White Men Can't Jump Director on How the Remake Pays Homage to the Original (Exclusive)

31 years after Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson hustled the basketball courts of Los Angeles, White Men Can't Jump is being reimagined for a new generation. The 20th Century Studios film stars Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow as Kamal and Jeremy, two unlikely friends determined to leave their mark on the game — and make some money along the way. While the story and characters are different from the original film, the new White Men Can't Jump ends up sharing plenty of similarities with its predecessor. Kamal and Jeremy show up at a few of the original locations in this new movie, and there are a handful of scenes from the 1992 White Men Can't Jump that get their own spin this time around.

Calmatic, the film's director, had to toe the line between making something new and still paying homage to the original. While speaking to ComicBook.com ahead of the film's release, Calmatic revealed that the intention wasn't ever to do what the first film did, but that many of the scenes and exchanges that tie the films together came about all on their own.

"You know, the funny thing about that is some of those moments weren't even scripted," Calmatic told us. "There's a moment when the guys are chasing Kamal in the car and he hops in the car, and then he yells at them and gives them the finger, just like [Wesley Snipes] did. And I remember when that scene came up, it wasn't in the script, and then [Sinqua Wells] just did that and I was like, 'Oh yeah, that's the right thing to do in this situation."

He went on to say that those moments organically happening during production led to a different approach to the material itself. Rather than trying to avoid being like the original, certain things tied the movies together naturally, and they ended up fitting the remake better than anyone could've expected.

"And I think that's one thing I learned, it's so hard to do a remake because you try to do everything so different. You almost refuse to do it the same way [as the original]," the director explained. "But then you realize there's a reason why they did it that way in the original, because that was the best way to do it. You know what I mean? We filmed at maybe three of the same locations that were in the original. And we're like, 'Man, let's find a way to flip this. Can we put the court this way? Can we paint the fence or can we do something?' And it was like, no, actually, the way the sun rises the lighting is perfect this way, so it's best to shoot this way.

"So once I stopped trying to fight against 'copying' the old movie, I feel like I was able to focus on other things that were more natural to our script. And I think, in turn, we created some more natural moments."

White Men Can't Jump will debut on May 19th, exclusively on Hulu.