Tatum More Than a Hunk

Women love Channing Tatum.

As a matter of fact, just the mention of his name induces a Beatlemania-esque scream.

It doesn’t matter what type of film he’s associated with, from an ’80s-inspired action romp to a Nicolas Sparks book turned flick; he can do nothing wrong.

Because of that, most men and women that want more than a good-looking face on-screen aren’t big fans of his work.

That, however, is about to change with his participation in the new HBO documentary “Earth Made of Glass.”

Co-written and co-directed by award-winning documentarian Deborah Scranton, the film tells the story of Rwanda’s rebuild after the 1994 genocide and how one man found a way to stop the cycle of pain and destruction in his own family.

Now why does Tatum, the guy known more for teen-pop classics the likes of “Step Up” and “Fighting” have anything to do with this?

He’s the film’s executive producer.

How did he get involved in this project?

Tatum became fascinated with the political turmoil and genocide in Rwanda after friend Reid Carolin [who worked with Tatum on the MTV film “Stop Loss” and produced the film] went abroad to film and told Tatum what was going on.

“He did this for the better part of two years and he came back with this amazing footage,” said Tatum. “It was so educational for me. I didn’t know anything about it.”

Now, Tatum was not only intrigued by the project but wanted to be a part of it.

“I didn’t get a lot of my education from books and school,” he said. “I got it from TV and the news. This was so foreign to me, but it was so compelling and close to home. I’m from the South. Race and difference and rage are so real down there. For me to see a different country, where everyone is the same race, just killing everybody, is unbelievable to me.”

All of a sudden, a half-decade of appearances in teen flicks, wacky comedies and action flicks is washed away.

Tatum is a bona-fide humanitarian.

Even better, he legitimately cares about his audience and wants them to be affected by what’s going on in the world as well.

“It was really important for me to get this to my audience, which is a little younger,” he said. “They had an amazing screening of it for some inner-city kids at the Tribeca Film Festival [in 2010]. They needed to see it.

“It was just an honor to be a part of this.”

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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