Xixax Film Forum

The Director's Chair => The Director's Chair => Topic started by: Ghostboy on June 26, 2003, 01:24:38 AM

Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ghostboy on June 26, 2003, 01:24:38 AM
I feel like starting a volatile thread! And one that, aside from detours in other discussions, has been a long time in coming.

I think Spike Lee is brash, arrogant, egotistical, sometimes annoying and also one of the greatest filmmakers, period. Although his track record isn't as good, I think his talent is comparable to and even equal with Scorsese's. Aside from their mutual love of New York, their styles have a gritty, in your face brashness.

Lee's best films, in order (and in my opinion) are

1. Do The Right Thing
2. Malcom X
3. He Got Game
4. 25th Hour

I'd like to provide a counterpoint to an arguement of Onamotopoeia's, who in another thread, said that he thought Malcom X was Lee's worst film, a piece of racist propaganda, if I remember correctly. I don't understand this opinion at all; it's as if he rented the VHS but didn't watch the second tape. Malcom clearly rejects the teachings of the Nation Of Islam in the last act of the film and coming to the realization that equality is the only true solution; indeed, the Nation is blatantly accused of assasinating him. The film supports nothign if not racial harmony (it's also just a brilliant piece of filmmaking, marred only by Lee's own mugging for the camera in the early scenes).

So anyway...let's discuss this guy.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Rudie Obias on June 26, 2003, 01:43:56 AM
i would agree with most of what you said.  his films are ALWAYS thought provoking which is a good thing in the "we don't wanna think!" mentality of americans today.  

but sometimes he's just annoying and foolish like his bashing of quentin tarantino's JACKIE BROWN.  he really didn't like the was tarantino used the n-word so many times in that particular film but he's ok with it in PULP FICTION.  and wasn't tarantino in GIRL 6?

and his rant about the new TNN changing it's name to spike TV.  he's actually suing (sp?) the people @ TNN for ripping off his name.  hey spike lee!  they didn't name the muthafucka after you!  your real name isn't even spike.  maybe it was named after spike jonze, but wait that's not his real name either.  

i'd come up with a top 5 of my favorite spike lee films but as so it stands i only have a top 4

1.  DO THE RIGHT THING
2.  MALCOLM X
3.  BAMBOOZLED
4.  THE 25th HOUR
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: AlguienEstolamiPantalones on June 26, 2003, 02:23:33 AM
Quote from: GhostboyI feel like starting a volatile thread!

thats not volatile, now this is volatile.............

spike lee is a damn dirty fucking nigger and he has a chink last name, And his film crooklyn caused Robert urich to die of cancer

Now thats volatile, racist and misguided sure, maybe a bit off on the robert urich thing, i mean he could of had a smoking habbit :: shruggs:: who knows

but smoking or not this a volatile post non the less , is it  Representative of the mambo squad in anyway???

hardly,  we love School daze, and also were fond of Asian surnames
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jokerspath on June 26, 2003, 08:20:18 AM
Quote from: AlguienEstolamiPantalones
Quote from: GhostboyI feel like starting a volatile thread!

thats not volatile, now this is volatile.............

spike lee is a damn dirty fucking nigger and he has a chink last name, And his film crooklyn caused Robert urich to die of cancer

Now thats volatile, racist and misguided sure, maybe a bit off on the robert urich thing, i mean he could of had a smoking habbit :: shruggs:: who knows

but smoking or not this a volatile post non the less , is it  Representative of the mambo squad in anyway???

hardly,  we love School daze, and also were fond of Asian surnames

Not only is this a pretty funny post, its also your thousandth.  Congrats...

aw
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: rustinglass on June 26, 2003, 09:29:32 AM
summer of sam is cool
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Cecil on June 26, 2003, 09:31:14 AM
Quote from: rudieobhe really didn't like the was tarantino used the n-word so many times in that particular film

bad memories

and yes, summer of sam is cool. a very good film
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Victor on June 26, 2003, 09:59:11 AM
1. Do The Right Thing
2. Summer Of Sam
3. 25th Hour
4. X
5. Bamboozled

Spike is one of the best filmmakers out there, and a damn interesting person. He can be misguided at times, sure, but that just makes him more fun to watch. And whether you like him or not, you gotta admit, the guys got balls.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SoNowThen on June 26, 2003, 10:02:26 AM
Summer Of Sam   :yabbse-thumbup:  :yabbse-thumbup:


He does the best focus pulls. I usually find them annoying in movies, but not in his.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ernie on June 26, 2003, 12:31:08 PM
What are focus pulls? You might have to use a specific example to make me understand. Anyway...Spike Lee...

do the right thing
jungle fever
25th hour
he got game
clockers

That's all I've seen and I love them all, except Clockers which I really don't get. Yea, he is a great filmmaker. I'd be interested in Summer of Sam as well as Malcolm X. I tried to watch School Daze once but it seemed stupid and boring. Bamboozled seemed pretty bad too. Nobody ever said he was perfect and that's perfectly fine with me.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on June 26, 2003, 12:37:03 PM
Quote from: GhostboyI feel like starting a volatile thread! And one that, aside from detours in other discussions, has been a long time in coming.

I think Spike Lee is brash, arrogant, egotistical, sometimes annoying and also one of the greatest filmmakers, period. Although his track record isn't as good, I think his talent is comparable to and even equal with Scorsese's. Aside from their mutual love of New York, their styles have a gritty, in your face brashness.

Lee's best films, in order (and in my opinion) are

1. Do The Right Thing
2. Malcom X
3. He Got Game
4. 25th Hour

I'd like to provide a counterpoint to an arguement of Onamotopoeia's, who in another thread, said that he thought Malcom X was Lee's worst film, a piece of racist propaganda, if I remember correctly. I don't understand this opinion at all; it's as if he rented the VHS but didn't watch the second tape. Malcom clearly rejects the teachings of the Nation Of Islam in the last act of the film and coming to the realization that equality is the only true solution; indeed, the Nation is blatantly accused of assasinating him. The film supports nothign if not racial harmony (it's also just a brilliant piece of filmmaking, marred only by Lee's own mugging for the camera in the early scenes).

So anyway...let's discuss this guy.
Tomorrow, I'm going to go out and check out Malcolm X (if it's at my university's library), among other films of Lee's, because I need to give them another chance (and some a first chance).  Bamboozled sounds like a brilliant premise, though I know critics didn't like it.  25th Hour didn't even come to theatres here, when it may very well have been one of the best films of 2002.  Really unfortunate.  In short, Lee is one of the best directors around, despite what I agree with you about: his brash attitude.

See, I was blown away by Do The Right Thing.  Its dance with Rosie Perez is one of the best openings in film ever.  And all throughout the film his use of color is excellent.  John Tuturro, Danny Aiello, and Spike Lee himself all put in great performances, and while the ending was controversial, it really couldn't have ended any other way.  In a film criticism class I took, we watched this, and one of the points brought up was no black person has ever asked if Mookie "did the right thing."  Whites do all the time.  I still think it was wrong of Mookie to vandalise Sal's property, then have the gaul to come in the next day and ask for his paycheck.  But then again, if Mookie didn't Sal probably would have been killed by the mob.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on June 26, 2003, 12:38:56 PM
only seen...

-THE 25TH HOUR  :yabbse-thumbup:
-SUMMER OF SAM  :yabbse-thumbup:
-HE GOT GAME  :yabbse-thumbup:  
-DO THE RIGHT THING  :yabbse-thumbup:

some of his movies just dont interest me although i would like to see Malcolm X, Clockers, and maybe Jungle Fever (because i remember hearing so much about it when it came out).

edit: WAIT! forgot about GIRL 6  :yabbse-thumbdown:  :(
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ernie on June 26, 2003, 12:41:42 PM
Definitely see Jungle Fever...if you don't like it I can guarantee you will at least be moved by John Turturro and Annabella Sciorra's preformances. It is impossible not to be. Michael Imperioli and this other italian guy are great too as Angie's brothers. Then there's Samuel L Jackson in one of his many great roles which I think he won Best Actor for at Cannes. There's so many great little parts that amount to something great overall.

One warning, a lot of it's greatness doesn't have much to do with Wesley Snipes.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ghostboy on June 26, 2003, 12:50:51 PM
Quote from: ebeamanWhat are focus pulls?

Focus pulls are when the focus changes from one object to another in the middle of a shot. Most often used to call attention to a new element in a shot. I'm sure someone with cap capabilities can get you a good 'before and after' screen grab example...

For the record, one of the most amazing focus pulls I've ever seen was in a Kids In The Hall sketch...but I don't remember which one.

Anyway, back to Spike. Clockers was the first film of his I saw; it was actually originally going to be directed by Scorsese, but he decided to give it to Spike and just produce instead.

That opening sequence in Do The Right Thing is indeed one of the most brilliant intros ever. It's so in your face! The colors are just eye-popping, and of course 'Fight The Power' is an awesome anthem.

"Elvis may be a hero to some but he never meant shit to me..."
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ernie on June 26, 2003, 12:58:11 PM
Oh ok, doesn't Scorsese do a lot of focus pulls?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: BonBon85 on June 26, 2003, 02:08:25 PM
It used to kind of bug me when he puts the characters on a moving platform along with the camera. I used to think it was kind of distracting, but in 25th Hour he manages to make it look good. The shots in the club where he uses the technique are fantastic.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: AlguienEstolamiPantalones on June 26, 2003, 02:22:34 PM
Quote from: jokerspath
Quote from: AlguienEstolamiPantalones
Quote from: GhostboyI feel like starting a volatile thread!

thats not volatile, now this is volatile.............

spike lee is a damn dirty fucking nigger and he has a chink last name, And his film crooklyn caused Robert urich to die of cancer

Now thats volatile, racist and misguided sure, maybe a bit off on the robert urich thing, i mean he could of had a smoking habbit :: shruggs:: who knows

but smoking or not this a volatile post non the less , is it  Representative of the mambo squad in anyway???

hardly,  we love School daze, and also were fond of Asian surnames

Not only is this a pretty funny post, its also your thousandth.  Congrats...

aw


thank you thank you, i wanted number 1000 to be great.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 26, 2003, 02:58:16 PM
Lee has a style that compliments the substance, not overpowers it.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: cowboykurtis on June 26, 2003, 03:28:35 PM
im not a big fan of Lee's films. im get sick of the "reactinary" cloud he's always on. i'd like to see him tell as story where he's not trying to adress the 'race card'. i've only seen bamboozled, malcom x, and do the right thing... so,  based on my exposure to his films, my opinion is a bit narrow. theres no doubt that he is talented, however, i feel the same way about him, as i feel about some female directors. im sure im setting myself up to be labeled sexist & racist, but here I go: Great, spike lee is black... great, hes pissed off that his race has been mistreated, everyone is entitled to their gripes. however, when one focuses their whole career around "preaching" the same repetitive views, it gets a bit tiresome. i have this similar problem with female directors who only tell stories about women's issue. maybe i cant relate becuase im not black or im not a women... on the other side of things, i am thankful that someone is out there making film adressing these issues...i'd just like to see him spend his directorial talent telling a story, instead of adressing an "issue".
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleuth on June 26, 2003, 03:32:51 PM
Quote from: cowboykurtisim not a big fan of Lee's films. im get sick of the "reactinary" cloud he's always on. i'd like to see him tell as story where he's not trying to adress the 'race card'. i've only seen bamboozled, malcom x, and do the right thing...

stop there, go see more of his films
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SoNowThen on June 26, 2003, 03:33:17 PM
Quoteim get sick of the "reactinary" cloud he's always on. i'd like to see him tell as story where he's not trying to adress the 'race card'. i've only seen bamboozled, malcom x, and do the right thing... so, based on my exposure to his films, my opinion is a bit narrow. theres no doubt that he is talented, however, i feel the same way about him, as i feel about some female directors. im sure im setting myself up to be labeled sexist & racist, but here I go: Great, spike lee is black... great, hes pissed off that his race has been mistreated, everyone is entitled to their gripes. however, when one focuses their whole career around "preaching" the same repetitive views, it gets a bit tiresome. i have this similar problem with female directors who only tell stories about women's issue. maybe i cant relate becuase im not black or im not a women... on the other side of things, i am thankful that someone is out there making film adressing these issues...i'd just like to see him spend his directorial talent telling a story, instead of adressing an "issue".

So completely agreed (in general, but I enjoy Spike's films all the same...).
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on June 26, 2003, 03:36:26 PM
Quote from: cowboykurtisim not a big fan of Lee's films. im get sick of the "reactinary" cloud he's always on. i'd like to see him tell as story where he's not trying to adress the 'race card'. i've only seen bamboozled, malcom x, and do the right thing... so,  based on my exposure to his films, my opinion is a bit narrow. theres no doubt that he is talented, however, i feel the same way about him, as i feel about some female directors. im sure im setting myself up to be labeled sexist & racist, but here I go: Great, spike lee is black... great, hes pissed off that his race has been mistreated, everyone is entitled to their gripes. however, when one focuses their whole career around "preaching" the same repetitive views, it gets a bit tiresome. i have this similar problem with female directors who only tell stories about women's issue. maybe i cant relate becuase im not black or im not a women... on the other side of things, i am thankful that someone is out there making film adressing these issues...i'd just like to see him spend his directorial talent telling a story, instead of adressing an "issue".

i agree with everything you said.  (i've already spoken up about my feelings towards female directors.)  but, you should see 25th hour and Summer Of Sam, because it shows what he can do telling a story without preaching about an issue.  or playing the race card.  and theyre quite good.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on July 08, 2003, 12:12:58 AM
I saw Malcolm X about a week ago, and am just now commenting on it, which shows you my attitude towards it.  It had some good scenes, but not enough to overshadow the prevalent racism of a man.  His change, IMO, still came too little too late, and while it was a tragic ending, it still didn't make me sympathize.  You want to see a great film about a great man, look to Gandhi.  Now there's a leader and a role model.  Malcolm X: **½/**** (6/10)

I also saw Clockers a day later.  It kind of dragged along for the first half, then picked up later, especially in the third act, where the twist really sucked me in and made me think.  Good for Lee, but still, it seems all his pics are rather formulaic and predictable in his themes.  I don't know if he'll ever be able to top Do the Right Thing.  Still looking forward to finally getting to see 25th Hour, though.  Clockers was still a good movie, though: ***/**** (7/10)

As for the prevalence of the signs in the background saying "No More Packing," something MacGuffin asked me about in another thread (comparing it to the Stop sign Singleton used in Boyz N the Hood), well, it's not as bad an offense as the Stop sign, but still something that was a bit unnecessary and heavy handed.  It was interesting how he worked it in though.  Me, I think the only directors who can get away with that type of that mise-en-scene (off the top of my head) are PTA, and Jeunet (in Amelie, of course).  There is true heart behind it, that's why.  It's not just driving a point home.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on July 08, 2003, 09:01:00 PM
can you name me instances in malcom x, do the right thing, and bamboozled where spike proclaims his blackness and victimizes the black people?
spike's films are some of the only films I've seen where a white person can be racist yet still a nice friendly human being (even to black people) at the same time.
secondly, do the right thing does tell a great story, with or without the political aspects of it, to have a quirky urban comedy for 100s minutes then all of a sudden explode with a violent dark ending that is consistent within the narrative structure, is pretty damn good storytelling in any standard.

Quote from: cowboykurtisim not a big fan of Lee's films. im get sick of the "reactinary" cloud he's always on. i'd like to see him tell as story where he's not trying to adress the 'race card'. i've only seen bamboozled, malcom x, and do the right thing... so,  based on my exposure to his films, my opinion is a bit narrow. theres no doubt that he is talented, however, i feel the same way about him, as i feel about some female directors. im sure im setting myself up to be labeled sexist & racist, but here I go: Great, spike lee is black... great, hes pissed off that his race has been mistreated, everyone is entitled to their gripes. however, when one focuses their whole career around "preaching" the same repetitive views, it gets a bit tiresome. i have this similar problem with female directors who only tell stories about women's issue. maybe i cant relate becuase im not black or im not a women... on the other side of things, i am thankful that someone is out there making film adressing these issues...i'd just like to see him spend his directorial talent telling a story, instead of adressing an "issue".
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on July 08, 2003, 09:04:18 PM
by the way, am I alone in thinking that the ending of 25th hour reminds me a lot of the ending in raising arizona?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on July 08, 2003, 10:51:31 PM
my 25th hour dvd is getting a lot of play recently, moreso than punch-drunk im afraid. i've shown 25th to friends and i get all positive reactions. its so damn good. im baffled as to why it was completely ignored by the awards and such, and why it was forgotten so easily. when a movie can send chills down ur back a repeated number of times u know its good.

im in agreement w/ ghostboy, i think malcom x is not only his best film but one of the best films i've ever seen. interesting thing, just caught an interview in which he talked a lot about how he was really influenced by oliver stone. he said he saw jfk in the theater with his editor when it came out and was completely blown away. u can see a lot of that influence in malcom. do the right thing is no doubt one of my fav. movies too.

the biggest misconception of spike is that he's this racist, homophobic, angry black man. ppl who say "damn i hate spike like" or "i like his movies but he's an asshole'- u don't know this man. u read stuff in papers, misquoted shit, misinterpreted shit- cuz if u opened ur eyes and really payed attention u'd see the warmth and compassion in his movies, even in malcom x, do the right thing, etc.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Cecil on July 09, 2003, 12:08:19 AM
cbrad is right. and i think that by accusing spike lee of racism, youre proving his point
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on July 09, 2003, 01:00:32 AM
anyone got the Do the Right Thing dvd or was old enough to remember what the press was saying about how that movie will incite riots in the cities everywhere?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: bonanzataz on July 09, 2003, 01:04:09 AM
Quote from: cecil b. dementedcbrad is right. and i think that by accusing spike lee of racism, youre proving his point

i used to be the kind of person that thought of lee as racist, but for some reason or another, about a week ago i was thinking about it real hard and i completely changed my mind and agree with you now, cecil.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ghostboy on July 09, 2003, 01:28:57 AM
Yeah, it did remind me of Raising Arizona. Except that I didn't like Ed Norton's old age makeup too much. Small complaint, though.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on July 09, 2003, 02:35:58 AM
spoilers ahead ppl[/size]





other small complaint was how the kids all looked way more hispanic than both the dad and the mom.[/b]
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleuth on July 09, 2003, 08:15:15 AM
Quote from: peteother small complaint was how the kids all looked way more hispanic than both the dad and the mom.

