Shortly after Menace II Society was released in the summer of 1993, the Los Angeles Times profiled the film’s screenwriter, Tyger Williams. A 24-year-old wunderkind living his dream, Williams was no longer mooching off his parents. His film was the toast of Hollywood. The future was bright. Still, he remained pragmatic. “I do my art,” he told the paper, “but I understand the realities of the business I work in.”
The article stated that Williams and Menace directors Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes had already started working on their next project, “an urban action thriller” titled Public Enemez. The film never went into production, and the Hughes brothers soon moved on to Dead Presidents, their 1995 heist film. Williams, however, struggled to land a follow-up to his harrowing debut.
“After Menace I did the usual writing, pitching, rewriting, the whole development treadmill,” Williams tells me. “For one reason or another — regime changes, actors not being available, a changing climate — nothing got made.”
For more than two decades, nothing got made.
The article stated that Williams and Menace directors Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes had already started working on their next project, “an urban action thriller” titled Public Enemez. The film never went into production, and the Hughes brothers soon moved on to Dead Presidents, their 1995 heist film. Williams, however, struggled to land a follow-up to his harrowing debut.
“After Menace I did the usual writing, pitching, rewriting, the whole development treadmill,” Williams tells me. “For one reason or another — regime changes, actors not being available, a changing climate — nothing got made.”
For more than two decades, nothing got made.