Brothers in arms

It not only set the imprint for urban-ghetto movies but scored its creator, fresh out of film school, the honour of being the first African American (and youngest film-maker ever) to be Oscar-nominated for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

But what happened next? Arguably never topping that early success, Singleton has been busy proving himself in the Hollywood jungle. He directed high-adrenaline action flick 2 Fast 2 Furious, wrote, produced and directed the remake of Shaft and, most recently, turned producer on the Sundance Festival's indie 'hood hit, Hustle & Flow.

His latest feature as director, Four Brothers, is an energetic drama about four adoptive delinquents - two white, two black - who return home to avenge the gangland murder of their lovely, white-haired mom. So is it, as it appears, a return to a more 'keep it real' form?

'What initially attracted me to the movie was that it was set in the snow,' Singleton kicks off. Snow?

'Well, there was the whole challenge of shooting a huge car chase in a blizzard,' he elaborates with the somewhat discombobulated air of a dude who eventually 'fesses up to having had no sleep the night before (not jet lag - a bender starting at Chinawhite).

But for Singleton, raised between two homes, another attraction was the fact that the protagonists are all foster children. 'People who grow up in foster care have an edge to them, y'know? An emptiness that they're always trying to fill.'

It's the warm bond between the Mercer brothers - ringleader Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), ladies' man Angel (Tyrese Gibson - 'I just rang Tyrese and told him he had to do this,' says Singleton), businessman Jeremiah (Outkast's Andre Benjamin) and lost rock kid Jack (Garrett Hedlund) - that forms the movie's muscle.

'Me and Mark [Wahlberg] have been hanging out in discos for years saying: "One day we'll make a movie together",' claims Singleton. So as soon as Wahlberg signed up to the film, Singleton encouraged his cast to evolve their characters naturally by playing psychotic games of ice hockey.

And though this time he didn't write the script, he's proud that a lot of the film's humour emerged through improvisation. 'I didn't want to over-rehearse,' he explains.

'I try to create a vibe with my movies.' It's a word Singleton returns to time and again as we talk and one that perfectly encapsulates his approach to filmmaking.

'Four Brothers has a kind of cool vibe to it, y'know? Like a Marvin Gaye record. I want people watching and grooving.' And from casting hip hop musicians in his films (he kickstarted Ice Cube's acting career in Boyz N The Hood), to the Sean John label top he's wearing, music is clearly Singleton's driving passion.

'It's about creating a groove, about putting you in a certain mode,' he says. 'A lot of the movies coming out of the studios at the moment, they have no soul to them: it's all about making the experience special. The explosions and violence are cartoonish. In my movies, you can feel the violence is violent.'

That said, there are cartoonish moments in Four Brothers. Watch it and you're assaulted by a perplexing barrage of revenge tragedy, gangsta chic and entertaining buddy comedy, whose most tangible moral appears to be: don't kill little old ladies - or we'll shoot your ass.

What did Singleton want the audience to come out feeling? He pauses, flicking the light switch on and off in his hotel suite, as if creating an interview backbeat. 'It's not so much a message,' he smiles. 'I just want people to feel like they saw a really cool movie.'

Four Brothers is released on Friday