Yeah, that was gross
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: TheVoiceOfNick on July 09, 2003, 10:19:02 AM
I really can't stand Spike Lee... and one of the reasons that he hasn't really come to Hollywood, but instead stayed on the east coast, is that he's anti-semetic... and our Hollywood Jews and gays won't stand him... Talk about not having tolerance for humankind... this guy doesn't have tolerance for anyone but himself, and I have no tolerance for him.


Nick
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Weak2ndAct on July 09, 2003, 02:43:04 PM
Perhaps I've totally lost my mind, but am I the only one who thinks that Spike is on a hot streak of sorts?  Lawsuits w/ TNN and other hoopla aside, the last few films he's made have been among his best... yet no one seems to care anymore (the only comparison I can think of is Woody Allen-- "oh, he's got another movie out").  I've seen every one of his films (save for maybe The Huey Newton story on Starz!) and I really think he hit rock bottom w/ Girl 6 and Get on the Bus in '96.  But then we got He Got Game, 4 Little Girls, Summer of Sam, Original Kings of Comedy, Bamboozled, and then 25th Hour-- which after subsequent viewings is becoming my favorite one.  A pretty impressive output the past few years if you ask me.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on July 09, 2003, 04:13:15 PM
history will sort it all out!  his films will outlast most other popular american films of their times.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on August 14, 2003, 12:49:52 AM
Spike Lee Shopping She Hate Me
Source: Variety

Spike Lee is shopping for financing for his next film, a comedy called She Hate Me.

As Lee talks with UGC and distributors to fund the film, he's lining up Anthony Mackie (8 Mile) to star with Nia Long, Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Brown. Lee is also talking to Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson to take part.

In the film, a Harvard-educated biotech exec (Mackie) gets fired when he blows the whistle on his bosses. He supports himself by impregnating high-powered lesbians. One of those is an ex-girlfriend (Long).

Lee wants Goldberg and Brown to play Mackie's parents.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on August 14, 2003, 12:10:29 PM
HaHa!  That sounds great.  

Sorry to drop off on another subject, but did anyone else see Whoopi in "Good Fences?"  Highly recommended.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: A Matter Of Chance on August 14, 2003, 12:17:35 PM
I like Spike Lee and think he's really talented.

Apart from the already mentioned movies of his, I enjoyed "Mo-Better Blues" too.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Banky on October 02, 2003, 08:17:39 PM
i just wachted 25th hour and it was a damn good film
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on November 15, 2003, 02:11:53 PM
I just wanted to declare my hatred for Bamboozled.

I hate Bamboozled.

There, that feels much better.  That film is such a poor, unfunny (though I realize that was probably the point), rip-off of Network.  I think the saddest thing, though, was having to sit in the class and hear all these uninformed classmates say it was so layered and complex and had something important to say, and that Roger Ebert's opinion was invalid because of the (alleged) "control the Chicago Sun-Times has over him."  Hah, what a crock.  And this, coming from my professor, who I really respect.  Don't want to say anything more right now.  The film doesn't really deserve it.

On the bright side, 25th Hour is still one of the best films I've ever seen.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Cecil on November 15, 2003, 10:38:09 PM
i liked it, but thought the second half wasnt as good as the first
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on November 16, 2003, 02:40:40 AM
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaI just wanted to declare my hatred for Bamboozled.

I hate Bamboozled.

There, that feels much better.  That film is such a poor, unfunny (though I realize that was probably the point), rip-off of Network.  I think the saddest thing, though, was having to sit in the class and hear all these uninformed classmates say it was so layered and complex and had something important to say, and that Roger Ebert's opinion was invalid because of the (alleged) "control the Chicago Sun-Times has over him."  Hah, what a crock.  And this, coming from my professor, who I really respect.  Don't want to say anything more right now.  The film doesn't really deserve it.

Why are your classmates uninformed? About what?

You made a post ripping on others who liked it, but didn't give an opinion about why you didn't like it. Just because it's like "Network"? Well, yeah, it does have a "Network" influence, but "Bamboozled" is a satire. They are two totally different views of the TV industry.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on November 16, 2003, 02:55:52 AM
Quote from: MacGuffinWhy are your classmates uninformed? About what?
Uninformed about where Spike Lee is coming from, for the most part.  Because they neglect the context of Lee's films.  For the most part, they've only seen Do the Right Thing (prof sez: show of hands, who's seen other Lee films, blah, blah, blah), and they don't understand where Lee is coming from, and the external impetus for this film.  The fact that Lee is a very "angry black man" weighs heavily into this.  All of his films are not just entertainment, but societal commentary.  So, one must consider the source.  And looking at his track record, especially where Malcolm X is concerned, and his public attitude about race, one cannot see a levelheaded argument being made.
Quote from: MacGuffinYou made a post ripping on others who liked it, but didn't give an opinion about why you didn't like it. Just because it's like "Network"?
Okay, the characters were caricatures without a shred of humanity in them.  There were no sympathetic figures in the film save De La Croix's assistant, but even she was a question mark.  The plot was contrived and not grounded in reality.  The things he wished to lampoon were way too extreme and out of date to begin with.  No show like this would ever happen; people would protest too fervently.  If Lee wanted to address the issue more eloquently, he'd need to skewer what is wrong with TV now.  Say, for instance, Friends and their alleged lack of black characters (which is also a false claim, but that's a whole different debate).
Quote from: MacGuffinWell, yeah, it does have a "Network" influence, but "Bamboozled" is a satire. They are two totally different views of the TV industry.
They're both satires, actually.  And they're both quite similar views of the TV industry.

I wonder, though, if you actually disagree with me, or you just really like stirring up shit.  Because you never seem to provide any opinions of your own unless you see someone post something you disagree with, or can find a way to twist their words.  You must get bored very easily.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on November 16, 2003, 03:32:01 AM
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaI wonder, though, if you actually disagree with me, or you just really like stirring up shit.  Because you never seem to provide any opinions of your own unless you see someone post something you disagree with, or can find a way to twist their words.

How can I debate if I don't know where one is coming from? Like I said, I didn't see your opinion other than a comparison and wanted to know if that was your sole basis of not liking the film. Geez, forgive me for asking why instead of just saying "Fuck you for not liking it."

Quote from: OnomatopoeiaYou must get bored very easily.

Unnescessary personal attack. No where did I weigh against you personally.

And because of those comments you made above, nevermind.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on November 16, 2003, 04:01:10 AM
Quote from: MacGuffinUnnescessary personal attack. No where did I weigh against you personally.

And because of those comments you made above, nevermind.
That wasn't supposed to be a personal attack.  Sorry if you took it this way.  I just merely noticed a pattern and pointed it out.

A guy can't merely blow off steam and say he doesn't like a film "because it just didn't work for me?"  Is it essential that every single opinion posted here be backed up?  And why don't you provide your own opinion more?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: aclockworkjj on November 16, 2003, 04:01:25 AM
Quote from: MacGuffinpersonal attack.
christ...here's another term being thrown around too much.  
I don't think he was attacking anyone.

...and words are sometimes twisted like a muthaphuck around here.  

i just wish spike lee would just be a filmmaker and not such a voice.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on November 16, 2003, 04:25:14 PM
Quote from: aclockworkjj
Quote from: MacGuffinpersonal attack.
christ...here's another term being thrown around too much.  
I don't think he was attacking anyone.

...and words are sometimes twisted like a muthaphuck around here.  

i just wish spike lee would just be a filmmaker and not such a voice.

yeah, i hate it when filmmakers try to say something w/ their movies. ass.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Weak2ndAct on November 16, 2003, 04:50:03 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin
Quote from: OnomatopoeiaI wonder, though, if you actually disagree with me, or you just really like stirring up shit.  Because you never seem to provide any opinions of your own unless you see someone post something you disagree with, or can find a way to twist their words.

How can I debate if I don't know where one is coming from? Like I said, I didn't see your opinion other than a comparison and wanted to know if that was your sole basis of not liking the film. Geez, forgive me for asking why instead of just saying "Fuck you for not liking it."

Quote from: OnomatopoeiaYou must get bored very easily.

Unnescessary personal attack. No where did I weigh against you personally.

And because of those comments you made above, nevermind.
http://www.xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=4444
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Weak2ndAct on November 16, 2003, 04:52:10 PM
Quote from: aclockworkjji just wish spike lee would just be a filmmaker and not such a voice.
Yeah, he should make movies like John Singelton :roll:
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: aclockworkjj on November 16, 2003, 05:21:24 PM
no, not saying his films shouldn't say something, but he needs to just really...now really, needs to just shut the fuck up sometimes. if he just let his films speak for themselves, cool, he does not.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on November 16, 2003, 08:17:56 PM
Quote from: aclockworkjjno, not saying his films shouldn't say something, but he needs to just really...now really, needs to just shut the fuck up sometimes. if he just let his films speak for themselves, cool, he does not.

what r u talking about? his movies or what he says in addition to them, like in interviews and stuff?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: aclockworkjj on November 16, 2003, 11:04:17 PM
Quote from: ©bassin addition to them, like in interviews and stuff?
he has become a public voice, this wannabe leader...i wish he would just be a filmmaker.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on November 17, 2003, 05:24:44 AM
Quote from: aclockworkjj
Quote from: ©bassin addition to them, like in interviews and stuff?
he has become a public voice, this wannabe leader...i wish he would just be a filmmaker.

I agree. He's such a great filmmaker, but would not be a very good "leader". I actually think his public personna is annoying as hell.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on January 18, 2004, 09:38:22 PM
I just watched the 25th hour but went to go have a smoke. When I came back Barry Pepper was beating the shit out of Ed Norton. Can anyone explain to me why he was doing that? There was no indication of it before, not any after. And I watched it on Starz and don't have an easy option of watching it again.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on January 18, 2004, 10:31:14 PM
Quote from: StefenI just watched the 25th hour but went to go have a smoke. When I came back Barry Pepper was beating the shit out of Ed Norton. Can anyone explain to me why he was doing that?

Sorry, but you have to see it. Telling you would cheapen it. So my answer to your question would be: Quit Smoking.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: monodynamic on January 19, 2004, 12:40:57 AM
lover's quarrel
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on January 19, 2004, 01:16:06 AM
Quote from: monodynamiclover's quarrel

Did he hook up with Naturelle or something? I was thinking that but didn't get that impression from the rest of the movie. By the way mono, nice avatar.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: monodynamic on January 19, 2004, 01:32:07 AM
*spoiler*

Well, you are too mature for my sarcasm. I was going for a Norton/Barry Pepper gay lover's quarrel but tis not the truth you see.


MaC is right about ruining the powerful scene for ya, but if you must know, a part of it is at the insistence of Norton himself, egging on Pepper to give him some nice bruises/cuts/etc. to look like he is one tough mofo in the ass pounding joint. Pepper then goes crazy.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on January 19, 2004, 02:08:21 AM
Quote from: monodynamic*spoiler*

Well, you are too mature for my sarcasm. I was going for a Norton/Barry Pepper gay lover's quarrel but tis not the truth you see.


MaC is right about ruining the powerful scene for ya, but if you must know, a part of it is at the insistence of Norton himself, egging on Pepper to give him some nice bruises/cuts/etc. to look like he is one tough mofo in the ass pounding joint. Pepper then goes crazy.

Ah okay. That makes sense. I loved this movie, for some reason I think it is one of Lees best. Up there with DTRT, and above most of his other stuff. Definetely something I will be buying.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: freakerdude on February 01, 2004, 07:26:04 PM
I just caught the 25th Hour on Starz VOD. Only DTRT would compare to my appreciation for this movie. He seemed to have made a change of direction with this movie (see note below). I feel he may have possibly incorporated other director's styles into it or it's just that I haven't seen any of his latest movies. I really enjoyed this movie and I have no racial bias towards him b/c I don't care to listen to his interviews. It's damn worth renting IMO and it might be my first Spike DVD.

I have seen She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, DTRT, SOS, and Mo' Better Blues.

I liked SOS while X was OK but kind of boring IMO.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on February 02, 2004, 06:52:32 PM
Summer of sam i liked alot. Ive talked to people who hated it with a passion. It opened on my 17th birthday so it was the first R rated film I saw legally by myself.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: billybrown on February 02, 2004, 07:46:08 PM
Quote from: StefenSummer of sam i liked alot. Ive talked to people who hated it with a passion. It opened on my 17th birthday so it was the first R rated film I saw legally by myself.

That's very, ah, sweet.  :)  The cockles of my heart have been all warmed up with that lil coming of age tale.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on February 02, 2004, 08:31:12 PM
Teehee.  You said "cockles."
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: billybrown on February 02, 2004, 08:40:57 PM
It's the most bashfully delightful word known to man.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 04, 2004, 12:14:14 PM
Spike Lee decries black film 'ghetto'
From Associated Press

Spike Lee says he's seen progress in the way blacks are portrayed in film since his 1986 feature debut, "She's Gotta Have It," but there's plenty of work to be done.

"Black film is still in a ghetto," the director told a crowd of about 1,700 students at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. "There are broad comedies and hip-hop drug things and broad comedies. It's difficult as a director or actor to go outside of that."

He targeted "Barbershop," which contained jokes about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, and "The Legend of Bagger Vance" and "The Green Mile," which featured characters Lee called "super-duper magical mystical Negroes."

"They had magic powers that couldn't change their situations, but could only help the white stars of the movie," he said. "What's the point?"

The 46-year-old filmmaker, whose movies include "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X" and "25th Hour," was the final speaker Monday in the school's Distinguished Speaker Series.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on February 04, 2004, 12:16:00 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin...super-duper magical mystical Negroes...

haha, funniest title of the week and perhaps even the year.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on February 04, 2004, 12:24:25 PM
Quote from: MacGuffinSpike Lee decries black film 'ghetto'
haha, i have to agree with him there.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on February 04, 2004, 10:53:13 PM
Quote from: MacGuffinSpike Lee decries black film 'ghetto'

for spike...

Due on April 13th is Booty Call: The Bootiest Edition. As we previously reported last month, this disc will come with a newly remastered anamorphic transfer, an audio commentary (director Jeff Pollack, writers Takashi Bufford and Bootsie, actors Jamie Foxx, Vivica Fox and Tommy Davidson), the "Smooth Operator" mini-documentary, an alternate ending ("Old Folk's Home") and trailers.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SHAFTR on February 04, 2004, 10:57:44 PM
Quote from: MacGuffinthe final speaker Monday in the school's Distinguished Speaker Series.

My freshman year, he was supposed to come to the university I attend (Wisconsin) and backed out to start shooting a film (25th Hour).
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Ravi on February 06, 2004, 11:39:12 PM
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: MacGuffinSpike Lee decries black film 'ghetto'

for spike...

Due on April 13th is Booty Call: The Bootiest Edition. As we previously reported last month, this disc will come with a newly remastered anamorphic transfer, an audio commentary (director Jeff Pollack, writers Takashi Bufford and Bootsie, actors Jamie Foxx, Vivica Fox and Tommy Davidson), the "Smooth Operator" mini-documentary, an alternate ending ("Old Folk's Home") and trailers.

Meanwhile Crooklyn is a featureless DVD...
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on March 16, 2004, 10:51:06 AM
Spike Lee has a new film and many opinions
His latest film is the comedy, ‘She Hate Me’

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmsnbcmedia.msn.com%2Fj%2Fmsnbc%2FComponents%2FPhotos%2F040218%2F040218_spike_lee_hmed_11a.hmedium.jpg&hash=52b86dac29d2498da3eb1db29389831224dc2be3)

NEW YORK (AP) - Oscars? Spike Lee don’t need no stinkin’ Oscars.

Sure, the director votes for the Academy Awards. And the outspoken filmmaker would surely give an acceptance speech for the ages. But that doesn’t mean he’s waiting around for a golden statue to fall into his lap.

No, Lee is sticking to what he does best: making provocative films; running his ad agency, Spike DDB; and rooting for the Knicks.

Spike DDB has just released a three-minute movie to promote Microsoft’s new Wrist Net service, which beams information like headlines and sports scores directly into specially equipped watches. And Lee, 46, is finishing his new feature film, “She Hate Me,” about a man who starts a business impregnating lesbians.

AP: So you’re making this new movie, something with lesbians ...

Lee: No no no no no. It’s called ‘She Hate Me.’ It’s coming out this summer on Sony Classics, starring Anthony Mackie — he was the young brother battling Eminem at the end of “8 Mile” — Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Woody Harrelson, John Turturro, Brian Dennehy. Q-Tip’s in it. It’s about a young African-American who gets involved in some shady things and gets set up at his company and he’s fired. Because of his predicament he puts his morals and values aside and starts a business impregnating lesbians who want to have kids.

