angie's father, who may be wise to warn about the evils of the world but must also learn himself–not only to let go but also, in an effective (if somewhat underserviced, due to run time constraints) secondary plot, to start living life for himself a bit.
That sense of balance and subverting expectations extends to the casting. While veterans such as Powell, Williams, and Ella Joyce (as an old friend of the bishop's) reliably do the job in their supporting parts, carrying the film–as is often the case in many of its stage-based ilk–are two familiar figures in the R&B world who are relative newcomers to acting, Luckett and Babbs. Luckett proves to a natural beyond her established vocal abilities, comfortably navigating the emotional demands of the role and holding the screen with effortless, relatable likability. Any outward signs of Luckett's screen inexperience actually serve the part well, for Angie would be a bit ill at ease in many of the situations in which she suddenly finds herself and especially when confronted with as overwhelming a presence as Babbs's Devlin. Babbs doesn't seem to be stretching much at all in the early stages, clearly having fun riffing off of his well-known loverman music persona, but what really makes Devlin's eventual manipulations and abuses all the more startling is just how convincing Babbs proves to be in depicting the dark side. Likely to be underrated in a less showy but no less important part is Tammy Townsend, who shines both vocally and dramatically as Desiree, Angie's rival for Devlin's leading lady position both on and off the stage. She, like the rest of the cast, benefits from Foster's generosity in his script, taking what in another film could be a cardboard adversary into a character that develops unexpected layers as the film progresses.
February 1st, 2010 on 8:28 pm
While that sense of added dimension strengthens Preacher's Kid throughout, the ultimate reason for its success lies in something simpler, which is actually addressed in one rather observant line from the film: "Our audience may not be the most sophisticated, but they can spot a lie." In terms of broad narrative and thematic strokes, the film may not venture too far past what is plainly obvious from the outset. So it all comes down to how the formula is executed and how the message is expressed during its two hours, and Foster's film confirms the unique, undeniable power this genre can achieve on both stage and film–best exemplified by a scene climactic to both the movie and the play-within-a-movie, where Angie's song soars with such sincere, soul-baring passion that the audience, religious or otherwise, is uplifted beyond the screen and to a place that is genuinely transcendent.
February 1st, 2010 on 8:39 pm
I saw the movie Saturday night. I enjoyed it. LeToya did a get job. She has really grown vocally too. Glad she decided to get in movies. Hopefully she does more movies.
February 1st, 2010 on 11:50 pm
My review:
Former Destiny’s Child member Letoya Luckett makes her starring debut as a prodigal daughter who learns a valuable series of life lessons in moralizing melodrama, “Preacher’s Kid.” Guest reviewer Kam Williams takes a look at this cautionary tale.
As the only child of an overprotective, widowed father, Angie King (Luckett) almost couldn’t help but feel smothered. But when you factor in her dad’s being both a preacher and a pillar of the community in their tight-knit community in Augusta, Georgia, you’ve got a serious recipe for rebellion. Thus far, the 23 year-old virgin has devoted herself to the needs of her asthmatic father, between singing in the choir, ministering around the ‘hood and attending services several times a week.
However, everything changes the day Angie decides to run away not to join the circus but a Tyler Perry-esque travelling troupe passing through town, a supposedly spiritually-oriented outfit putting on a faith-based fable featuring Aunt Bebe, a trash-talking character played by a big dude (Carlos Davis) in a dress. For she has developed an instant crush on the show’s suave star, Devlin (Durrell Tank Babbs), a Romeo well versed in the art of seduction.
When informed of this sudden development, disapproving Bishop King (Gregalan Williams) disowns his disappointed daughter on the spot. Yet, sheleaves town with dreams of not only winning Devlin’s heart but of landing a role in the theater group’s next musical production.
Needless to say, a very rocky road lies ahead of Angie, starting with her initially being denied an audition by an impatient director who calls her deaf, dumb and stupid. And just when the promoter (Clifton Powell) is about to send her packing on the proverbial midnight train back to Georgia, Devlin intervenes on her behalf like a knight in shining armor.
Given a second chance, Angie impresses the producers sufficiently to be retained as an understudy to the female lead. While this might give the aspiring Gospel singer’s career a much-needed boost, it also makes her beholden to devilish Devlin, who soon proves to be a two-timing, physically-abusive creep.
So, unfolds “Preacher’s Kid,” a cautionary tale written and directed by Stan Foster. It’s not very hard to anticipate the arc of this Christian-oriented message movie which tends to telegraph most of its punches. Nonetheless, it’s well-enough executed, especially for a flick on a modest budget, to forgive the low production values and a tendency towards melodrama.
