Alumnus and adjunct faculty member Sherman Payne ’10 has been tapped to adapt Razorblade Tears for Paramount.
Payne will serve as the screenwriter for the Paramount Players’ adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel written by author S.A. Cosby. Called a “brawling, go-for-baroque pulpfest” in a review by the New York Times, the novel follows two fathers, one Black, one white, on a quest for vengeance in the name of their two murdered sons.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
Payne’s original screenplay, Black as Night, is currently in post-production with Amazon Studios. The film will premiere as part of Amazon’s Welcome To The Blumhouse film anthology, a collection of unsettling genre films that tap into our deepest fears. In Black as Night, a teenage girl with self-esteem issues finds confidence in the most unlikely way, by spending her summer battling vampires that prey on New Orleans’ disenfranchised with the help of her best friend, the boy she’s always pined for, and a peculiar rich girl. The film is expected to be released in late 2021.
Sherman Payne is a screenwriter and producer, originally from Ohio, now living and working in LA. He attended Wright State University, where he received a BFA in Film Production, and later Columbia University, earning an MFA in Screenwriting. He has written projects for MTV, BET, The CW, Warner Bros. TV, Netflix, and Sony Pictures Classics, among others. In 2020, his debut feature film Charm City Kings premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded a special jury prize, and later aired on HBO Max. His next film, Black as Night, will be featured on Amazon Prime as part of their Welcome To The Blumhouse series. Currently, Sherman is a writer and producer on Showtime's hit series Shameless.