AP: Personally impregnating them?

Lee: It depends. Any way you want it. Artificial insemination or the real thing, $10,000 each. In a month he impregnates 19 women.

AP: How far into the movie before you get to that point?

Lee: That’s the first 10 minutes (big laughter). Nah, I’m joking. But really, it’s a comedy. What’s great about this film, this is an examination of what’s happening in this country that’s really demonstrated by the Super Bowl. I’m not just talking about Janet. You look at the commercials, the rest of the halftime show, it wasn’t just Janet, it was the whole thing. So this film really talks about the moral ethic of this country, and how money is God. It’s an examination of the moral and ethical decline of America, from the boardroom to the bedroom. We deal with Ken Lay and Enron, WorldCom, (former Tyco CEO Dennis) Kozlowski, Adelphia, all these crooks.

AP: You mentioned John Turturro is in it. You’ve “broken” a lot of actors in your movies.

Lee: I didn’t break John Turturro, but he’s one of my dear friends. I’ve done like 18 or 19 films, and he’s appeared in more of them than anyone. But I gave Rosie Perez her first role, Martin Lawrence’s first film, “Jungle Fever” was Halle Berry’s first film, Clockers was Mekhi Phifer’s first film ...

AP: Are these accidents or on purpose?

Lee: We always earmark two or three spots to give someone really talented a platform to shine, a jump-off.

AP: What was Halle like playing the crackhead in “Jungle Fever”?

Lee: I didn’t want to cast her. She looked too good! I said, “Halle, I can’t believe you as a two-dollar crack ho.” She said, “Spike, believe me.” She came to the set the first day, I ain’t recognize her.

AP: “Jungle Fever” was about interracial relationships. You ever date a white girl?

Lee: (Slowly shakes his head.) But it’s no big thing. The thing people misconstrued about “Jungle Fever” is that Spike Lee was saying all interracial marriages are awful. What we were showing was that the relationship between Wesley’s character and Annabella Sciorra’s character, it wasn’t built on a foundation. It was built on myths. She was with him because she heard about the prowess of the sexual black man. He bought into the myth that the white woman is the epitome of beauty.

AP: What’s your feeling about the Oscars these days? Do you vote?

Lee: I vote, but I take it with a grain of salt. Not just for African Americans, but just in general. You give an organization, some group, the power to validate your work of art — that can be paralyzing. ... “Malcolm X” was bigger than the Academy Awards. “Do the Right Thing” was bigger than the awards. We got two nominations for “Do the Right Thing.” I got a best original screenplay nomination. Danny Aiello got best supporting actor, and he lost to Denzel (Washington) in “Glory.” But you know what got best picture that year?

AP: Nope.

Lee: “Driving Miss Daisy.” “Do the Right Thing,” there are classes on that in universities all across the country. That film is still being watched. Every year it’s growing in stature. No one talks about “Driving Miss Daisy.” There’s nothing there.

AP: Any favorites for best actor this year?

Lee: Lemme ask a question. How many nominations did “Cold Mountain” get? ... When you ever seen a film that takes place during slavery with no slaves in it?

AP: People have been agitating about that.

Lee: Lemme ask you a question. When I was in third and fourth grade, there was a re-release of “Gone with the Wind,” and our teacher took us to see it. This was like ’67, ’68. Even at that young age, I knew those roles were stereotypical. Hattie McDaniel won the supporting actress Oscar, and another great African-American actress was in it, Butterfly McQueen. They were such great actresses, despite the straitjacket of those stereotypes, they were able to put some of their humanity into it. Now, both “Gone with the Wind” and “Cold Mountain” romanticize the South. But we’re going backward if “Gone with the Wind” is more progressive than “Cold Mountain.” “Gone with the Wind” was made in 1939. In 2004 we’re not even in it? We’re going backward. I don’t understand it.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: grand theft sparrow on March 16, 2004, 01:26:37 PM
Quote from: MacGuffinLee: ...The thing people misconstrued about "Jungle Fever" is that Spike Lee was saying all interracial marriages are awful. What we were showing was that the relationship between Wesley's character and Annabella Sciorra's character, it wasn't built on a foundation. It was built on myths. She was with him because she heard about the prowess of the sexual black man. He bought into the myth that the white woman is the epitome of beauty.


I hated JF when I first saw it in high school (only Spike joint I didn't like outright).  Gotta see it again.  I wish I had realized this years ago.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 29, 2004, 01:27:27 PM
Lee near deal for Ellroy pic
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Spike Lee is in negotiations to direct "The Night Watchman," an original screenplay by noir novelist James Ellroy. Alexandra Milchan will produce the Los Angeles cop thriller, which Bob Yari Prods. is in negotiations to finance. Milchan will produce outside of her deal with Regency Enterprises.

Set in Los Angeles in the early '90s, the project is described as being in the vein of Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential." An ensemble piece, the thriller/drama revolves around a cop who uncovers corruption and must resolve the problem in order to redeem himself. The film is aiming to shoot early next year.

The project, in an earlier incarnation back in the late '90s, had been set up at Regency with Bruce Berman producing and Warner Bros. Pictures distributing. At the time, David Fincher was in discussions to direct, and there was interest in Brad Pitt taking a starring role.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: grand theft sparrow on July 30, 2004, 10:36:44 AM
It has potential to be a nice companion piece to Clockers.  Lee directing an Ellroy script? GRITTY!
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on August 27, 2004, 03:35:03 PM
Lee wins control of spikelee.com

GENEVA -- U.S. movie director Spike Lee has won control of the Internet domain name www.spikelee.com in a ruling released Friday by a United Nations body. An arbitrator from the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered the transfer of the domain name to the filmmaker, who had complained that it was being used illegally. The ruling said the registered owner of the name -- Mercedita Kyamko, of Angeles City, Philippines -- had no rights or interests in the name and was using it in bad faith.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: RegularKarate on August 27, 2004, 04:21:31 PM
that's funny because if you click on that link, it seems to redirect you to porn.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 09, 2004, 05:11:38 PM
Spike Lee Not Out for Revenge at Venice Film Fest

Spike Lee isn't holding any grudges.

In an interview with Reuters, the acclaimed U.S. director rejected speculation he could use his position on the jury of the Venice Film Festival to take revenge on Wim Wenders for denying "Do the Right Thing" the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

"That was 1989, it's history," Lee said between screenings on the Lido.

But industry insiders have a good reason for asking.

After the Cannes jury headed by Wenders awarded Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies and Videotape" the top prize that year, Lee accused the judges of bigotry.

He reportedly joked: "Somewhere in my closet I have a Louisville Slugger with (Wenders') name on it."

This time around, Wenders is competing at Venice with "Land of Plenty," a critical look at post-Sept. 11 America, while Lee sits on the jury bench.

But when asked if he would be influenced by the Cannes episode when "Land of Plenty" premiered on Thursday, Lee said "not at all."

Instead, the notoriously provocative director said he was just having fun soaking up all the movies.

"It's my first time ever on a jury at a festival," said Lee, sporting a pink Juventus soccer shirt and matching pink cap, as he relaxed on a terrace overlooking the beach.

"Rarely have I ever gone to a film not knowing at least something about it, who the director is, who's in it, you know, and I'm walking in blind for a large part of these films. It's a big change and I like it."

The jury, headed by Britain's John Boorman, will award the Golden Lion on Sept. 11. Twenty-two features are facing off in the main competition.

Lee said he was "making mental notes" about the films, but was playing his cards close to his chest.

He had plenty to say, however, about the recent string of American political films. The man who influenced the way African Americans are viewed with "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X" called Michael Moore's new documentary "magnificent."

"November 3rd they'll be talking about how much effect 'Fahrenheit 9/11' had," Lee said, looking forward to U.S. presidential elections next month.

On the Lido, Lee himself was stirring things up with his new film "She Hate Me" about corporate fraud, sexual politics and greed, which is screening out of competition.

"This film could be used as a time capsule for the many bad things that are happening today in the United States of America," he said.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on November 16, 2004, 09:51:54 AM
Keanu Reeves is The Night Watchman
Source: Variety November 16, 2004

Keanu Reeves will star in The Night Watchman for director Spike Lee and Bob Yari Productions, reports Variety. Reeves plans to begin production on the crime thriller shortly after he completes promotional duties for Warner Bros. Pictures on Constantine, opening February 18.

Written by James Ellroy, "Watchman" is the story of a disgraced cop who discovers corruption inside a police department and sets out on a mission to redeem himself.

Reeves will be seen in the upcoming Thumbsucker and also stars in Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, the Philip K. Dick adaptation that Warner Independent Pictures will release next September.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: AntiDumbFrogQuestion on November 17, 2004, 08:47:08 AM
so.....is Keanu a good actor now?
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: cine on November 17, 2004, 09:06:18 AM
The Night Whoaman.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on November 17, 2004, 02:16:35 PM
for some reason i just thought of cameron crowe firing ashton kutcher from that elizabethtown thing.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SiliasRuby on November 17, 2004, 03:16:49 PM
Quote from: ©bradfor some reason i just thought of cameron crowe firing ashton kutcher from that elizabethtown thing.
Me too, strange.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 03, 2005, 11:14:02 AM
Lee: Black Representation Strong in Film

Filmmaker Spike Lee says black representation is stronger than ever on screens, big and small, but the true power in entertainment lies behind the camera.

"We have to get in gatekeeper positions," he said Tuesday. "We have to get those dual law and MBA degrees and work up the corporate ladder because everybody can't be an actor, everybody can't make a record."

Joining a discussion panel at his alma mater, Morehouse College, Lee led a retrospective of his films and shared his thoughts on the challenges facing blacks in the entertainment industry.

Acting is not where the power is, he said. "Even Denzel (Washington), he's getting $20 million a movie. But when it comes time to do a movie, he has to go to one of those gatekeepers."

Lee also told aspiring young filmmakers in the audience not to ignore nontraditional routes to getting a movie made, including raising funds independently and releasing movies straight to DVD.

"It's a huge market. It's not something that should be looked upon as a stepchild," the 47-year-old director said.

Tuesday's event coincided with the DVD release of Lee's "She Hate Me" and a special collector's edition DVD of his 1988 comedy, "School Daze," which was based on life at Atlanta's historically black colleges.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 06, 2005, 10:47:13 PM
Spike Lee: Choose Happiness Over Money

Filmmaker Spike Lee told a crowd of college students that they should try to find a career that will make them happy, not necessarily one that will make them rich.

"Hopefully, you'll be able to find a career path that you love and be able to make a living out of that," Lee told about 1,000 Miami University students Thursday.

He urged students to use their college years to discover what they would enjoy doing during their lives.

"You do not want to be sitting 20 years from now when you dread waking up in the morning to go to a job that you hate," Lee said.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SiliasRuby on April 02, 2005, 02:18:01 AM
Went on a Spike Lee Binge this week...
Bamboozled-Really tough biting satire that was really hard to watch in some parts.
Clockers-Interesting film about drug dealing. Great Performance by Harvey K.
Jungle Fever-Wesley Snipes is great
Mo Better Blues-Liked it alot except the kind of predictable ending.
Still have Crooklyn, Get on the bus, He Got Game, School Daze, She Hate Me, She's gotta have it, and Summer of Sam to see. I have Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, and 25th Hour on DVD.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Alethia on April 02, 2005, 11:54:37 AM
see 4 little girls before you see another spike lee movie.  his best behind do the right thing, imo.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: SiliasRuby on April 05, 2005, 06:15:12 PM
Couldn't find 4 little girls at my school libray but next time I'll look in the directory and see when it is checked out. I saw 'He Got Game' last night. Great film
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on April 05, 2005, 07:24:37 PM
he got game is mad underrated. the montage of introducing jesus while pe's he got game plays is fantasdtic. easily one of my favorite spike lee moments ever.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: cine on April 05, 2005, 07:30:32 PM
Quote from: Stefenhe got game is mad underrated. the montage of introducing jesus while pe's he got game plays is fantasdtic. easily one of my favorite spike lee moments ever.

Quote from: StefenThis thread just proves my point that xixax is one of the whitest places on the internet.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on April 05, 2005, 07:55:52 PM
i dont get it.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Pedro on April 05, 2005, 07:56:45 PM
hahaha!
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on April 06, 2005, 01:24:08 AM
Washington, Lee team for 'Inside' job
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Denzel Washington is set to star in "Inside Man," which Spike Lee is directing for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment. Clive Owen is in negotiations to join the movie, which Brian Grazer is producing.

"Inside" takes place during a tense hostage situation in which a tough cop matches wits with a clever bank robber, who sets out to pull off the perfect robbery. Russell Gewirtz and Menno Meyjes wrote the screenplay.

Daniel Rosenberg will executive produce. Scott Stuber, vice chairman of worldwide production, and Donna Langley, executive vp production, will oversee the project for Universal. Karen Kehela-Sherwood and Kim Roth will oversee the project for Imagine.

"Inside" would be the fourth Washington-Lee pairing. The two teamed up on 1990's "Mo' Better Blues," 1992's "Malcolm X" and 1998's "He Got Game."
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: matt35mm on April 06, 2005, 04:38:57 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin"Inside" takes place during a tense hostage situation in which a tough cop matches wits with a clever bank robber, who sets out to pull off the perfect robbery. Russell Gewirtz and Menno Meyjes wrote the screenplay.
I really really really hope that there's something new here.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Gamblour. on April 06, 2005, 09:20:06 AM
I'm sure they'll be dressed as KKK members when they rob the bank.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on April 18, 2005, 07:07:32 PM
Foster Goes INSIDE
Taking her first major screen role in three years, Jodie Foster will star with Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's Inside Man.

Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster is set to join fellow double Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Oscar nominee Clive Owen on the Inside. Foster has joined the cast of Spike Lee's Inside Man, which Brian Grazer and his Imagine Entertainment will produce for Universal Pictures. Shooting is slated to begin in early summer.

Russell Gewirtz penned the cat-and-mouse tale about a cop who faces off against a meticulous bank robber trying to pull off the perfect heist. During the heist, however, he finds himself in the middle of a hostage situation. Foster joins the cast as a powerful lawyer brought in to represent some behind-the-scenes interests, which complicates the already delicate situation.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on April 18, 2005, 11:19:01 PM
this will be the greatest movie ever made.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on August 05, 2005, 11:40:58 AM
i was down by Wall St today for a job interview, (what the hell, right?) and they were filming The Inside Man there.  yep.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on August 05, 2005, 02:33:35 PM
Any nude scenes?  C'mon give me something.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: JG on August 05, 2005, 04:52:49 PM
This new flick sounds good.  Here's my top 5 list, while we're at it.

1.  Do the Right Thing (which I coincidentally watched again today)
2. Malcolm X
3. Clockers (such an underrated movie)
4. 25th Hour
5. Summer of Sam


He Got Game is another classic that garners my honorable mention.  Clockers is so underrated.  It really is extremely well made.  I remember watching it  a couple years ago and going out to buy it right away.  I haven't seen it forever though.   Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing are nothing short of masterpieces.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on October 13, 2005, 03:00:31 PM
Spike Lee, filmmaking "provocateur," targets Katrina

Never far from the center of a storm, self-described filmmaker "provocateur" Spike Lee is headed to New Orleans to make a documentary examining how race and politics collided in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Lee says he will use "factual journalism, not creative narrative" in his look at Katrina and New Orleans, which has become a rallying point for black political activists and conspiracy theorists.

Amid criticism that the administration of President George W. Bush was slow to respond, leaving thousands of black and low-income people stranded amid violence and lawlessness, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has suggested the levees in New Orleans were broken as a way of "getting rid of the poor."

Activist Jesse Jackson compared the New Orleans convention center, where evacuees gathered, to "the hull of a slave ship."

"I wouldn't put anything past the U.S. government when it comes to people of color," Lee said in an interview with Reuters. "There is too much history ... going back to when the U.S. army gave smallpox-infested blankets to Native Americans."

Lee watched television coverage of Katrina while he was in Venice, Italy, for a film festival and found himself riveted to the television.

"I thought, 'I have to find an angle and if I find it, I have to do something,"' he said.

Lee compared the New Orleans situation with the 1974 film "Chinatown," which starts as a simple detective story set in 1933 Los Angeles but evolves into an intricate tale of high-level corruption and greed.

"People could not believe, especially the residents of the Ninth Ward, that there wasn't hanky-panky in the flooding," Lee said of the impoverished New Orleans neighborhood that was hit especially hard by the flood.

"And what I thought about automatically was 'Chinatown,' the great film by Roman Polanski. The whole subplot of the whole thing is about water in Southern California and how it was not delivered to the people who needed it."

Lee's documentary will be produced by Time Warner's HBO cable channel and he plans to have it ready for the one-year anniversary of Katrina.

Making 18 films in more than two decades, Lee has been a heat-seeking missile aimed at hot issues like police brutality, racism, black nationalism and interracial sex.

In his new book, "That's My Story and I'm Sticking Too It," as told to British writer Kaleem Aftab, Lee describes the "blood, sweat and tears" needed to turn such topics into movies.

"I don't like the term 'controversial,' he said. "I like 'provocateur."'

In his book, he wrote it is "never the filmmaker's job to have all the answers" but to raise questions and promote dialogue.

Lee attributes his outspoken nature to being raised in the New York borough of Brooklyn, which he has used as the setting for films like "She's Gotta Have It" and "Do the Right Thing."

"I was raised that way, to speak my mind. Everybody in my household did, sometimes all at once," he said.

Lee's struggle to raise funds for films is a key part of his story. His company, 40 Acres and a Mule, has been a seminal influence on black film and helped make stars out of actors like Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Halle Berry.

