Since bursting onto the scene over a decade and a half ago with the groundbreaking urban drama Boyz n the Hood, John Singleton has steadily established himself as a director capable of thriving in a variety of genres, from romance (Poetic Justice) to period (Rosewood) to big-budget popcorn (2 Fast 2 Furious). He's branched out into the producing arena as well, helping launch the careers of actor Terrence Howard and director Craig Brewer with 2004's acclaimed Hustle & Flow.

Singleton hopes to achieve similar success with his latest producing project, Illegal Tender, the sophomore effort from dancer-turned-director Franc. Reyes (Empire). A modern gangster flick with a distinctly Latin flavor, Illegal Tender boasts a novel pair of protagonists: a badass, gunslinging mother and her college student son, played by Wanda De Jesus and Rick Gonzalez, respectively.

Singleton sat down recently for an exclusive interview with ReelzChannel.com to talk about Illegal Tender, as well as his upcoming slate of directing projects: Tulia, Luke Cage and The Black Panther.

What was it that attracted you to this story?

The fact that it was a really cool story about a mother and son and that it was a gangster movie. Everybody likes gangster movies, you know? Like Goodfellas, Scarface and stuff. But doing it this way gave it more heart. There was more weight to it.

As a producer, how hands-on were you? Did you try to mentor Franc. at all?

I just talked to him through what we should do, in terms of setting up some of the stuff. Just like I told Craig Brewer, to make sure we shoot the meatiest parts of the scenes first, and then you go do the candy shots.

How involved were you in the casting process?

Oh, I was there. It was just Franc. and I with the casting director, Cynthia Miguel. It was great to do it this way, kind of like how we did it with Hustle & Flow. We feel like these films are hand made, you know what I mean? I've done so much work with studios that, while it's still a studio picture, it's done the way I would do it.

Wanda De Jesus, in particular, really seemed to take the character and make it her own. How much of her performance was on the page?

Everything in her performance was pretty much on-book. It was what Franc wrote. I think Wanda, her performance brought it to a whole new level. She brought an air of sophistication as well as a lot of heart. She brought a lot of levels to the character.

Tell us about your next directing project.

My next project is called Tulia, with Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton. In 1999...there's a town called Tulia, with 4000 people -- a small, little bumf--k town in Texas. Of the 4000 people, 400 of them are black. 47 of them were arrested one night and accused of being drug dealers. They found no drugs, no weapons, no money, no guns, no nothing, and they arrested these people. Some of them got between 99 and 300 years. And what you find out is that the state of Texas has this thing where the more arrests that they get, the more money they get from the federal government. The oil industry is dying down, the agriculture business is gone. They still have the cattle business there. But the biggest industry there now is building prisons. So they need to funneling people into that. So all they do is funnel poor blacks and Latinos through the prison system, even when they're not even guilty. So they send out warrants for people...they're building more prisons so they gotta keep 'em full.

What release date are you looking for?

It'll probably come out next summer.

You're currently on board to direct two comic book flicks, Luke Cage and The Black Panther. Which one do you hope to do first?

It depends on which script is available and which one is the best situation for me.

Is Tyrese Gibson still gonna be your Luke Cage?

It's possible. Tyrese is getting big. He's in one of the biggest movies of the summer.

A lot of people are talking about Djimon Hounsou for The Black Panther.

There's a lot of guys who could do it. Djimon could do it. Chiwetel Ejiofor could do it. Mark Steven Johnson, the guy who wrote and directed Ghost Rider, wrote a great draft of (The Black Panther). We have a script; we're just trying to figure out how much it's gonna cost.

Would the story be set primarily in Africa?

Yeah. Africa, London and New York, probably.

Illegal Tender opens nationwide this Friday, August 24th.

Check out ReelzChannel.com's Illegal Tender page for images, clips and more!