The payoff arrives after Prodigal Daughter Angie has learned some tough lessons and returns to ask her father for forgiveness, allowing for a moving moment of mutual redemption.
Grade: C+
February 1st, 2010 on 7:17 pm
box office
13 Preacher's Kid $201,500 — 109 — $1,849 $201,500 1 Gener8Xion
February 1st, 2010 on 8:34 pm
Hi Sonia,
been trying to find reviews and viewer's ratings and it seems almost impossible to find. I so appreciate your rewiew. Please explain what the numbers are about.
February 2nd, 2010 on 11:14 pm
They are the box office numbers for the opening weekend.
Full chart http://boxoffice.com/numbers/
February 2nd, 2010 on 3:04 am
Preacher's Kid on Larry King
http://larrykinglive.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/29/fil...
February 2nd, 2010 on 8:05 am
B)
February 2nd, 2010 on 5:11 pm
from LeToyaNews's twitter: After watching Preacher's Kid plz review/rate it here http://bit.ly/bSGpfv http://bit.ly/db8z6Y http://bit.ly/7pcFtw http://bit.ly/au4e4e
February 2nd, 2010 on 5:14 pm
Dead @ Gavin Luckett trying to get his little shine in the movie as an extra playing different characters. Toya hooked her borthre up.
February 2nd, 2010 on 5:14 pm
February 2nd, 2010 on 4:36 pm
Angie (Letoya Luckett), a 23-year-old woman, still lives in Augusta, Georgia with her widowed father, Bishop King (Gregory Alan Williams), a preacher at the local church. She attends the church quite often, sings in its choir and helps her father by bringing him his asthma inhaler whenever he needs it. He essentially has her on a tight leash and hesitantly lets go of the leash when she goes off with an R&B singer, Devlin (Durrell “Tank” Babbs), to tour with his travelling road show for a musical R&B gospel play, “Daddy, Can I Come Back Home?”, as an understudy for the show’s protagonist, Desiree (Tammy Townsend). Angie falls head-over-heels for Devlin and naively believes that he has good intentions for her. Little does she know that he’s actually a sweet-talking, abusive control-freak who behaves like a misogynist. Essence Atkins plays Peaches, a performer in the traveling show whom Angie befriends. Will Angie find the courage to do the right thing by going far away from him? Staying with him would be a form of masochism. What will it take for Angie to grow up and to discover how much she truly needs the support and warmth of her family and church after all? Fortunately, Letoya Luckett gives a lively performance that radiates with charisma which helps to make Angie appealing and easy to care about as a human being. Writer/director Stan Foster explores those questions and themes in an easy-to-swallow way that doesn’t delve too much on the darker side of Angie’s journey nor does it veer toward melodrama or corniness. Many scenes do feel clichéd, but so what? Real life is filled with clichés, predictability and fallible people who are similarly led astray like Angie, and, on top of that, there’s always some truth to clichés after all. Foster focuses more on how she opens her eyes to the harsh truths of showbiz life and finds a way to improve her life by cherishing those who truly care about her, love her and respect her. He also balances heavy moments of the drama with some much-needed humor. In a way, she’s like a baby bird that flies from its nest and only during its journey as it sours into the air to be free does it learn how much it actually needs and values its nest. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, Preacher’s Kid manages to be crowd-pleasing, heartfelt and inspirational. It’s a wonderful, uplifting, and life-affirming movie.
Number of times I checked my watch: 0
February 4th, 2010 on 12:45 am
Now on too what we fans of Ms. Luckett want to hear, her performace. At the very beggining im sorry but it was not good. Maybe decent. She was trying way to hard to voice the role of a 21 year old sweet heart. You do NOT raise your voice to make your self sound younger that is a no no Letoya, you make it softer and choose your words. She sounded very phony but I do admit through the end of the movie she began acting better and really related to her audience. I guess when you give her the role and start shooting like the week after, the effect shows.
February 6th, 2010 on 8:21 am
“Preacher’s Kid,” the film written and directed by Youngstown native Stan Foster, will get at least one more week in the theater in the Mahoning Valley. It will stay at CinemaSouth in Boardman until at least next Thursday. Show times are 1:50, 4:30, 7:30 and 10:10 p.m. today; and 1:50 and 7:05 p.m. daily, beginning Friday.
The film, a Warner Premiere and Gener8xion Entertainment presentation, is a modern-day take on the Biblical prodigal-son story. A sheltered daughter defies her father and strikes out on her own, entering the gospel-play circuit. LeToya Luckett plays the lead role.
“Preacher’s Kid” made its theatrical debut last weekend in 109 theaters in 33 cities. The opening weekend gross was $190,000.
