The What and Why of ‘Who’s Your Caddy?’

When “Who’s Your Caddy?” comes out July 27, it won’t be just another opening of an urban comedy.

The release will, in fact, be historic.

That’s because “Who’s Your Caddy?” is the first feature film release of the newly formed Our Stories Films, a film studio catering to urban audiences and the only studio in the country at which African Americans are responsible for greenlighting projects. This is the first of the company’s slate of family-friendly comedies.

While that is certainly a cause for celebration, the studio is already mired in controversy because of the nature of its first film, as well as who wrote and directed the movie.

While everyone applauds the efforts of both Robert L. Johnson, former founder and chairman of Black Entertainment Television, who created the studio in 2006, and Tracey E. Edmonds of Edmonds Entertainment Group, who serves as president and chief operating officer, they are questioning the choice to launch the new studio with a project written and directed by Don Michael Paul, who happens to be white.

The movie stars Antwan “Big Boi” Patton (OutKast) as C Note, an Atlanta rap mogul who tries to join an exclusive golf country club, only to be rejected. Undeterred, he hatches a plan to force the issue. The movie has fart gags, brief bathroom nudity, scantily clad women, loud music, and stereotypical disrespectful behavior by C Note and his rude entourage. The “N-word” is used frequently, even coming out of the mouth of a young white boy, who addresses his father by saying “What’s up, my n-gga?”

To be fair, the jury is divided as to whether the movie is insulting and embarrassing, or whether it’s just a good-natured comedy with an underlying moral message.

For decades blacks have bemoaned the fact that their stories were being told by non-blacks.

The irony of Our Stories Films’ first project being directed and written by a white man seemed to be lost on Edmonds, who tried to explain her actions at a recent junket attended by a host of predominantly black reporters.

“We don’t want to be discriminating at the studio,” explained Edmonds. “Our mission is to really make sure our character, or lead is a person of color. Crew wise we had a number of African Americans working on the crew, the executive producers Shakim (Compere) and Queen Latifah are African American. One thing I don’t want to do is reverse discrimination and discriminate against people who are bringing talent and projects just because of the color of their skin. Honestly, I didn’t have a reservation because the writer and director was white. I mean the story is something that appeals to people of color.”

Edmonds and the cast found themselves defending the film more than celebrating its historic launch. The director was conspicuously absent from the junket.

Still, cast members are perplexed about some of the negative remarks they’ve heard about the film.

“This is exactly what we need as far as being able to make black films and having them greenlit without having so many people come in and stepping on the material and saying change this to this because they don’t get it or don’t understand it,” said Finesse Mitchell, who plays Dread, part of C Note’s crew. “Why make an argument out of comedy? It’s not a drama, it’s not a suspense, it’s not a horror movie, it’s comedy. We gotta be able to laugh at ourselves some time and you gotta be able to embrace the things that we say every day on the street.”

Sherri Shepherd, who plays Lady G, C Note’s second in command, agreed that the movie is strictly done for laughs.

“There’s so much stuff going on in the world that I think it’s a great movie where you can just sit and laugh,” said Shepherd. “We need a movie right now that just makes people feel good.”

“Who’s Your Caddy?” stars Patton, Shepherd, Mitchell, Tamala Jones, Faizon Love, James Avery, Garrett Morris, Tony Cox, Terry Crews, Jeffrey Jones, Cam Gigandet, Andy Milonakis and Chase Tatum.

The film is directed by Don Michael Paul and produced by Edmonds, Christopher Eberts, Kia Jam and Arnold Rifkin. It’s executive produced by Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Ross M. Dinerstein, Marvin Peart, Chris Roberts and Bobby Schwartz and written by Paul, Bradley Allenstein and Robert Henny.

The movie, released through Dimension Films, a division of the Weinstein Company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is Rated PG-13 by the MPAA. Running Time: 93 minutes.