Yet never having a blockbuster hit, Lee has had to borrow money from family and friends. Commercial work also has been a big source of income.

It's more than just money, though. His sometimes abrasive, relentless style has antagonized movie executives as he has slammed Hollywood for racial stereotyping and a lack of creativity and chided filmmakers for glamorizing black gangsters.

In making "Malcolm X," Lee fought with Warner Bros. for more money and backing for the three-hour epic. In his book, he describes berating studio boss Terry Semels by saying: "Warner Bros. doesn't view black people as important."

Lee won't censor himself. His wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, complained in the book: "I think he hurts himself often by saying what he thinks."

Also in the book, actor Ed Norton, put it more bluntly: "Spike has a big mouth."

Lee said he wanted to include such criticism in his book. "I tried to make a book that was honest," he said. "That's the way I like to do things."
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on November 03, 2005, 04:02:49 PM
Lee Says Educated Blacks Should Be Icons

Spike Lee says the value of education is being overshadowed by the images that gangsta rap glorifies.

"Young black kids didn't grow up wanting to be a pimp or a stripper like they do now," Lee said of his youth in Brooklyn.

He drew two standing ovations Wednesday night as a featured speaker at a conference on cultural diversity at Middle Tennessee State University.

The 48-year-old filmmaker, who is working on a documentary on Hurricane Katrina, urged students to find a way to make being educated cool again.

"Back then, we were not called sellouts for using our brains. And being intelligent was not frowned upon," Lee said.

He likened the images from some rap videos to the distorted view minstrel shows of the 19th century gave most of the world about American blacks.

Lee said he has tried through his films, which include "School Daze," "Do the Right Thing," "Jungle Fever" and "Malcolm X," to show the diversity of the black experience.
Title: Spike Lee
Post by: cowboykurtis on November 03, 2005, 06:15:04 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin

He likened the images from some rap videos to the distorted view minstrel shows of the 19th century gave most of the world about American blacks.

This is such a tragic problem - Many rappers are more or less slandering their own people for profit - Its really disgusting.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on January 03, 2006, 01:29:11 PM
Title: The Spike Lee Joint Collection
Released: 7th March 2006
SRP: $26.98

Further Details:
Universal has officially announced The Spike Lee Joint Collection which includes five Spike Lee films, on three discs. Included will be, Clockers, Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, Mo` Better Blues, Crooklyn. Each will be presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks for Clockers and Crooklyn, and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks for the rest. You'll be able to own this one from the 7th March, priced at around $26.98. We'll bring you further details, and artwork, shortly. Stay tuned.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: grand theft sparrow on January 03, 2006, 02:13:29 PM
This is just wrong!   :yabbse-angry:

Clockers, Jungle Fever, Mo Better Blues, and Crooklyn all deserve a Criterion edition each, not packaged with a bare bones Do the Right Thing and sold for $30!  I mean, damn!  At least Columbia/Tri-Star had Spike do commentaries on School Daze and Get On the Bus!
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Ravi on January 04, 2006, 12:38:53 AM
I may pick that up if I can find it cheap, even though I already have the Criterion Do the Right Thing.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 10, 2006, 12:14:49 AM
Spike Lee: Miss. Should Get Rid of Flag

Director Spike Lee, known for his stylish and controversial films, said Mississippi should get rid of the state flag during a speech at the University of Mississippi's Black History Month celebration.

Lee said Mississippians cling too tightly to what he considers symbols of oppression.

"You've gotta do something about that flag," he said. "I know people say its representative of history. Well, so's the swastika."

Lee is working on a documentary entitled "When the Levees Broke," which deals with the African-American experience in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

He did not go into details of the film's focus. But he did say the movie was more difficult to film than "Four Little Girls," in which he interviewed the families of the four children who were killed in a church attack in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963.

"When I saw the devastation on TV and in the news...it (didn't) prepare me for what I saw there," Lee said of New Orleans. "You hear these people's stories, and its heartbreaking."

"Levees" will be premiere on HBO on Aug. 29, exactly one year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Lee also targeted certain aspects of modern black culture during his speech.

Lee said that rap culture has perpetuated a cult of violence, drug use, disrespect to women and ignorance among a staggering portion of young blacks.

"This 'gangsta' obsession is madness," Lee said. "Thinking like that is genocide."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: ono on February 10, 2006, 12:54:54 AM
Quote from: Spike Lee"You've gotta do something about that flag," he said. "I know people say its representative of history. Well, so's the swastika."
Yep, Spike.  The swastika is a symbol in various religions including Hindu and Buddhism.  The Nazis simply twisted and perverted it.  *Clap, clap, clap*

I never respected the man more than after 25th Hour, but he's made more bad movies than good ones (most of the bad ones being fueled by his misguided anger), and his opinions are so blinded by the color of his own skin that they border on caricature.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on February 10, 2006, 01:06:13 AM
I love how Spike's speeches are always known by two or three catchphrases, and then the rest of America, those who don't get him in the first place, would jump him for this caricaturized version of him.  Kanye West really fits the angry black man stereotype way better than Spike Lee does, but since he's not portrayed as one middle class America will continue to embrace him as that black guy who doesn't sing bling bling.  Spike Lee on the other hand, gets punished for the three sentences that Ono reads.
What's so misguided about Malcom X, Clockers, He Got Game, Get on the Bus, Four Little Girls, Jungle Fever, and Mo Better Blues?  How has any of his film, even the bad ones, been less than complex, to deserve this border caricature comment from you?
oh, and I might be wrong on this, but doesn't the buddhist symbol face the opposite direction from the swastika?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on February 10, 2006, 01:32:53 AM
Quote from: pete on February 10, 2006, 01:06:13 AM
oh, and I might be wrong on this, but doesn't the buddhist symbol face the opposite direction from the swastika?
no you're right. i'm not sure if they have the same name. it's quite clear what spike meant with that comment, but ono chose to ignore it.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on February 10, 2006, 02:44:07 AM
Quote from: ono on February 10, 2006, 01:32:53 AM
[missing post from ono in which he claimed he "didn't ignore" what spike meant, he linked to a wikipage on swastikas saying he had done his research]

you ignored it by writing "simply". the nazis didn't just "simply" mirror the swastika, they converted it to a symbol of hatred and genocide. when spike referred to it he was speaking in the context of a nation brought together by hate, in the nazi flag of germany and the battle flag of the confederacy. why would germany institute a criminal code prohibiting public exhibition of the swastika for non-scholarly purposes if it wasn't a politically charged symbol? in the west, the swastika is associated with hate, that was spike's perspective.

to separate the symbol from its contextual meaning is like saying the flag of mississippi is no more than the flag of serbia and montenegro with a "meaningless" confederate flag in the corner.

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that's how you ignored it.

EDIT: oh, you deleted your post. damn i should've quoted you properly.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Reinhold on February 10, 2006, 12:36:51 PM
when he spoke here, he mentioned the mississippi flag.

he also talked about one of the people he interviewed on camera, talking about how katrina took a path off of the coast of africa across the atlantic and into the gulf coast similar to that of slave ships that brought the ancestors of the people in the hardest-hit areas to america.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: md on February 10, 2006, 06:17:40 PM

MEDIA CONTACT: Melissia Schmidt (585) 275-7316, Melissia.schmidt@rochester.edu
          or Helene Snihur (585) 275-7800, hsnihur@rochester.edu

January 17, 2006

Filmmaker Spike Lee to Speak at University of Rochester

   One of the most influential filmmakers in contemporary cinema will be the featured speaker for Black History Month at the University of Rochester. Spike Lee, producer and director of such films as She's Gotta Have It and Malcolm X, will appear at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in Strong Auditorium on the University's River Campus.

   Lee is recognized for his controversial and complex explorations of identity, race, class, and sex. She's Gotta Have it, made in 1986 on a shoestring budget, followed the romantic encounters of an attractive black Brooklyn woman and won Lee the Prix de Jeunesse Award at Cannes. Three years later, Do the Right Thing, which explored simmering urban racial tensions, earned a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination. Lee's 1991 film Jungle Fever spotlighted an interracial romance and its effect on family and community relationships.

   More recently, Lee broadened his subject matter with such films as Summer of Sam, his take on how the "Son of Sam" serial murders affect residents in an Italian-American neighborhood, and 25th Hour, about a drug dealer's last day of freedom before beginning his prison sentence. He also made the documentaries 4 Little Girls, a film about the 1963 bombing of an African-American church that was nominated for an Oscar and received the Broadcast Film Critics Award; and The Original Kings of Comedy, a concert film featuring African-American comedians Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac.

   Lee has directed television commercials for companies like Levi's and AT&T and music videos for artists ranging from Tracy Chapman to Public Enemy. He has established a chain of Spike's Joints apparel boutiques and created the 40 Acres and a Mule Film Institute at Long Island University to offer instruction on the business of filmmaking.

Tickets for Lee's talk are $15 for the general public; $10 for University of Rochester faculty, staff, and graduate students; and $5 for University of Rochester undergraduates. They will be sold in advance beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20, at the Common Market in Wilson Commons on the River Campus and also will be available, if not sold out, at the door. For more information, contact the Wilson Commons Common Connection at (585) 275-5911.

Lee's local talk is cosponsored by the Outside Speakers Committee, Black Students Union, and UR Cinema Group.


Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on May 24, 2006, 09:45:36 PM
Spike Stays Mainstream

According to Variety, Spike Lee has been hired by 20th Century Fox to rewrite the screenplay for Selling Time, a thriller that's been struggling to get off the ground since it was acquired five years ago. The movie was originally bought as a spec script (from then-Dreamworks TV president Dan McDermott, no less) in 2001, and was eventually written by Derick and Steve Martini. For a while, it was thought that Forest Whitaker would direct, but that fell through, as did an almost-deal with Will Smith to star.

The story sounds like it has a lot of potential as a thriller -- it's about "a man who sells chunks of his life in an attempt to relive and change the worst day of his life" -- and the belief is that Lee's writing will revitalize the project. And, after the director's massive mainstream success with Inside Man, it's no surprise that Fox execs are crossing their fingers and toes in hopes that Lee will decided to stick around and direct his own script.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on May 25, 2006, 12:08:04 AM
no way, he's saving up and earning brownie points for his incredible comeback.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on May 25, 2006, 08:46:20 AM
Quote from: pete on May 25, 2006, 12:08:04 AM
no way, he's saving up and earning brownie points for his incredible comeback.

comeback from what? (besides she hate me, and even that had some redeeming qualities).
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on May 25, 2006, 12:55:36 PM
he's going to do a few studio movies and then bam a Do the Right Thing/ Malcom X redux.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 18, 2006, 12:39:01 AM
NBC recruits Lee for new drama series
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Spike Lee has inked an exclusive deal with NBC.

Under the one-year pact, Lee will develop a new drama series for the network to be produced by NBC Universal Television Studio.

Signing Lee marks the first major recruitment of creative talent for Katie O'Connell, NBC's recently appointed senior vp drama development.

"Spike Lee was one of the first people that I wanted to make a priority for the network," O'Connell said. "I wanted to be aggressive about bringing in a high-profile filmmaker who fits in so well with NBC's traditional brand of challenging quality dramas."

Talks with Lee began in May, shortly after he directed the pilot for the CBS/20th Century Fox TV upcoming drama series "Shark."

"Spike Lee is such an accomplished, inventive and truly great American filmmaker with such a specific and passionate point of view," said Laura Lancaster, senior vp drama and cable programming for NBC Universal TV Studio. "And what's really exciting is to see his enthusiasm for television. He's already come in with so many powerful ideas."

The search is under way for a writer to pen the drama project, which Lee will develop, executive produce and possibly direct.

Lee's prolific filmmaking career has earned him two Oscar nominations, for writing "Do the Right Thing" and for the documentary "4 Little Girls."

His feature credits also include "She's Gotta Have It," "Malcolm X," "Summer of Sam," "He Got Game" and, most recently, "Inside Man."

Lee's latest documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" -- a four-hour examination of the government response to Hurricane Katrina -- will have a world premiere Aug. 16 at the New Orleans Arena and will air on HBO five days later.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: sickfins on August 13, 2006, 03:01:01 AM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wenerhousemusic.com%2Fheader1.jpg&hash=aae13325fa7cb6e026b501ed92772b7dc5d8a417)

i had tickets to see this tonight at the orpheum.  spike lee had a lecture followed by a q&a session, but it never took place because of 'travel problems'.  perhaps spike threw a fit at the airport about liquid.  i threw a fit at the orpheum with liquid.

:yabbse-angry:
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on August 15, 2006, 11:44:43 AM
The Angriest Auteur
Spike Lee, along with his wife, Tonya Lewis, is wealthy, hugely successful, at the top of W.E.B. DuBois's "Talented Tenth" of black society in America. But does that mean Spike has mellowed? Hardly.
By Ariel Levy; The New York Magazine

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Spike Lee is sitting in the lobby of the Royalton Hotel in midtown, looking back and forth between the menu and his Louis Vuitton personal agenda, rubbing his head and trying to make some choices. He has just returned from one of many trips to New Orleans to film his documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, and he is leaving again soon for Germany, to see the final games of the World Cup (today he wears a shirt that says Brazil, the country he's rooting for). He has to figure out when he's going to meet with former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial, and he's got to show up at a 9 a.m. panel tomorrow for the Black Women's Leadership Council, and what is he going to eat?

Lee mutters his decision. "I'll take the jumbo lump crab cakes."

The waiter, who is about 25, black, and obviously unnerved by the fact that he's waiting on Spike Lee, says, "What?"

"Jumbo lump crab cakes, man!" says Lee, impatient.

The waiter skitters off as if he is a crab himself.

Spike Lee is not the warmest guy in the world. He may not even be the warmest guy in the Royalton. He cares about people, but it's unclear how much he likes them.

Things are going well for Lee, though, that much he admits. Sort of. "I'm happy, but I'm still ... I mean, no one's going—no one in their sane mind—is going to laugh or make light of the box- office success of a film like Inside Man," Lee's latest, which had the biggest opening of his twenty-year career. "Denzel's biggest opening, too," Lee is quick to add. "But coming in, I always had the thought that if this film, by some chance, became the big hit it has become, I would be able to get the financing to get this Joe Louis project going, and that still hasn't been the case." Which is a pisser, but then Lee did get his Katrina documentary made, all four hours of it, and that's something.

"What was discouraging to me was, some people—it was like a revelation: I never knew we had poor people in this country," before Katrina. "I think the United States government has done a very good job of covering up the poor so unless you really, really ... You might see a homeless person, you know, on the street, but you can avoid it. You can bypass a lot of stuff," says Lee, twisting the diamond stud in his ear. He speaks slowly, deliberately, like a professor or a certain kind of pot smoker. It's a dispensation, not a discussion; he does not look you in the eye.

"Katrina pulled that away, all that cover, left it bare like a raw, exposed nerve," he says, and starts to pick up a little steam. "And I don't think we should try to slide it under the rug and act like it doesn't exist. And I don't think we're ever going to get to the place where this country can ... I don't think we'll ever achieve our true greatness."

He is silent for a second and stares into space and then, "We've still not dealt with slavery!" His words come in a rush. "Black, African-American, and white Americans, we still have not dealt with slavery! When kids are in school and they're learning about motherfucking George Washington, say the motherfucker owned slaves!" He is still sitting but bouncing, vibrating on the balls of his bright- yellow, brand-new Nikes. "Say what Christopher Columbus did! Kids are still learning in-1492-he-sailed-the-ocean-blue bullshit. George Washington could never tell the truth; he did chop down that motherfucking cherry tree. All right. Get rid of that shit and say he owned slaves. Say the first president of the United States owned slaves! Let's stop with the lies. Let's talk about the genocide of the Native Americans! All right, if you don't want to talk about black and white, all right, let's leave that aside. Let's talk about the blankets with smallpox that were given to Native Americans. Let's talk about the landgrab. I want to make a movie about Custer. I want to show Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull kicking ass!"

Lee's own children attend one of the top private schools in the city, and he says it's no better there, where they are among the very few black students in any given class. "We got to come back and go over incorrect shit they get in school all the time! My daughter, she's like Angela Davis," he says with pride and starts laughing. "She's like, 'Power to the people!' "

Spike Lee is not an idiot. He knows there are other interesting things on planet Earth besides race, and he has made movies—25th Hour, Inside Man—where it's barely an issue. But it is obviously Lee's primary project to tell stories about African-Americans, specifically stories he thinks are being ignored or obfuscated. And only slightly less amazing than the fact that Lee is the only person who has been consistently doing that in film over the past two decades is the fact that people still think he is street when the foyer of his Upper East Side townhouse has been photographed for Town and Country.

The animating forces of his artistic universe are injustice, prejudice, oppression. But the defining characteristics of his material universe are luxury, access, and success. That's fine; there's nothing wrong with being a limousine liberal. It's better to be a rich person who gives a shit about poor people than it is to be a rich person who only cares about himself.

But it's interesting how thoroughly Lee seems to have shunned the manners and social methods of the successful. One wonders how his curt, almost diffident manner plays on the Upper East Side, where Lee is surrounded by the social world his wife detailed in her best- selling 2004 novel, Gotham Diaries.

He snorts. "Not my world."

Tonya Lewis Lee looks like she was crafted completely out of caramel. Caramel skin, caramel hair, even her green eyes have a buttery quality. She just spent the weekend with her daughter, Satchel, and her parents at their house in Stamford, Connecticut; Spike is away in Germany with their son, Jackson, at the World Cup. On her ears, Lewis Lee wears little diamond soccer balls.

