Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind the Making of “Love Jones”

Who is This Theodore Witcher? 

Theodore, or Ted Witcher, was only 24 years old when he directed this iconic film. Still a young man in the game Witcher was a security guard at a Chicago TV station and then a production assistant for the infamous “Jerry Springer Show” before he wrote and then directed Love Jones. The movie was loosely based on Witcher’s own dating experiences in Chicago. He’s said that there was a lot of game-playing going on in the dating world. The film, though successful among fans, was a first and last for the director. Much to our dismay Witcher only wrote one other movie after Love Jones. His second film, Body Count came out just a year later and then the young director “disappeared” from the scene. But that wasn’t his intention. In March he told The Root:

No. I intended to have a long list of credits, but I couldn’t get another movie. There has to be something that you want to do that a studio wants to pay for. I was never able to sync that up. I wanted to do ambitious films with more black people. You don’t get to do that.

Some things came my way that I passed on, and I have no regrets. I continue my career as a screenwriter and I briefly directed videos — I was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for City High’s “What Would You Do?” — and commercials, but I didn’t like them. Now I’m working on an adaptation of Invisible Life by E. Lynn Harris. We’ll see what happens.

Witcher along with Nia Long and Larenz Tate recently gauged the interest of their fan base to determine whether or not people wanted a sequel. You already know their response was overwhelmingly positive. Witcher has said that they’re working on the sequel so we’ll have to keep our eyes open.