Director Nicky Starks has gone to the dark side.
This is not to suggest that Starks has been recruited by pro wrestling's The Undertaker and is part of the new storyline which has been playing out on Monday Night Raw. Not by a long shot. Starks, however, has formed a new company in partnership with industry vet Hank Weinstein. It's being called Dark Side Entertainment. This was not a random choice of names.
Starks made his "Dark Side" bones over at Elegant Angel where he had been with the company since Day One. Starks began as a publicity guy, worked his way through the ranks and went on to specialize in making black features, particularly the acclaimed "Sugar Walls" series. Starks, however, admits he ran into creative differences.
"It wasn't about money," Starks says. "Pat Collins wasn't skimpy. I had a good deal over there. I just felt that I deserved more [creative] control." Push came to shove when the general consensus got to be that Sparks wasn't giving his all.
Starks became part of a company house cleaning that involved several directors including Craig Daze. Daze has joined Starks as his cameraman. Sparks says Daze will play a big part in the direction the company's heading, which is interracial. Sparks also drops names like Mr. Marcus and Byron Long into the conversation.
"We're all trying to do this together," says Sparks.
Starks is saying that he would have made this move, eventually, but Elegant Angel's decision merely hastened it by a couple of months.
"I guess it's no better time than now," says Starks whose first project out of the chute will be a spin on Sugar Walls, called, creatively enough, Sugar. These will be two-hour tapes, featuring brand new black girls, and the boxcovers will feature Sparks-inspired designs. A second line looming on the horizon is something titled Freaks of the Industry - an interview-style, rap-style, in-your-face production, according to Sparks.