She greets the host at Fred's restaurant at the top of Barneys by name. The restaurant is around the corner from her townhouse, so she eats here all the time. (The Lees bought their 9,800-square-foot Italian- palazzo-style home from Jasper Johns in 1998; it was originally built for a Vanderbilt.) The host points out LeBron James seated in the corner, and Lewis Lee says, "Tell him I say hello." Once, a friend of hers, a woman who is "married to a big muckety-muck," made a scene here because she was given a bad table before the host knew the woman was meeting Lewis Lee for lunch. The woman had the muckety-muck try to get the host fired. Lewis Lee sent him flowers.

Like Lauren Thomas, the heroine of Gotham Diaries, Tonya Lewis Lee has beautiful manners imparted to her by strict and very prominent parents. Her father, George Lewis, the highest-ranking black executive at Philip Morris during his 34-year career there, was featured in a Fortune magazine cover package last year under the headline PIONEERS. He is a member, along with Vernon Jordan and American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, of the Boulés, the most elite social club for black men in this country. (Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois were members.) Lewis Lee's mother is a member of the Links, a group thus described by Lawrence Otis Graham in Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class: "For fifty years, membership in this invitation-only national organization has meant that your social background, lifestyle, physical appearance, and family's academic and professional accomplishments passed muster with a fiercely competitive group of women who—while forming a rather cohesive sisterhood—were constantly under each other's scrutiny."

And like Lauren Thomas, Lewis Lee sometimes finds the demands of society and philanthropy tiring. "I don't really like asking for money because I don't really like being asked for it," she says over a plate of grilled asparagus. "I get hit up so much ... person after person. And no matter how much you give, you can't win: A year later, you will only receive a solicitation for more instead of a thank-you note." Still, Lewis Lee serves as vice-chair of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (she is an attorney herself and practiced with the former firm Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle in Washington, D.C., before she married Spike and moved to Brooklyn), and she has raised money for education programs at the Met and for Kids for Kids. She knows it is her duty: noblesse oblige.

Lewis Lee broke an unspoken code by exposing her social circle in Gotham Diaries. Traditionally, African-American society likes to keep a low profile. There is a certain anxiety that flaunting will lead to backlash. (Of course, there are exceptions, like Black Enterprise publisher Earl Graves—also a Boulé—who keeps a customized fleet of luxury vehicles at his home in Sag Harbor and can most often be spotted cruising around in his Rolls-Royce.) But like her husband, Lewis Lee felt she had untold stories of the black experience to tell. "I wanted to put out there that there is this group of people who exist, because you don't see them," she says. "So often, when blacks are depicted as having money, it's as if they want to be white. And I'm sure there are those who do this." But there is also a world, an ignored but not imaginary world, that Lewis Lee was raised in and her husband is new to: the Blackristocracy.

"I've seen Spike evolve in terms of wanting to do things and go to things," she says. The first year they were married, for example, she attended the annual gala for the Studio Museum in Harlem, the highlight of the fall calendar in black society, without him.

"I went with my parents because Philip Morris is a big supporter," she says. "It was a Yankee game that night. Spike Lee didn't go." (Lee takes great pleasure in driving around Martha's Vineyard—Red Sox territory—in his pin-striped Mustang customized with the Yankees' interlocking NY. "You should see their faces!" he says.

He also flies an enormous Yankees flag from his house there, which happens to be located at the eighteenth hole of a golf course. "They hate it. Hate it!" he says. "That's all right." He whispers: "I just love seeing their faces.")

In fact, Lewis Lee met her husband at another event she was attending because of her Philip Morris ties. It was a dinner for the Congressional Black Caucus: "My father insisted I go to represent the family," she says. She and Spike crossed paths and immediately noticed each other. "I was going up the stairs, and he was going down the escalator. He was with a date—of course, some women would have no respect, but I did. But he came back around, and he was like, 'Who are you here with? Do you have a date? Do you have a boyfriend?' He said, 'Why don't you have a boyfriend?' I said I just haven't met the right guy yet. He did a little jig." On their first date, he took her to the party for Madonna's book Sex. "You know what's so funny? He was really ready to commit."

Lee immediately asked her to accompany him to his house in Oak Bluffs, a vacation destination on Martha's Vineyard for wealthy African-Americans since the thirties, where Lee had a house built in 1992 when he was making Malcolm X. (Asked to describe the residence, Lee says, "Big.") It was a technique Lee had employed with less success a few years earlier on the model Veronica Webb, whom he cast as his wife in Jungle Fever. Webb wrote about the experience in her book, Sight: "Spike is putting sexual pressure on me. I don't like it. I hate it. Tomorrow he wants me to go to Martha's Vineyard with him. The guy just won't take no for an answer."

Webb complained that "like a lot of young powerful men, Spike had a case of 'kingitis,' where the world revolves around their every wish and whatever's in the way of their wishes is a complete and utterly unworthy lump of shit as far as they're concerned." If Lee's bedside manner was aggressive, it was also effective: Webb ended up dating him for a year. Tonya Lewis became his wife.

The last thing Lillian and George Lewis wanted was for their daughter Tonya to marry "an entertainment type," she says. "Philip Morris is a conservative corporation," and it didn't help that "Spike is mum." Anyone who finds this confusing and imagines that Tonya Lewis was marrying up when she wed the famous director Spike Lee is not initiated in the mores of African-American society.

"It's become more of a meritocracy in the last fifteen years or so, but prior to that, it was really about your family history," says E.T. Williams, a retired real- estate investor and art collector who was in George Lewis's chapter of the Boulés and comes from an African-American family that has been prosperous—and, by the way, free—since the late 1700s. Williams is an acquaintance of Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee's; he last saw them for lunch in Jamaica, when he and his wife, Auldlyn, were staying at the Ritz- Carlton and the Lees were vacationing at the Half Moon. He has been on boards including MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Central Park Conservancy. He became close with Brooke Astor after she gave a lunch to introduce him to her vacation crowd on Dark Harbor off the coast of Maine.

Though E.T. Williams grew up in Brooklyn, he never met Spike Lee until after he'd married Tonya Lewis. Spike Lee's family, says Williams, "wasn't social ... Put it that way. His father was professional, if I'm not mistaken—a nice, middle-class family." Spike's father, Bill Lee, is a jazz composer who scored several of his son's early films. His mother was a teacher who died when Spike was a sophomore at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was a third- generation legacy. (Lee's second film, School Daze, was a delirious musical about life at the prestigious black men's school. There is a memorable song-and-dance number in which light- skinned black women call their darker-skinned rivals "jigaboos" and the dark- skinned women sing the retort "wannabes.") The Lees were well-to-do, yes; Blackristocracy, no.

"Entertainment was never considered for us," Williams continues, in a phone call from his house in Sag Harbor, where Tonya Lewis's parents were also members of the tight-knit community of elite black summer people when she was growing up. "Entertainment conjures up fast living and drugs, which was not what this group was about. One of the few people who became an entertainer from our set was Lena Horne."

And so the Lewises were skeptical of the man who'd directed She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing when their daughter fell in love with him. "After my wedding," says Lewis Lee, "my mother told me, 'We sent you here in a black limousine and you're leaving in a white one.' "

Williams says he thinks Spike Lee is "brilliant, and he made a brilliant move when he married Tonya Lewis. He knew by marrying her he would get the family, the background, the support, the playing golf with the grandfather in Florida where they winter. I'm sure it's very important to him, as it should be. He's off doing his entertainment."

Lee is, by all accounts, a dedicated father. He flew home from the New Orleans set of When the Levees Broke to be with his son for the night of his birthday; he calls both his children several times a day. And Tonya Lewis Lee is a formidable wife. When she tired of living in the Fort Greene neighborhood where her husband grew up, she told him, "You can stay in Brooklyn. But I won't be there." Before he went to Germany with their son a few days ago, she said, "If anything happens to Jackson, you don't get on the plane. Do not come home." But, she says, Spike lives up to the nickname his mother gave him for being difficult. (His birth certificate says Shelton Jackson Lee.)

There is a scene in Malcolm X in which Betty Shabazz cries to her husband that he's always working, that his cause always seems to trump his responsibilities at home. In the director's commentary on the film, Lee says that it's an age-old fight, one that he's had with his own wife many times.

Lewis Lee agrees that it's an ongoing struggle but says she doesn't think the comparison to Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X is fair: "Spike is not as malleable as Malcolm."

There are no white people on Lee's set today. Everyone is either black or pink.

The sun here in New Orleans seems to be everywhere, and the wet, filthy heat feels like a subway platform at rush hour on the worst day of August. And it's only May.

Hurricane season starts on June 1, in about two weeks, and Colonel Lewis Setliff, the (pink) spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, is telling Lee on- camera that the Corps will be ready. Yesterday, he was quoted on CNN saying they would not.

Setliff is in full fatigues and combat boots, shuffling in front of the debris of the destroyed 17th Street Canal flood wall. Across the street, there is a row of houses that look like they've been chewed in half by gigantic wild animals: Roofs have collapsed, furniture and plumbing and wires stick out like veins. "Construction is not complete, but protection is restored," says Setliff, upbeat. "We're providing repairs that actually enhance the system, so on June 1, the people of New Orleans will have a hurricane-protection system that's better and stronger and much more resilient! In some places, they'll actually have more protection than existed prior to Katrina."

"You're talking about pre- Katrina levels?" says Lee, who stands in the sun behind the camera, wearing a baseball cap, green track pants, and bright-blue Nikes.

Setliff motions at the crumbled flood wall behind him. "We weren't happy with how these performed," he says. He's not making a joke.

Later that day, Lee's crew tapes a woman named Phyllis LeBlanc inside a government-issue trailer, which sits on the front yard of her squashed house. LeBlanc says that on the night of Katrina, "it was like it sucked all the air out of the city. It was, like, womblike shit. Beyond Africa hot. They keep saying, 'Go back to Africa.' If Africa is hot like this? Hell, no!" LeBlanc was trapped in her house by the storm surge during Katrina and ultimately rowed out with an elderly neighbor and two children in an empty refrigerator. She has nightmares about the water coming back.

On the banks of the Mississippi, Lee interviews a young woman named Kimberly Polk who had been looking for her daughter for the nine months since Katrina. A few days ago, she identified the 5-year-old's body.

Lee drives past dozens of houses with their roofs folded in like crumpled cardboard, with the number of dead found inside spray- painted on the front, with signs that say HELP! HELP! all over them. On the side of a brick building near the Utopia Park church, someone has written in giant letters HOPE IS NOT A PLAN.

It's all so insane, so bad, so unsubtle. Black people waiting on their roofs in the liquefying heat for rescue that never comes. Children drowning in the streets. Old women left to rot on the steps of the Convention Center while the director of FEMA announces on national television that he's somehow unaware of the 25,000 people waiting there for help. Condi at Ferragamo. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police showing up on horseback in New Orleans before the National Guard. Massive crowds herded into the Superdome and left for days on end without food or water or sewage. And the fat, rich, white mother of the president saying—actually saying!—"This is working very well for them."

It's all so over-the-top. It's like a Spike Lee movie.

There is plenty to be disgusted with in this country; there is no shortage of inconvenient truths. And Lee also happens to be angry from the inside out.

When he appeared on the Chris Rock show in 1999 after he came out with Summer of Sam, Lee stalked onstage in his black leather jacket and goatee to a shrieking audience of fans. "You're an icon, Spike," said Rock. "You make more movies than everybody else, you got courtside seats to the Knicks, you got the beautiful wife, the kids: Why are you so mad?"

"That's not me," Lee replied, smirking. "That's the way I've been portrayed."

Rock snorted. "No, we've seen you mad, Spike. We've seen you on TV just complaining all the time." The crowd roared. "They ain't laughing because I'm lying," said Rock. "Spike, you've been mad for about twelve, fifteen years now. You're like Khalid Muhammad with a little Afro. You the maddest black man in America."

It's hard to picture the maddest black man in America brunching with fellow Upper East Siders Al Roker and Deborah Roberts (as he and his wife do regularly) or leaning on the marble Art Nouveau mantel of his drawing room described in Town and Country.

But most Americans have no real sense of the black upper class beyond bling and Cristal, season tickets to the Knicks, and ... white limos. They think of P. Diddy rather than, say, Ken Chenault—a good friend of Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee's who makes a cameo in Gotham Diaries as the "baron of black society" that he is. "I just think it's a matter of lack of awareness," says Chenault. "People tend to be very parochial. And the reality is that the representation and the name recognition have been more in entertainment and sports; the advancement of African-Americans in business has been more recent."

Within the Blackristocracy, Lee's indignation is largely regarded as righteous, not embarrassing. The black upper class is still black: Most members have experienced racism at some point in their lives; most recognize it in action in their country all the time. "It's very much understood," says E.T. Williams. "We're all going through it. The historian John Hope Franklin, now an emeritus at Duke, belonged to the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., and he had a group coming to celebrate his 85th or 90th birthday. This white lady came up to him and handed him her glass and said, 'Would you take this?' And he said, 'No, madam. If you look, you'll see the people who work here are in uniform.' So we can all understand his feelings."

In the Blackristocracy, Lee's interest in inequity is not perceived as obsessive: It's seen as responsible. "If one just starts off with W.E.B. DuBois's focus on the Talented Tenth, there was always a view that that group had the obligation to help society, and that clearly is a hallmark of Spike—and Tonya," says Chenault.

Of course, there's a little more to it than that. In Bamboozled, Lee does a funny, mean, fair spoof: He creates a white character called Timmi Hilnigger, who appears in his own ads flanked by writhing, half- naked black women and says, "If you want to never get out of the ghetto, stay broke, and continue to add to my multimillion-dollar corporation, keep buying my gear!" On the director's commentary, Lee tells the following story: "A couple weeks ago, I had just dropped my daughter off at school. On the corner of 63rd and Central Park West, Tommy Hilfiger comes up to me." Lee puts on a pathetic whine of a white-guy voice: " 'Oh, Spike, I want you to know I've done so much for black people. Oh, Spike, how could you do this? I've been giving money at the Martin Luther King fund; every summer I send ghetto black kids to the camp.' I was waiting for him to say, 'Spike, I'm blacker than you!' "

Even when he is the aggressor, he is the victim.

Lee says there is "a law you cannot have any Jewish person who is not a hundred percent honest" in a film, "because if they are not, you're anti- Semitic and perpetuating stereotypes."

There is, however, a fair amount of ground between a hundred percent honest and the moneygrubbing, fast- talking caricatures Mo and Josh Flatbush, the villains of Lee's Mo' Better Blues, who got Lee on the shit list of various critics and Jewish organizations. "B'nai Brith and the Anti- Defamation League, they were on my ass," he says. "You don't know what it is for someone to get on your ass until B'nai Brith and Anti- Defamation League ... You know that shit, when they're on you, you know it."

Eventually Lee placated his persecutors by writing an op-ed piece for the Times, but the whole thing still makes him mad when he thinks about it. And the truth is, he's not sorry about portraying Mo and Josh Flatbush as Jewish bloodsuckers, feeding off the talents of black musicians. "Here's the thing, though: It's more than being a stereotype," says Lee. "In the history of American music, there have not been Jewish people exploiting black musicians? In the history of music? How is that being stereotypical? For me, that's like saying, like the NBA is predominantly black. Now, if that makes me anti- Semitic ..." For a minute, he actually engages and sort of laughs. "I'm not writing any more op-ed pieces," he says. "I did it once. I'm not doing it again. Seriously. I'm not doing it again."

If you watch all twenty of Lee's films, you'll notice several trademarks. First, there is his signature shot, an actor traveling on a dolly with the camera, which makes the world seem to recede behind the subject. (There are only a handful of directors who've developed their own shot like that, something that's taught in film schools.) Then, of course, there's Lee's fascination with stereotypes and categories: He loves a good procession. The most famous is what's referred to in the screenplay for Do the Right Thing as "The Racial Slur Montage," during which Lee's character calls Italians "dago, wop, garlic breath," an Italian calls blacks "gold-chain- wearing, fried- chicken-and-biscuit-eating monkeys," and a Latino guy calls Koreans " slanty-eyed, me-no-speak- American, own every fruit and vegetable stand in New York."

The idea of all the bigotry in the city exploding in front of the camera seems to delight Lee. He directed a similar scene in 25th Hour, in which Edward Norton's character, contemplating leaving the city for prison, holds forth on what he won't miss about all the different ethnic and social groups in New York: cabdrivers are "terrorists in training—slow the fuck down." There are the "Puerto Ricans on welfare rolls" and "the uptown brothers—slavery ended a long time ago: move on." And, close to home: "Fuck the Upper East Side wives with their Hermès scarves and their $50 artichokes."

The heavy- handedness that critics have objected to in some of Lee's movies is absent from his documentaries. In Lee's fictional films, you can sometimes feel the case of kingitis that Veronica Webb diagnosed in action: Lee just can't seem to get enough of himself. In Bamboozled, for instance, when a character mentions Malcolm X, Lee cuts to a clip from his own film Malcolm X; later, he has another character reference his comments to the press on Quentin Tarantino ("I don't give a goddamn what that prick Spike Lee says, Tarantino was right: Nigger is just a word"). But in his documentaries, Lee seems to strip away his ego and focus all his creative powers on the people he's representing. His last, the Oscar- nominated 4 Little Girls, about the Birmingham church bombing of 1963, was Lee's most critically acclaimed work to date. It was wrenching but evenhanded, understated, even.

