FOR LOVE OF GAME; DIRECTOR, COMFORTABLE ON MALE-DOMINATED COURT, GETS NEW HOME IN FILMS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

As the title indicates, ``Love & Basketball'' is the result of writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood's passion for the sport.

Fortunately, it was an infectious thing that attracted both male star Omar Epps - who didn't need a whole lot of convincing - he's the kind of overardent Lakers supporter he jokingly describes as being ``like Robert De Niro in that movie 'The Fan' '' - and leading lady Sanaa Lathan, who'd never shot a hoop in her life before undergoing five months of intensive training for the movie.

It also attracted noted New York Knicks worshiper Spike Lee, whose 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks produced the movie ... finally. Because it was a long, frustrating process to get this story - about two Baldwin Hills neighbors' struggle to simultaneously stay in the game and stay in love with each other - to tipoff.

If the filmmaker hadn't been so committed, it might never have happened.

``For me, growing up, it was all about sports,'' says Prince-Bythewood, a UCLA Film School graduate and track runner, who has written and produced for such TV series' as ``A Different World,'' ``South Central'' and ``Felicity.'' ``Then, once I realized that I wanted to be a writer and a director, it was all about that.

``This took me 2 1/2 years to write. The first draft was done right about the time 'Soul Food' came out, and that film did so well, I thought that this would be an easy sell. But all of the studios kept telling me that it was 'too soft,' and I didn't know how to fix that.''

``Soft'' was evidently code used by executive types, who didn't exactly understand a film about upper-middle-class African-Americans working to achieve tough goals while trying to sort out their tenderest feelings.

Plus, Prince-Bythewood admits, there were script problems that had to be worked out with the help of the Sundance Institute's Writer's Lab. But once she got the screenplay in shape, it found a receptive audience at Lee's company, which is partially set up to nurture individualistic films about the African-American experience.

``I think there's been a very welcome and somewhat overdue change in black cinema,'' notes 40 Acres and a Mule's production president Sam Kitt, who is white. ``Because certain kinds of films have been consistently successful within the field for the past 10 to 15 years, the studios and distributors tended to make those films over and over again. But they essentially fell into two categories; one is the ghetto movie and the other one is silly comedies.

``But that's an incredibly narrow slice of the African-American experience. We try to make films about people who are, culturally, African-American, but they're not defined just by that. They are people striving to get ahead, and experiencing the pitfalls and having the foibles and the weaknesses and strengths that everyone has.''

In ``L&B,'' Epps' Quincy McCall, the son of a L.A. Clipper, and Lathan's Monica Wright, the daughter of a banker, are close friends but fierce court rivals from the second she moves in next door. They're a couple by the time they get to USC, but basketball - she has to push extra hard to please the tough women's coach; he wants to quit school early to join the NBA - threatens to take too much time from their relationship.

For Lathan, at least, making the film was anything but soft.

``It was so intense in such a short amount of time, five months of playing every day and completely struggling with it every minute along the way,'' says Lathan, a Yale School of Drama graduate and the daughter of television director Stan Lathan. ``It was really all tough because I had never played before. You want to look as authentic as possible, you know. The director was a ballplayer, so she was extra tough on me because she knows what it really looks like. Plus, I was surrounded by real ballplayers, so I had that to live up to. And at the same time, female basketball has not been represented on film. I met a lot of professionals and I really wanted to do them justice.''

Prince-Bythewood was, quite understandably, dubious about casting Lathan, who has had small parts in ``Blade,'' ``Life,'' ``The Wood'' and ``The Best Man.'' But when the actress agreed to train for two months - with no guarantee that she would win the part - the director had to take her seriously.

``At the same time, I had this ballplayer from Georgia Tech with an acting coach,'' Prince-Bythewood notes. ``They both had great chemistry with Omar, but at the end of the day I realized that you can fake basketball, but you can't fake your close-up.''