Oddly enough, Youngstown was one of the worst-performing markets, Foster told The Vindicator on Wednesday. The film has grossed the most in some of the cast members’ hometowns: Houston, Chicago and Covina, Calif., to name a few.
Foster has a penchant for sprinkling Youngstown references into his script, and “Preacher’s Kid” is no exception.
“There are so many [references],” said Foster. “We see a map that shows travel starting in Youngstown. We show Powers Auditorium as one of our theaters. There’s a character named Theodore Bell that is a reference to Mooney High football great Ted Bell, who was a star when I was a kid.”
In one scene, Luckett’s character and her friends sneak out to a nightclub called The Breakout. “It’s a reference to the old Breakout Lounge, which no longer exists,” said Foster. “I could go on and on.”
“Preacher’s Kid” stars Luckett, Tammy Townsend, Durrell “Tank” Babbs, Gregory Alan Williams and Essence Atkins.
The film has received generally positive reviews.
Michael Dequina, writing in themoviereport.com, had this to say:
“Stan Foster’s film confirms the unique, undeniable power this genre can achieve on both stage and film.”
Variety.com critic John Anderson wrote, “For all its billboard-sized gestures and a title that suggests uplifting family fun, ‘Preacher’s Kid’ is a surprisingly edgy morality play about a fallen woman whose descent into abuse and debasement is served up in a kind of Old Testament slo-mo.”
February 8th, 2010 on 12:35 pm
“High School Musical meets Jesus”
That’s how I would sum it up in a few words. Of course, the cast is slightly older, but the movie has a “High School Musical” feel.
I’m going to give the movie a review here, without any spoilers. I don’t want to spoil it for you.
Yesterday was Opening Day, and I made the 74-mile drive with my wife to the only theater in Washington State showing the movie, in Tukwila, Washington.
From Wikipedia Tukwila is the code-name for a future generation of Intel’s Itanium processor family following Itanium 2 and Montecito. It is expected to ship to OEMs in the first quarter of 2010.[1] While its features have not been publicly disclosed in detail, it is said to utilize both multiple processor cores (multi-core) and SMT techniques. The engineers said to be working on this project are from the Alpha project, specifically those who worked on the Alpha 21464 (EV8), which was focused on SMT. (anyone else see the symbolism here?)
We decided to go to the 3:15 matinee showing, to save money, get home earlier, and avoid crowds.
We got there early, purchased our tickets and had lunch across the street at Claim Jumpers restaurant. This also was our first time eating at Claim Jumpers, and we were both pleasantly surprised. The food was excellent, far above our expectations. My wife had a chicken cobb salad, and I had a 3-soup lunch trio combo. For me the New England Clam Chowder won out over the Cheddar Potato Soup or the Tortilla Soup. The tortilla soup was a bit on the salty side, but otherwise good.
After lunch we headed back over to the movie theater, and went inside to “claim” our seats. We didn’t know what to expect as far as crowds go. The movie theater parking lot was fairly full, but there were about 10 other movies playing as well. This was our first experience going to a movie on Opening Day.
The theater our movie was playing in was empty when we walked in. We had our choice of seats. Of course we were about 20 minutes early. As it got closer to showtime, a few people trickled in. All in all for the movie including my wife and myself there might have been about 10 people total, 3 of those being well-behaved children.
The name of the movie is Preacher’s Kid, and it’s about a preacher’s kid. But it could have been anybody’s kid. To me, the preacher’s kid part was more incidental than anything else..this story could happen to anyone, in any family. The real focus of the movie is not about being a “preacher’s kid” but about life itself, its challenges, ups and downs, and the way we handle them. It just so happens in the movie that she is a preacher’s kid, which adds to the symbolism.
This movie crosses barriers. It crosses age barriers, racial barriers, and secular/Christian barriers. Teenage boys and girls will be left swooning over the stars, and grownups of all ages will be touched emotionally. Towards the end of the movie, I found myself getting watery eyes, and I glanced out of the corner of my eye at my wife, who was wiping tears from her eyes. (She also gives this movie a 2 thumbs way up.)
Letoya Luckett who, incidentally, sang her first church solo at the age of 5, (a little trivia for you) shines in the movie. She has already made a name for herself in the music industry, and this could be the beginning of a film career for her. She has star-quality beauty and some cute facial expressions as well. Her acting was, for me, believable and convincing.
Watch for plays on words and symbolism in the movie.
Stay for the credits. There’s a hilarious scene at the closing credits that you don’t want to miss, trust me.
Last but not least, go see the movie. It will be money well-spent. Not only do you get the entertainment value, which is great, but you also get the bonus spiritual value…now that’s 2 for the price of 1….something I call a Real Deal.