To be fully affected by Lee's fictional films, you have be into his vision, his aesthetic, his Spikiness. To be fully affected by his documentaries, you really just need to have eyes. The four hours of When the Levees Broke fly by. It is an astounding piece of work. The full nightmare of Katrina becomes palpable and unavoidable in a way it hasn't yet in art. I tell Lee this, and he offers me a first and final pleasantry. A text message that says THANKS.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on August 15, 2006, 01:30:34 PM
goddamn, is this the most empathetic and fair a white liberal journalist can be?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on August 22, 2006, 10:11:13 PM
Lee on spot for Oscar ads

Spike Lee has signed on to direct the TV commercial campaign for next year's Oscar telecast, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed. AMPAS director of marketing Beth Harris said the commercials will represent the first campaign for promoting the telecast to come entirely from a traditional ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., which has pitched the Academy's internal marketing department the past three years and was awarded the business last week. Harris said marketing of the Oscar telecast "has evolved over the years, but in the last three or four (years), we've wanted to expand the marketing efforts and start looking off the ABC network at outdoor (advertising), for example." She said that in the past, the campaigns were created "mostly in-house" after competition to create key art and the campaign would not fully develop until after the host was announced and ads could be developed around the celebrity. "That was a challenge because that always came too late, especially for the number of stations that carry the telecast. So we've gotten more sophisticated in the things we want to do."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 11, 2006, 02:05:30 AM
Spike Lee develops post-Katrina drama for NBC

Spike Lee will follow his documentary on Hurricane Katrina with a scripted drama for NBC set in New Orleans.

Titled "NoLa," after the local slang for the Big Easy, the project is a multicultural ensemble exploring the post-Katrina lives of New Orleans residents from different social and economic backgrounds.

"It's a show about the city trying to rebuild itself and the people who are trying to put their lives together," said Lee, who will travel to New Orleans this week with screenwriter Sid Quashie to meet with residents.

Lee began thinking about a TV series set in post-Katrina New Orleans while he was filming his HBO documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." Like the documentary, "NoLa" will be infused with humor. Lee is set to executive produce and direct the project if NBC decides to turn the script into a pilot.

"It's our goal to make great cinema for television," Lee said of his approach to the show.

Stylistically, he will pay homage to the great tradition of Italian neorealism, a 1942-52 movement in Italian cinema that involved such acclaimed filmmakers as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini and spawned such films as De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" and "Miracle in Milan."

Set among the poor and working class and filmed on location, Italian neorealist films contend mostly with the difficult economic and moral conditions of postwar Italy, reflecting the changes in the Italian psyche and the conditions of everyday life: defeat, poverty and desperation.

Lee is taking similar approach to the stories of Katrina survivors who are picking up the pieces of their shattered lives.

"NoLa" would be filmed on location in New Orleans.

"We don't have to build sets," Lee said wryly. "Things there still look like the city's been bombed out."

Taking another page from the book of Italian neorealism, Lee plans to add to the authentic feel of the show by having some of the most colorful people featured in the documentary -- like Phyllis Montana LeBlanc -- written into the script as supporting characters and appear as fictional versions of themselves.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Gold Trumpet on September 11, 2006, 02:44:58 AM
I've never taken any show serious. Not The Sopranos, not the cutest new comedy on the block, but this one has potential. Can a TV show finally translate into art?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: cine on September 11, 2006, 03:04:49 AM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on September 11, 2006, 02:44:58 AM
I've never taken any show serious. . . Can a TV show finally translate into art?
finally?
maybe in your eyes but for the majority of us, this wouldn't be the first time.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Gold Trumpet on September 11, 2006, 03:29:32 AM
Quote from: Cinephile on September 11, 2006, 03:04:49 AM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on September 11, 2006, 02:44:58 AM
I've never taken any show serious. . . Can a TV show finally translate into art?
finally?
maybe in your eyes but for the majority of us, this wouldn't be the first time.

I wouldn't know by your guys comments. Either shows suck or are great or are some other adjective.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on September 11, 2006, 07:49:46 AM
you're alone on this one GT. heapsa shows are works of art. maybe you think otherwise cos the only thing you watch is sports and porn, so you think of tv as just a way to get off, or as "pure entertainment" or as whatever reason you watch sports for.. to stop thinking probably.

i'm not saying TV can be art simply cos i love it, some of my favourite TV shows are just "great television" and nothing more, but there have been some shows that have redefined television not only by perfecting existing forms, but by escaping the limitations imposed by those very forms and attempting new functions.. not just to entertain, but to reflect en masse with great insight the culture which created it and perpetuates it. either by nostalgia (freaks and geeks, and to a lesser extent the wonder years) or satire (the simpsons, seinfeld), and that's just a few examples from american television.

in its best moments, tv offers an altogether unique reflection of who we are -- our absurdities, our tragedies, our most human qualities -- with greater consistency, accuracy, and efficacy than the best movies.

haven't you seen Masturbating Bear??
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi5.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy154%2Fpubrick%2Fvidcaps%2Fmbear.jpg&hash=04d5dd741f4b524d3b3afc0f79735ddd3f4c500b)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 15, 2006, 08:37:02 PM
Spike Lee continues attack on Bush over Katrina response

American filmmaker Spike Lee continued at the Toronto film festival to berate US President George W. Bush over Washington's response to Hurricane Katrina, ahead of US mid-term elections in November.

"This is the worst president in the history of the United States of America. He's taken us to hell in a handbag. Even his fellow Republicans are trying to move away (from him)," Lee said.

"The mid-term elections are coming up. I hope people finally wake up and don't go for okey doke again, get hoodwinked, led astray, run amok or hornswaggled," he said.

Two weeks earlier, Lee blasted President Bush in Venice where his film about the storm fallout "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" won an award for best documentary.

The movie, shown on cable television in the United States and Canada, provides a detailed chronology of events through the eyes of survivors and documents the anger of America's black underclass at government inaction.

It allows people to linger with the victims, beyond the news coverage of the storm, to wade through Katrina's putrid detritus, and hear and see their desperation, anger and, ultimately, their resolve.

But, Lee noted: "As we sit here today, not much has changed in New Orleans. On August 29th, the president went down there and had a lot of (expletive) photo ops, talked about rebuilding ... It's not the case. People are still struggling day-to-day."

"The ninth ward still looks like somebody dropped a bomb on it," he said.

Seventy-five percent of the people of New Orleans, mostly African-American, who fled the storm, are still spread out across the United States, and there are no plans and even some opposition to repatriate them, he said.

"It was so offensive for me to see (President Bush) down there, smiling and acting like he really cares ... If he cared, it wouldn't have taken the federal government five days to get there. If he cared, many things would be taking place now." said Lee.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: matt35mm on October 14, 2006, 06:39:41 PM
Spike Lee to Speak in Santa Cruz

Monday, November 27th, 2006, 8pm, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, California.  Tickets on sale now.

For more information, go to:
http://artslectures.ucsc.edu/artistpages/spike.htm
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on November 28, 2006, 09:46:12 PM
10 Questions: Spike Lee
Acclaimed director offers IGN his faves.

From his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, to his latest, the Katrina Hurricane documentary When the Levees Broke, director Spike Lee has only increased his love for free expression via the art of filmmaking.

"I'll always love that filmmaking allows me to say what I have to say," Spike tells IGN. "And I'm always learning from every one of my projects. I was learning every day when I was on [When the Levees Broke], and I won't stop because I love to learn."

What else does Spike love? During our recent interview, he was game enough to give our 10 Questions a shot.

1. What is your favorite piece of music?

Something that inspires me I would have to say is "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane.

2. What is your favorite film?

On the Waterfront.

3. What is your favorite TV program, past or current?

The Wire. If you haven't seen it, do.

4. What do you feel has been your most important professional accomplishment to date?

I think the body of work I've built over the past 20 years. 20 years and 20 films. I would say my body of work.

5. Which project do you feel didn't live up to what you envisioned?

Hmmm, that's a hard one. Looking back I'd have to say they're all good. [He laughs] No, I'm not making perfection, but I'm trying. I think School Daze could have been better. That was my evolution at the time, so I thought I could do a better job, I couldn't have done any more with it. I put everything into it. It made me a better filmmaker, but I think the movie could have been better.

6. What is your favorite book?

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.

7. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

That studios would try to finance films where everyone doesn't have to be a home run. That they could sometimes go for some singles, doubles and triples. Everything doesn't have to be a big home run. I don't know of anybody in Hollywood executives who think that way.

8. Who or what would you say has had the biggest influence on your career?

My film instructor in college. His name was Dr. Herb Eichleberger. He recognized I had some talent, and he just really took a deep interest in me nurturing that talent.

9. What is your next project?

Selling Time. [About a man who shaves time from his life to change the worst day of his life.]

10. What is the one project that you've always wanted to do, but have yet to be able to?

I have a Joe Lewis/Max Schmeling boxing epic that I co-wrote with Budd Schulberg that's not happened yet.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: matt35mm on November 28, 2006, 11:48:44 PM
Oh yeah, I'm reminded to say that this...

Quote from: matt35mm on October 14, 2006, 06:39:41 PM
Spike Lee to Speak in Santa Cruz

Monday, November 27th, 2006, 8pm, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, California.  Tickets on sale now.

For more information, go to:
http://artslectures.ucsc.edu/artistpages/spike.htm

... didn't happen.  It was cancelled, which I didn't find out about until the day of.  So I spent all day being excited, and found out an hour before I was about to leave that it wasn't happening.  There was no reason given for the cancellation.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on December 07, 2006, 01:08:32 AM
Lee is Universal's inside man on 'Riots'
Grazer to produce drama about L.A. riots
Source: Variety

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment are teaming with helmer Spike Lee on "L.A. Riots," a drama framed around the racially charged April 1992 riots.

John Ridley will write the script. Brian Grazer will produce.

Lee, who's also developing an "Inside Man" sequel for the studio and Grazer, said the goal is to have a script in front of prexy Donna Langley before business closes for the holidays. Project could well be his next feature and shoot next year.

The riots, which followed the acquittal by a white jury of four police officers who were videotaped beating black motorist Rodney King, caused the death of 55 people, thousands of injuries and close to $1 billion in damage.

Lee, who's coming off the HBO docu "When the Levees Broke," about Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, said he and Grazer fixed on the idea together and felt the subject matter was ripe for a revisit.

"This isn't about some cavalcade of stars, but rather a truthful and realistic examination of what happened, what the ramifications were and where we are now, in hopes that something like this doesn't happen again," Lee said.

Grazer said the subject matter was "the best way to use Spike's power as a filmmaker, to tell an even-handed story that gets beyond the iconic pictures that we all remember. I was most interested in looking at the idea of universal group dynamics that manifest themselves under the highest amount of stress and to get all these points of view as they converge into each other and ignite in flames."

Lee's memories of April 29, 1992, are vivid.

"The day the riot happened was the very first time that Terry Semel and Bob Daly saw 'Malcolm X,' when they were running Warner Bros.," Lee said. "All the things Malcolm X was talking about were happening. Assistants were running into the room, passing them notes. 'Do you want us to order a helicopter to come into the studio to get you home?' You could see it in their faces, watching this movie, wondering if L.A. was burning down, and if the world was coming to an end.

"I have to give credit to Bob and Terry, because I know they wanted to leave but they stayed and saw my first cut, which was about three hours and 45 minutes," Lee said. "I don't know how they got home, whether it was by helicopter or by car, but they ran out of the screening room. It was very scary."

Lee was in no mood to hang around, either.

"I went straight to LAX, and my ass was on the red eye," he said.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on December 13, 2006, 01:32:49 AM
Building a mosaic of the 1992 L.A. riots
Source: Los Angeles Times

On April 29, 1992, a furious seizure gripped Los Angeles and shook it violently for four terrifying days. John Ridley, then a recent New York transplant, spent much of that time quarantined in his Fairfax district neighborhood, where he huddled on street corners with petrified neighbors and denied rides to white friends looking for his protection. (As a black man he felt no safer from the random brutality and rioting.) An attempt to escape via LAX was thwarted by the unrelenting chaos, and he ultimately had to turn back through the charred and broken cityscape.

Ridley has spent the last year researching and reliving that historic convulsion, which left 54 people dead and $1 billion in property damage in its wake, for a screenplay tentatively called "L.A. Riots" that Spike Lee is attached to direct for producer Brian Grazer at Imagine Entertainment.

Lee and Ridley had previously been developing a law enforcement drama called "The Night Watchman," for which Ridley had been researching the Los Angeles Police Department and its Rampart Division scandal. When that movie stalled a year ago, Lee asked Ridley to write a script for a film about the riots, so Ridley expanded his research, dug up reams of documentation and tracked down some of the people who were affected at the street level.

But the knotty multiethnic cultural history of Los Angeles pointed to something more comprehensive — a film with a scope more like Anna Deavere Smith's documentary play "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992," which was made into a TV movie in 2001.

Rather than merely focus on the 1992 riots, Ridley's suspenseful script begins with a prelude about the Watts riots of 1965 and then highlights notable aspects of the complex racial and political environment — the murder of black, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins by a Korean American liquor store owner two weeks after the Rodney G. King beating, the maneuverings that went into moving the trial of the police officers accused of beating King to a courthouse in Simi Valley, the ominous but ignored warnings police officers were delivering to their superiors, the National Guard's lack of preparedness — that allowed that explosive rage to sweep through the city again 27 years later.

"The idea is to try to get as accurate a picture of how this happened as I can," Ridley says. "Beyond race and the hot-button issues, it's just these little things together that allow for chaos. It was a Katrina-type systemic failure. Literally and figuratively, it wasn't just a black and white problem."

Public figures such as LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates and Mayor Tom Bradley are referenced, but mostly the film will follow ordinary Angelenos affected by the public outrage triggered by the acquittal of the four white officers who beat King. "It's not 'Crash,' where these individuals all weave in and out of each other's storylines," Ridley says. "It's more of a mosaic."

Both Lee and Ridley have well-earned reputations for being provocateurs.

Lee's most recent film was his pointed HBO Hurricane Katrina documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." And Ridley is a novelist ("Love Is a Racket," "A Conversation With the Mann"), screenwriter ("Undercover Brother," "U Turn") and TV writer ("Third Watch") who lately has gone very public with his feelings about race in controversial essays for HuffingtonPost.com, Time and Esquire.

But Ridley insists that provocation is beside the point when telling a story with such deep reverberations.

"To me this story is so real and so true that you don't need to go out of your way to be provocative," he says. "There's a level of balance in that everybody is a little embarrassed, everybody is a little outraged."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on December 27, 2006, 11:51:00 AM
Brown biopic in the works
Lee signs on for Godfather of Soul film
Source: Variety

Spike Lee has signed on to direct a feature on the life of James Brown for Paramount and Imagine Entertainment. Brian Grazer is producing, and the pic could be in production by late next year, though 2008 is more likely.

Lee will rewrite a draft recently turned in by Jezz and John Henry Butterworth. Script has been through several drafts since Steve Baigelman wrote the original.

Brown was an active part of the development of the biopic project. The singer met with Baigelman, and gave the Butterworth brothers access to his camp. Brown's longtime sideman Bobby Byrd also was interviewed for two days by the Butterworth duo. The rights package includes Brown's life rights, and also access to all his music rights.

"Like everybody, I was surprised and saddened that James Brown died," Grazer said Tuesday. "Having known him well, and after spending lots of time with him and researching his life, it's somehow not surprising that he died on Christmas Day. He was the ultimate showman, all the way to the end."

Lee has two other projects with Grazer. He will next direct a John Ridley-scripted film on the L.A. riots for Universal and Imagine. He will either follow with the Brown film or an "Inside Man" sequel, which Russell Gewirtz is scripting.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on March 07, 2007, 10:17:12 AM
Source: The Guardian

Spike Lee is the latest Hollywood director to direct a pilot for NBC, with the working title MONY, about an everyman who becomes the mayor of New York. Lee is calling upon the services of present NY mayor Michael Bloomberg to help give the programme some background detail and authenticity.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: grand theft sparrow on March 07, 2007, 10:47:52 AM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fvideodetective.com%2Fphotos%2F024%2F001039_91154.jpg&hash=defce725ad33a2f8c89b7e072b6694a27132b4d6)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on April 17, 2007, 09:14:23 PM
Spike Lee touts Babelgum at Mip
Director lends 'Jesus' rights to web service
Source: Variety

CANNES -- Spike Lee brought some movie talent wattage to the Mip TV mart Tuesday, when he came to endorse Babelgum, the latest venture by Italy's newest media magnate Silvio Scaglia.

Lee has given the startup global Internet TV network -- a sort of commercial YouTube -- exclusive rights for three months to "Jesus Children of America," a 21-minute short film segment Lee contributed to the Unicef omnibus film "All the Invisible Children."

"I'm always looking for ways to get distributed," the director said, adding filmmakers make films "so you can share your vision of the world with the rest of the world."

He predicted: "In a couple of years, someone is going to shoot a film on a mobile phone, and they'll show it in 35mm -- it is going to come."

Lee's short film, an emotionally charged story about a teenage girl who learns that she and her junkie parents have HIV, aired before a roomful of TV execs including key distribs -- interested in Babelgum, officially launching on the Croisette.

The service, which will be up and running within a couple of months, is similar in concept to Joost, the Netco that recently pacted with Viacom, only Babelgum is targeting niche content.

Tech guru Scaglia, who is netting around r1 billion ($1.36 billion) from the sale of his stake in Italian IPTV provider Fastweb, said Babelgum was aiming for 10,000 hours worth of content available to users by the end of 2007.