For Epps - who, at 26 is a respected veteran of everything from ``Scream 2'' to TV's ``ER'' to all manner of sports-themed movies (``The Program,'' ``Major League 2,'' ``Higher Learning'') - working on ``L&B'' was a bit like being the designated escort at a classy (albeit sweaty) coming-out party.

``It's going to be great to see where Gina's at 20 years from now,'' says Epps, a Brooklyn-bred, English teacher's kid with screenwriting aspirations of his own. ``I don't trip off the whole 'she's a woman' thing; women have been doing things for years. But you've got to understand, this script was so well-written. And it was a pleasant experience to see her shaping her directing style and discovering, making mistakes and finding solutions.''

As for Lathan, with whom Epps worked in ``The Wood,'' ``She's going to be big,'' he says. ``And it was cool to be, kind of, her chaperone on her first foray into the big dance, as we like to call it. This is her first big starring role, and it was great to watch her, hear her say things that I said when I first got in and just evolving into her career. She has the ability.''

But Epps' gallantry had its limit - the edge of the basketball court.

``Sanaa brought the intensity that those athletes have,'' he says appreciatively, then adds masculinely, ``but when we did our scenes, y'know, I ain't losing. I'm too competitive.''

It's commercial competitiveness that's on everyone's mind now. As such films as ``Soul Food,'' ``Best Man'' and ``Waiting to Exhale'' have proven, there is a profitable market for upscale African-American films. But each such project that comes along has to overcome a certain mental ghettoization in the minds of most studio suits.

``Certain movies dictate that there's going to be a downward pressure on the budget,'' 40 Acres' Kitt notes. ``African-American themed-and-cast movies tend to have that downward pressure because the conventional wisdom in the business is that there's not going to be much of an audience for it overseas (where Hollywood movies, on average, make more than half of their box-office gross). I think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, because as long as everybody takes that position, you'll never find the successes to overturn that conventional wisdom.''

The most heartbreaking decision for Prince-Bythewood - to cut portions out of a key love scene to achieve a PG-13 rather than a more restrictive R rating - could conceivably have been made for commercial considerations. But much as she hated to do it, her motives were more altruistic than that.

``Obviously, (distributor) New Line Cinema wanted the PG-13 rating, but they never forced it on me,'' she explains. ``But I just so want 14- and 15-year-old girls to be able to come see this movie and be inspired by Monica.

``But you know, there was never any nudity in the love scene; the camera's on their faces, there was no grinding. It wasn't gratuitous at all, and I had to go back (to the MPAA ratings board) four times, (and) just keep fighting and fighting and fighting.''

Considering the relative mildness of the R-rated cut, which was seen at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the question of whether the ratings board - with which Spike Lee, for one, has had more than his share of run-ins in the past - consciously or unconsciously applies different standards to African-American films.

``Unfortunately, that's an element in the culture that pops its head up at the most inopportune times,'' Kitt says. ``There's not a part of our culture where it doesn't rear its ugly head, so I would say yes.''

Whatever trials came her way, though, Prince-Bythewood feels that her love for basketball prepared her well for realizing her difficult dream of filmmaking.

``I grew up being a tomboy,'' she says. ``I had two sisters, and we were fortunate that my mom always had us in sports starting at age 7. We were always the only girls on the team, so it was like a constant fight, the boys obviously not wanting you there and kicking you and punching you and that good stuff.

``I think that's helped me today, being in such a male-dominated field as movies,'' she says with a grin. ``It's no big deal to me, because I had to fight so much when I was younger.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan in 'Love & Basketball'

Full-court press 

'Love & Basketball' stars and director explain their passion for the game and commitment to the movie.

(2) Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps co-star as fierce rivals on the basketball court who become romantically involved when the game threatens to tear them apart in ``Love & Basketball.''

(3) 'I just so want 14- and 15-year-old girls to be able to come see this movie and be inspired by Monica.'

Gina Prince-Bythewood

(4) Sanaa Lathan says of her five months of intensive training for her role, ``Female basketball has not been represented on film. I met a lot of professionals and I really wanted to do them justice.''