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OUTSPOKEN: David Oyelowo (left) says Red Tails’ largely black cast (right) made Hollywood reluctant to support the film

UK ACTOR David Oyelowo says that Hollywood studios were reluctant to support upcoming film Red Tails because it features a predominantly black cast.

The film – which tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American fighter pilots in the United States armed forces – is executively produced by Indiana Jones director George Lucas, who used almost 100 million dollars (approximately £63,800,000) of his own money to make the movie.

But after making the film, which stars Oyelowo and US actor Nate Parker, alongside Hollywood heavyweights Cuba Gooding Jr and Terrence Howard, Lucas alleged earlier this year that he couldn’t find a studio to distribute his film “because it’s an all-black movie.”

Oyelowo, who stars in Red Tails as fighter pilot Joe ‘Lightning’ Little, backed up Lucas’s claim, saying he believed that had the film starred more white actors, it wouldn’t have faced such a struggle to make it to cinema.

“It’s George’s [Lucas] money that got the film made,” Oyelowo told The Voice. “But he’d always anticipated making it and then having one of the big studios distribute it.

“At the end of the day, he’s George Lucas – the man behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But he made Red Tails and none of the big studios wanted to buy it, on the basis that they weren’t sure that there was a market for this kind of movie.”

“If George had delivered a film starring Denzel [Washington] and a bunch of white guys, then that would have been fine,” continued The Last King Of Scotland actor. “But it was a bit like, ‘Who’s David Oyelowo, who’s Nate Parker?’ Cuba [Gooding Jr] and Terrence [Howard] are in it, but they’re playing largely supporting roles. So that was the unforeseen challenge.”

Film Studio 20th Century Fox eventually stepped in as Red Tails’ US distributor and the film was released in the States in January this year. It gets its UK release next week (June 6) through Momentum Pictures.

Oyelowo explained: “[20th Century] Fox, to their credit, jumped in [as the distributor] and made a shed load of money in The States, which is why it’s getting an international release at all.”

Read the full interview with Red Tails stars Cuba Gooding Jr, David Oyelowo and director Anthony Hemingway in the next issue of The Voice, out on Thursday (May 31). Red Tails is in cinemas from June 6