So far, the company has shelled out a trifling $10 million, paying minimum guarantees for around 1,000 hours of programming of all genres, from independent producers and distributors. Deals have been struck with about 30 companies, including news orgs Reuters Television and ITN. Eventually,the site is expected to generate and share revenues from advertising, rather than paying for content, he said.

Lee, looking dapper in a light gray suit and tie, said he felt nostalgic being back in Cannes, where he had been "five or six times, but always for the festival. It's the first time for TV."

"She's Gotta Have it" screened at the festival 21 years ago, and "Do the Right Thing" competed in 1989.

"We were robbed (of the Palme d'Or)! We should have had it. It's not sour grapes," Lee quipped.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on April 18, 2007, 12:56:26 PM
He's also going to be at the San Francisco International Film Festival, for all you Northern California inclined folks out there...

"An Evening with Spike Lee
Wednesday, May 2
7:30 pm
Castro Theatre
429 Castro Street (near Market)

Join us for a special evening honoring the unconventional filmmaking genius of Spike Lee, recipient of this year's Film Society Directing Award. Retrospective film clips from Lee's singular career will be followed by an onstage interview conducted by Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris and a screening of Acts II and III of Lee's four-act Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke."

So, at least this time I wont be driving to Santa Cruz in the rain only to arrive to locked doors and an empty building.

And this time I actually got tickets and will be attending, as opposed to his appearance at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose a handful of years back. Screened Bamboozled and did a Q & A. I'm still kicking myself for missing that one. I'm pretty sure I just stayed home and watched the Clerks cartoon. So, yeah, insult to injury...

Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: matt35mm on April 18, 2007, 07:03:19 PM
Quote from: john on April 18, 2007, 12:56:26 PM
So, at least this time I wont be driving to Santa Cruz in the rain only to arrive to locked doors and an empty building.

Sorry about that.  I don't know why it was cancelled.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on May 03, 2007, 02:17:17 AM
so I was there.  was anyone there?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on May 03, 2007, 02:32:35 AM
I was, too. Nothing revelatory. Not a peep about Inside Man 2.

Nive to hear She's Gotta Have It is coming to DVD. Not news, but nice to hear nonetheless.

The clips before he came out were a nice touch.

The interviewer seemed a little strained, the audience questions were a little better.

Front row seat = good for Q & A, bad for sitting through two hours of When The Levee's Broke.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: grand theft sparrow on May 03, 2007, 05:56:54 AM
Quote from: john on May 03, 2007, 02:32:35 AM
She's Gotta Have It is coming to DVD.

Criterion or peasant DVD?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on May 03, 2007, 02:59:27 PM
Didn't specify.

I presume Criterion, because I've heard more rumblings about a Criterion release than anything else.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Gold Trumpet on May 04, 2007, 01:25:11 PM
Quote from: sparrowhoff on May 03, 2007, 05:56:54 AM
Quote from: john on May 03, 2007, 02:32:35 AM
She's Gotta Have It is coming to DVD.

Criterion or peasant DVD?

Peasant. The Criterion rumors are dead as Spike Lee has denied any involvement and it's been recently reported that MGM (the host studio, I believe) is preparing a release.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 06, 2007, 11:28:25 AM
Spike Lee eyes film on U.S. black soldiers in WW2

Spike Lee will pay tribute to black U.S. soldiers who fought during World War Two with a new film to be shot in Italy.

Lee told Italian daily "La Repubblica" in an interview published on Wednesday that the film, based on James McBride's novel "Miracle at St. Anna," aims to recognise the role of African-American soldiers.

He said their role in the war had been mostly overlooked in previous U.S. movies.

"America started to remember the sacrifice of black soldiers in films on the Vietnam war, but before then, in those on World War Two, they were almost invisible," Lee was quoted as saying.

"I recently met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima and he told me how hurt he was that he could not find a single African-American in Clint Eastwood's two films," Lee said.

"Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," director Eastwood's twin films about the bloody 1945 battle of Iwo Jima told from the perspective of American and Japanese combatants, were released last year.

McBride's book, based on a true story, is the tale of a group of soldiers from the 92nd, all-black Buffalo Division fighting against Nazi occupation in Tuscany, and the friendship between one of them and a six-year-old Italian orphan.

Lee said the contribution by black people to America's war effort at the time was all the more paradoxical given that back at home they were still suffering racial segregation.

"Despite the fact that they had been slaves for more than 300 years and that they were still at the time subject to terrible forms of discrimination, black men fought like heroes.

"They behaved like patriots while their brothers were lynched or at best considered second-class citizens," he said.

Racial issues are a favourite theme for Lee, the director of "Malcom X," "Do The Right Thing," and an acclaimed 2006 documentary on how Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

In the interview he said World War Two was the last "just war" fought by American troops, criticising the wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.

But he added his new film would not be a propaganda work celebrating only the U.S. soldiers who liberated Europe from Nazi occupation.

"A lot of German soldiers were not faceless evil with no humanity, but simply men fighting on the wrong side: they too were tired, hungry and wanted to go back home."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on June 06, 2007, 04:52:37 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on June 06, 2007, 11:28:25 AM
he could not find a single African-American in Clint Eastwood's two films," Lee said.

didn't he see the original title? they were the sand.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 25, 2007, 11:59:30 AM
Spike Lee to Executive Produce LiveMansion
Source: ComingSoon

Ckrush Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of Ckrush, Inc., announced today that acclaimed film director Spike Lee will executive produce Ckrush Entertainment's groundbreaking film LiveMansion: The Movie. The first feature film to be produced by an online community (Ckrush's LiveMansion.com), LiveMansion: The Movie is a thriller scheduled to go into production later this year. As an executive producer, Lee will help guide the key creative and production elements of the film. Lee previously served as a judge in the selection process for the film's director and hosted a screening of the director finalists' shorts at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City.

Nominated for two Academy Awards and the director of over 30 feature films, Spike Lee is one of the world's most accomplished filmmakers. His directorial credits include She's Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), Summer of Sam (1999), 25th Hour (2002) and Inside Man (2006). In addition to his achievements as a director, Lee is an award winning writer, actor and producer.

"Having Spike Lee contribute to the making of 'LiveMansion: The Movie" is phenomenal on many levels" commented Ckrush, Inc. President Jeremy Dallow. "Firstly, Spike's involvement in any film is an incredible asset to that film. For Spike to lend his expertise to such a groundbreaking project is both a strong endorsement for the vision Ckrush has and a tremendous plus to the making of what we hope will be a great film. LiveMansion.com continues to give filmmakers, actors and people who love film incredible opportunities. The chance to work with Spike Lee is the opportunity of a lifetime. We are very grateful to be working with Spike and think the thousands of people who have participated in the making of film through LiveMansion.com will be very excited that Spike Lee is on their team."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on June 25, 2007, 11:59:57 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on June 25, 2007, 11:59:30 AM
Source: ComingSoon

the director of over 30 feature films

bullshit.

ComingSoon maybe you should do more than just count how many credits he's got under Director at imdb. i really can't stand stuff like this. if they knew ANYTHING about movies they'd instantly realise how stupid that is.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 26, 2007, 08:54:35 PM
Spike Lee sets stage for 'Stalag 17'
Director to announce first theater project
Source: Variety

Spike Lee will announce his first major theater project in a press conference scheduled for Thursday morning at the Palace Theater.

While details have not yet been confirmed, the production is believed to be a Broadway revival of Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski's World War II comedy-drama "Stalag 17," a mystery set in a POW camp, centering on a sergeant suspected of being a Nazi spy.

The play has not been seen on Broadway since its 1951 premiere, which ran for 472 performances and won a Tony for director Jose Ferrer. William Holden was awarded a best actor Oscar for Billy Wilder's popular 1953 screen version.

Producer on the Lee project is Michael Abbott, whose last Broadway credit was the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee play, "The Incomparable Max," which had a short run in 1971.

Rialto insiders are skeptical about the idea of a "Stalag" revival, pairing an inexperienced stage director with material that shows no obvious connection to his body of film work. Some pundits are voicing their suspicion that Thursday's splashy announcement is designed to attract other investors on a production not yet fully formed.

While the tone of Bevan and Trzcinski's play is significantly different, the disastrous commercial run last season of R.C. Sherriff's WWI bunker drama "Journey's End," despite stellar reviews, points to a Broadway climate that's not exactly receptive to war themes.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 03, 2007, 01:57:24 PM
Spike Lee attacks Hollywood films
Black soldiers are 'invisible'
Source: Variety

ROME -- Spike Lee engaged the Italo press with some anti-Hollywood ranting as he officially unveiled his new World War II project about the plight of black American soldiers fighting the German army in Tuscany.

"If you look at the history of Hollywood, the black soldiers who fought World War II are totally invisible," Lee lashed out during a packed presser in Rome's posh Hotel de Russie.

"This is the paradox: black people who were fighting for democracy but at the same time were second class citizens at home," Lee elaborated further.

The previously announced potentially hot-potato drama will be based on U.S. author James McBride's novel "Miracle at St. Anna."

Also on hand at the presser were 82-year-old WWII vet William Perry, a member of a Buffalo Soldiers unit made up of black Americans who fought the Nazis in Italy, and Moreno Costa, an Italian anti-Fascist partisan who fought alongside Italy's American liberators.

Perry said his 15,000-strong Buffalo Soldiers battalion suffered 3,000 casualties in Italy.

Lee was in Rome en route to scouting Tuscan locations for the $45 million drama, which producers Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini are still in talks to secure financing for. Neither Italian nor international distributors are yet in place.

No news emerged regarding casting, beyond that there are four protag parts for black American male stars, and roles for Teutonic and Italian A-list actors.

The crew will be largely Italian, Lee said. A second draft of the script penned by McBride is completed.

Plan is to start shooting early next year in New York, Tuscany and Rome's Cinecitta Studios.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on July 03, 2007, 10:59:08 PM
Spike Lee needs to get over this black stuff and start researching non black stuff for once.

White people fought in the second world war too.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on July 03, 2007, 11:46:10 PM
i didn't know this bit of trivia:

Quote from: imdbWhen Norman Jewison was originally hired to direct Malcolm X , Lee met with him and convinced him he needed to "sit this one out". Feeling that only a black director was qualified and would bring the necessary perspective, Lee then stepped in as director with Jewison's blessing.

did he try to screw jewison out of The Hurricane too?

Salary
Malcolm X (1992) $3,000,000
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on July 04, 2007, 12:09:16 AM
I wonder if Spike ended up doing The Hurricane, if Norman would have ended up doing Summer Of Sam.

That could have been kind of cool.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: children with angels on July 04, 2007, 06:12:10 AM
Quote from: Stefen on July 03, 2007, 10:59:08 PM
Spike Lee needs to get over this black stuff and start researching non black stuff for once.

White people fought in the second world war too.

I'm glad there's a director who hasn't got over this "black stuff" and slavery, and the way it's aftermath has irretrievably affected America. He's right: Hollywood has historically whitewashed world war two - as a director who cares about these issues, working in Hollywood, I can totally understand the desire to address that. The whites who fought in the second world war too we have heard about ad nauseum - let's let one of the best US directors tell a different version of history. I think it'll be very interesting - like an american Days of Glory (but probably better - cos it's Spike Lee). Unless you were joking.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: bonanzataz on July 04, 2007, 08:33:01 PM
Quote from: Stefen on July 03, 2007, 10:59:08 PM
Spike Lee needs to get over this black stuff and start researching non black stuff for once.

White people fought in the second world war too.

i mean, yeah, but take a look at the way the article sensationalizes his quotes. lee does make pretty good points - you never do hear about black soldiers in wwii. he makes the very valid statement that it's an incredibly dramatic concept - black people are fighting for a country that treats them like shit. it's the article that says he's "attacking hollywood" and "lashing out" at the hollywood system. he never says anything like "it's a disservice to black people that we never see any hollywood films about how they fought," he's just saying that there aren't any.

yeah, spike lee says shit about black people and white people, but he's not as militant as the media makes him out to be (at least not in this article). i think this movie should be pretty good. i just hope it's not as schmaltzy as glory, which i guess pretty much covered the exact same ground.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on July 04, 2007, 09:44:37 PM
I was only kidding, guys. Making a joke. I'd rather see socially conscious movies than the latest action fest. Spike is one of my favorite filmmakers.

Don't hang me. haha.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: The Sheriff on July 04, 2007, 11:36:50 PM
Quote from: Stefen on July 04, 2007, 09:44:37 PMDon't hang me. haha.

you mean, dont lynch you?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on July 05, 2007, 12:03:51 AM
Yeah, that was the joke.

But I'm not a BLATANT racist like you.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 09, 2007, 09:37:10 PM
Lee says he is not part of the 'mainstream'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

ROME -- Spike Lee, in Tuscany, Italy, to scout locations for his next film and to receive the 41st Fiesole Master of Film Award, took swings Monday at Hollywood for its portrayal of black characters, at Washington for its foreign policy and at the film industry in general for leaving him on the outside looking in.

Lee was introduced to a standing-room-only news conference at the Hotel Villa San Michelle in Fiesole, just outside Florence, by town Mayor Fabio Incatasciato and a handful of other local figures who praised the director's work. But there was no shortage of opinions once Lee started speaking.

Said the two-time Oscar nominee, here for preproduction work on his latest project, "Miracle at St. Anna," a $45 million World War II drama set in Italy: "My last feature film, 'Inside Man,' was my most successful so far, and I was naive enough to think that that meant I could go from there and make any film I wanted to make. But I was very, very wrong about that. Anybody who thinks that I've become part of the mainstream doesn't understand the way it works."

Lee sparked laughter several times by saying he would only win an Oscar when he was so old he would have to be pushed onstage in a wheelchair and threatening to fine two photographers whose cell phones rang during the hourlong briefing.

"On my set, the rule is that if your phone goes off while we're shooting, that's $50 in my pocket," he said.
 
Lee said "Miracle" -- which will be his first film shot mostly outside of the U.S. -- would be the first WWII film to feature a largely black cast.

"I'm a big fan of World War II movies, but up until now I've only seen two that featured any black soldiers," Lee said. "There was Jim Brown in 'Dirty Dozen' and (James Edwards), who was Gen. Patton's valet in 'Patton.' I know we can do better than that."

Commenting on Washington, Lee said there had been no war since WWII in which the U.S. had been involved that he would consider a "just" war.

Lee said he has been to Italy at least 20 times over the past two decades and has wanted to make a movie in the country for years. The opportunity arose three years ago when he read the James McBride novel "Miracle at St. Anna."

"I'm a storyteller, and so I needed a story," Lee said. "I knew I had it when I read the novel."

Lee said McBride already has produced three "strong" drafts of the screenplay for the film, which will be filmed using U.S., Italian and German actors, with a mostly Italian crew. Filming will take place in Tuscany, Rome's Cinecitta Studios and New York.

Lee was well received by the Italian crowd, including Fielsole's Incatasciato, who recalled seeing Lee's 1989 classic "Do the Right Thing" in nearby Florence as a young man.

On Tuesday, Incatasciato will be among the dignitaries on hand to present Lee with the Masters of Cinema Award. Traditionally a European prize given in recognition of a director's body of work, Lee will be just the third American awarded the prize in 41 years, joining Orson Wells (1974) and Stanley Kubrick (1983).

Other notable Fiesole Master of Cinema award winners include "Death in Venice" director Luchino Visconti (1966), master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock (1979), Japan's Akira Kurosawa (1986), Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman and Wim Wenders of "Buena Vista Social Club" fame (1994).
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 04, 2007, 09:58:59 AM
Lee lends hand to online fest
Source: Hollywood Reporter

VENICE, Italy -- Director Spike Lee was on hand at the Venice Film Festival Saturday to support the launch of an online short film festival set up by web portal Babalgum.

Lee will make the final decision on who wins what from the festival categories, which come complete with cash prizes.

Organizers said the Babelgum Online Film Festival will award 20,000 euros ($27,500) to the short films in each of six separate categories.

The shorts will be voted on by the public from the Web site and then the ten top-rated movies in each category will be judged by a ten-member jury. That jury will select three finalists in each category, with the winners selected by Lee.

"I used to be a struggling independent filmmaker myself and so I understand how important a forum like this one is," said Lee, who spoke at a presentation ceremony on the sidelines of the 64th Venice Film Festival. "With opportunities like this one available these days, a good filmmaker who doesn't get his films seen has only himself to blame."

The creation of the festival throws up several ethical issues facing the judges, including the stipulation that "offensive" material is ruled out in the contracts drawn up for submissions from the movie's producers.

The possibility of censorship -- what's offensive to one person in Italy might not be so for a U.S. participant -- and the possibility that voting might be skewed by some viewers voting multiple times raise questions.

For their part, Babelgum officials said the whole system would evolve and discussions were taking place.

Lee said the area of "offensive" material was a grey one but that he fully expected to receive a plethora of complaints by email if anyone is offended.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 17, 2007, 07:40:07 PM
BREAKING NEWS: NAOMI SIGNS WITH SPIKE LEE 
Source: Vogue.com

"I DIDN'T see much of New York Fashion Week this week," Naomi Campbell told us from her New York apartment this morning. "I'm actually here for meetings with Spike Lee about his new project – and I signed the contract last night so I can talk about it at last. I haven't been able to tell anyone else yet. " Will this be the major new Hollywood role she's been waiting for? "Not at all," she laughed. "It's a very very small role but it involves subject matter that I'm really passionate about. It's about a regiment of black soldiers based in Tuscany in the Second World War – it's a subject that nobody has ever touched upon. There are all the war time films of course but you never see a black soldier in any of them. I'll do anything for Spike and I really think we should be more educated about the role of people of colour in our history." Expect to hear more about the project in the coming weeks – and Naomi tells us the film could even be out as early as next year.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: matt35mm on September 17, 2007, 08:24:18 PM
I think that Spike should cast the entire film with supermodels.  I think that that would be fucking brilliant.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on September 17, 2007, 09:34:38 PM
he tried.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodjesus.com%2Fmovie%2Fshe_hate_me%2Fposter.jpg&hash=26f1794ea3fd51d7f04c0157aeaec7426b23453f)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on October 24, 2007, 10:33:11 PM
She's Gotta Have It
And "it" is a new DVD release for the Spike Lee flick!

On January 15, 2008, MGM Home Entertainment will release She's Gotta Have It on DVD. The film was shot in less than two weeks on a budget under $200k, and is the model Spike Lee film, as it is his first. It will be a bare bones release, and will be available for the MSRP of $19.98.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdvdmedia.ign.com%2Fdvd%2Fimage%2Farticle%2F829%2F829909%2Fshes-gotta-have-it-20071024001056524-000.jpg&hash=9eddf2e336e1ad99c05b2433032325e1c4a4f83a)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleepless on January 11, 2008, 03:32:33 PM
Two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee will discuss his life and career, "Reel to Real," at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at Texas Hall, 701 W. Nedderman Drive, on The University of Texas at Arlington campus. Lee's films include "He Got Game," "Inside Man," "Malcolm X," "Mo Better Blues," "Do the Right Thing" and "4 Little Girls."Tickets for Lee's lecture are $15 for the public, $10 for faulty, staff and UT Arlington Alumni Association members and $5 for UT Arlington students. A $50 ticket, which includes a reception with Lee, is available in limited supply.

http://www.uta.edu/public-affairs/pressreleases/page.php?id=2245
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on April 24, 2008, 12:57:31 PM
Spike Lee teams with Nokia on cell phone movie

Filmmaker Spike Lee has linked up with Nokia to direct a movie made with cell phone footage from everyday people in what he calls the democratization of film.

The film by Nokia Productions will consist of three acts. An "assignment" for each act will be announced online and people will then have four weeks to produce their submission.

"You are seeing first hand the democratization of film," Lee said in a statement on Thursday. "Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker."

Lee was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay for "Do the Right Thing" in 1990 and for best documentary for "4 Little Girls" in 1998.

The film's theme will evolve around the way music tells the story of humanity, and people can submit text, music, video or images at certain times between now and August 21 to http://www.nokiaproductions.com.

Nokia will choose 25 submissions, then people can vote online for their favorite for a top 10 from which Spike Lee will then choose the winning submission from each act.

Lee will direct the film through the Web site.

The final film with the three winning submissions and other contributed content will premiere later this year in Los Angeles.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on May 21, 2008, 12:09:54 AM
Spike Lee gets critical in Cannes
Also lets slip Michael Jordan docu
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- Spike Lee is in Cannes to promote his Italy-set war film "Miracle at St. Anna," but he couldn't resist taking a few swipes at some fellow directors, including Joel and Ethan Coen and Clint Eastwood.

Speaking about death in his World War II period drama, Lee said that, unlike the Coens, he was respectful in the way he portrayed death.

"I always treat life and death with respect, but most people don't," Lee said at a press briefing. "Look, I love the Coen brothers; we all studied at NYU. But they treat life like a joke. Ha ha ha. A joke. It's like, 'Look how they killed that guy! Look how blood squirts out the side of his head!' I see things different than that."

Speaking about the casting for his tale of four black American soldiers in Tuscany during World War II, Lee said that black actors appear in war films too infrequently.

"Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total and there was not one Negro actor on the screen," Lee told reporters. "If you reporters had any balls you'd ask him why. There's no way I know why he did that -- that was his vision, not mine. But I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

Lee said that his film is in the final stages of post-production and will be complete by the end of July, with an Oct. 10 release date likely -- exactly one year after shooting started. The film's score and about 10 weeks of mixing remain before completion. He said the film is likely to premiere at a festival: either Venice or Toronto.

Lee also told the Hollywood Reporter he is starting work on an as-yet-unnamed documentary about basketball great Michael Jordan, set for release in early 2009. Lee and Jordan starred in a series of award-winning ad spots for sporting goods company Nike in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 07, 2008, 02:58:10 PM
EXCLUSIVE: Spike Lee Says 'I'll Take The Obama High Road' In Clint Eastwood Argument

In an interview published this morning with The Guardian, multiple Oscar winner Clint Eastwood said of Spike Lee that "a guy like him should shut his face." In an interview conducted today with MTV News, Spike Lee kinda, sorta said, "OK."

"I'm going to take the Obama high road," the filmmaker said, refusing to trade any more barbs with Eastwood or elaborate any more over perceived inaccuracies in the recent "Flags of Our Fathers." "It's not a feud."

But why do Clint's statements have everyone asking of Spike if "he feels lucky?" While conducting interviews last month for his newest film, "The Miracle at St. Anna" Lee said, "There were many African-Americans who survived that war and who were upset at Clint for not having one [in the films]. That was his version: The negro soldier did not exist. I have a different version."

That version is, of course, "St. Anna," which focuses on four black soldiers during WWII. Eastwood's response was that to insert black soldiers at the Iwo Jima flag planting would be to commit historical revisionism.

And then he added that Spike Lee should "shut his face."

Tough words. But the dispute is not a personal one, insists Lee. "I've said my statement. I have no ill will towards Mr. Eastwood. What I said to him was not a personal attack, it was an observation," he told MTV News. "So that's really the end of it."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 18, 2008, 12:09:37 AM
Spike Lee takes on 'Time Traveler'
Touchstone to release film in the fall
Source: Variety

Spike Lee will co-write and direct "Time Traveler," a feature adaptation of a memoir by Ronald Mallett, one of the nation's first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D in theoretical physics.

Lee acquired "Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality" with his own money and has set up the project through his Forty Acres & A Mule Filmworks banner.

Mallett, who wrote the book with Bruce Henderson, recounts his rise from poverty to a distinguished academic and scientific career, and it lays out the technical specs for what Mallett envisions as a workable time machine. Developing a time machine became an obsession for Mallett from the age of 10 after his father's death. His goal was to travel back in time to save his father.

Lee called "Time Traveler" a "fantastic story on many levels (and) also a father and son saga of loss and love."

The filmmaker has been intrigued by the subject and flirted with the Fox drama "Selling Time," about a man who sells a part of his life expectancy for the chance to go back and relive the worst day of his life. Lee is no longer involved in that project.

The helmer recently completed "Miracle at St. Anna," based on a novel about members of the U.S. Army's 92nd Division of all-black buffalo soldiers who become trapped in Italy during WWII. The pic will be released by Touchstone Pictures in the fall.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 19, 2008, 11:29:59 PM
Spike Lee may revisit Katrina
Filmmaker talks upcoming projects at Silverdocs
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Spike Lee may not be done with Hurricane Katrina yet.

The director of the HBO miniseries "When the Levees Broke" said Thursday he's considering visiting the area where Katrina struck again in the next 24 months for a potential follow-up to "Levees."

"I'm going to go back, not just to New Orleans but to other areas affected, because it's not over," he told audiences at Silverdocs, the AFI/Discovery Channel docu fest in Silver Spring, Md., where he received the fest's Charles Guggenheim award.

While Lee didn't specify what the project would cover, he hinted at its focus when he described his feelings about the current situation on the Gulf Coast. "What the press is not really talking about is the mental state -- suicide, self-medication," he said. "It's horrible."

Lee also said he thinks there's room for a scripted feature about post-Katrina New Orleans and tipped that "The Wire" creator David Simon, whose "Generation Kill" debuts this summer on HBO, may be working on such a pic.

Lee also offered other bits about his own work. He said that his day-in-the-life docu on Kobe Bryant would kick off the NBA season on ABC/ESPN this fall and revealed that his docu about Michael Jordan's last season could see a public unspooling in 2009, with the director planning a Croisette debut. "We hope to have the world premiere at Cannes next May," Lee said.

The auteur also revealed that longtime editor Sam Pollard is involved in the Ed Norton-produced docu about Barack Obama and has already collected more than 1,000 hours of footage.

Lee noted an Obama presidency -- which the director said Thursday was so certain that "there's no 'if' " -- would change the culture of filmmaking. "As an artist you reflect what you see in the world, so I think you'll see a lot of artists reflect the change for good that the country is going to embark on."

The eight-day Silverdocs fest just outside of Washington, D.C., showcases a mix of established and emerging nonfiction filmmakers. Lee was characteristically outspoken at the award presentation, saying he'd "love to see a great film on Martin Luther King, but I don't think I can do it. I can't do everything. I've got to leave something for Tyler Perry."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 06, 2008, 09:03:34 PM
Spike Lee to film 'Strange' musical
Director shooting Broadway show for cable
Source: Variety

Spike Lee will film the Broadway tuner "Passing Strange."

Helmer will shoot three perfs -- two with auds and one without -- of the critically lauded but sales-challenged musical, according to online reports that surfaced over the holiday weekend.

The show's producers, who are said to be the backers of the video recording, would reportedly aim to air the edited result on a cable net.

A rep for the production confirmed only that the filming would take place, with further details to be confirmed at an announcement skedded for Wednesday.

The well-reviewed semiautobiographical rock tuner by musician Stew, with music co-written with Heidi Rodewald, earned seven Tony noms and took home one for Stew's book.

Since beginning Rialto perfs in February, the show has had difficulty attracting crowds, although the Tony win on June 15 did boost weekly box office into the higher end of the $200,000 range for a couple of frames.

For the week ended June 29, sales slipped to about $245,000, and aud capacity was only slightly above 50%.

Plot centers on young black artist from L.A. who flees his middle-class upbringing and heads to Amsterdam and Berlin in an attempt to find himself. Show originated at Berkeley Rep in 2006 and played last year at Off Broadway's Public Theater.

Rialto producers of "Passing Strange" include the Shubert Org, Elizabeth Ireland McCann, the Public and Berkeley Rep.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 19, 2008, 10:01:57 PM
Spike Lee's 'L.A. Riots' gathers steam
Source: Los Angeles Times

BRIAN GRAZER says that "L.A. Riots," Spike Lee's long-awaited look at the incendiary events that paralyzed Los Angeles for four terrifying days in 1992, is back on track. The movie, from an original script by Writers Guild dissident John Ridley, could possibly begin shooting later this year. The peripatetic producer has been busy with his latest lineup of A-list filmmaker projects, led by Clint Eastwood's "Changeling," due this fall, and Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon," which arrives in December. But he says he is moving full speed ahead with the Lee film.

"Both Spike and I are totally excited about getting it going," Grazer told me. "John Ridley wrote a great script, but it needed a little more focus, so we put Terry George on it to do a rewrite. The script is due in two weeks, and, having worked with Terry before, we're expecting that it should be something that's ready to shoot."

George, best known for writing "In the Name of the Father" and writing and directing "Hotel Rwanda," did extensive rewrites on "Inside Man," the hit thriller Lee made with Grazer in 2006. Grazer says they haven't cast the new picture yet, though Lee is interested in using some of the young African American actors he worked with on "Miracle at St. Anna," his World War II film coming in September from Disney. (Lee and Eastwood have exchanged angry words about the dearth of black soldiers in Eastwood's own WWII films, but Grazer, ever the smooth operator, is staying far, far away from that dust-up.)

Though Lee is famous for his incendiary takes on controversial subjects, Grazer insists that "L.A. Riots" is more of a vivid drama than a bomb-throwing broadside. "It's a war movie set in a modern city like Los Angeles," he says. "There were 56 deaths, more than 2,000 buildings that caught fire and all sorts of horrific destruction. So we see the anger and the emotion, but the story enables us to see the strife from all perspectives. You get a close look at the sociopolitical dynamics from the perspective of the cops, the African Americans, the Koreans, from all these different people. And then you get to arrive at your own conclusions."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: SiliasRuby on July 19, 2008, 10:20:44 PM
This is the film he was born to make.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 06, 2008, 12:01:59 AM
'Inside Man' sequel moving forward
Spike Lee coming back to direct
Source: Hollywood Reporter

A sequel to Spike Lee's "Inside Man" is moving forward at Universal, with Terry George in negotiations to write the screenplay and Lee coming back to direct the Brian Grazer-produced pic.

"Inside Man 2," as the project is tentatively being called, will pick up on the characters and dynamic but not the storyline of the original. The first "Inside Man," which was penned by Russell Gewirtz, centered on a standoff between a bank robber (Clive Owens) and a hostage negotiator (Denzel Washington) at a New York bank.

Lee says he foresees that the new film will continue the relationship between the two main characters but in a new high-tension situation. "I want the script to be even better than Russell's, and Russell wrote a really good script," he said.

The news cements long-floating rumors that Universal was looking to reprise the alchemy of the indie fave Lee with the studio budget and marketing apparatus of Universal.

The original "Inside Man," also from Universal, scored Lee his biggest opening weekend, and went on to earn more than $175 million worldwide when it was released in the spring of 2006.

Grazer will produce "Inside Man 2" via his Imagine Entertainment banner, with Lee and Daniel Rosenberg exec producing.

Denzel Washington and Clive Owen are interested in re-teaming for the project, Lee said, speaking from the Toronto International Film Festival, where he was in town to promote the Babelgum Online Film Festival as well as his upcoming WWII pic "Miracle at St. Anna."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleepless on September 06, 2008, 01:16:48 PM
I'd much rather see his movie about the LA riots :(
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on September 08, 2008, 05:31:14 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on September 06, 2008, 12:01:59 AM
"I want the script to be even better than Russell's, and Russell wrote a really good script," he said.
I want a million dollars.  Actually I want TWO million dollars.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on October 08, 2008, 12:17:37 AM
Is Spike Lee's 'Inside Man 2' Moving Forward Without Jodie Foster?

If you've been keeping up on your movie news, you know that Spike Lee is planning to make a sequel to his 2006 hit "Inside Man." You've read articles like this one, this one and this one, or heard that Lee spoke again about the movie just recently, telling reporters: "If the script is not better than the first one, myself, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen– we said we're not doing it."

So, they're all in as long as the script is good, right? Well, apparently everybody in the world knows the news – but somebody forgot to tell Jodie Foster.

"Why, you have some dope I don't know about?" Foster recoiled when we spoke to her recently, genuinely seeming as though she'd never heard a peep about an "Inside Man" sequel in her life. "I don't think that's what he said."

"You know something more than I know?" she teased. "Are you writing it or something?"

Since Foster is, well, one of the greatest actors of all time, there's obviously a chance that she was just faking her obliviousness extremely well. But otherwise, her surprise might lend strength to rumors that Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda") is writing his script with the intention of cutting out a major character or two. Foster would seem to be the least essential of the three stars, if only because she had the least screentime in Lee's original heist thriller.

"I loved that movie; it was a really fun experience for me," she remembered. "It was the quickest film I think I ever shot. I think I worked for four days or something, and to work with Denzel Washington is a dream that everybody has."

Although she insisted that the film isn't a reality as far as she knows, Foster said that if Spike wants to give her a call, she'd be happy to once again dive back into the role of no-nonsense "fixer" Madeleine White.

"Sure!" she insisted, sending out a message to Spike. "From your mouth to his ears, of course I would love to."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Alexandro on October 08, 2008, 10:16:26 AM
after the miracle at sta. anna debacle, he needs some commercial picture before they let him make one about the l.a. riots...
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: cron on October 08, 2008, 09:59:44 PM
i just got back from the future and his next film is 'obamboozled' , an hbo documentary about the 2008 electoral fraud, following a group of  new mexico and colarado obama supporters whose votes disappeared mysteriously, the aftermath of mccain's 'victory',  evidence of the fraud, and interviews with a struggling obama.

on my trip to the future, i also brought you this:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstrictlylogos.com%2Fimages%2Fproducts%2Fkeychains%2FKCWR.jpg&hash=d20c2fd7d7521b6737cb0dfb1d2bb777be049da3)
the practical 'knock on wood' keychain. people from the future can't get enough of them.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on October 09, 2008, 10:25:23 AM
STOP!
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Alexandro on October 09, 2008, 11:08:41 AM
 :laughing:
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on December 08, 2008, 12:31:28 AM
Spike Lee to make Sundance debut with musical "Passing Strange"
Source: Los Angeles Times

More than 20 years after making his first splash with "She's Gotta Have It," Spike Lee is finally going to make it to Sundance. His belated debut -- in the 25th year of the Sundance Film Festival -- comes as director and co-producer of the film version of "Passing Strange," the stage musical by L.A. indy-rockers Stew (Mark Stewart) and Heidi Rodewald that took an unlikely passage from New York's nonprofit Public Theater to Broadway in February. It ran for 165 performances at the Belasco Theatre, with Stew nabbing a Tony Award for best book of a musical before it closed July 20.

Among those captivated was Lee, who said Friday that he saw the show several times at the Public, then came back for repeat viewings at the Belasco -- even before producers approached him about capturing it on film before it closed. The film will premiere in the Jan. 15-25 festival's noncompetitive Spectrum Documentary Spotlight program, where Lee is hoping it will attract a distributor. The filmmaker said he's been invited to the Sundance festival before, but wasn't able to make it. Stew and Rodewald, who is co-composer of the songs, are well-connected at Sundance, having developed "Passing Strange" at its annual Sundance Theatre Lab in 2004 and 2005.

"Passing Strange" is semi-autobiographical, tracing Stew's roots in L.A.'s black middle-class, his teenage predilection for punk rock and French New Wave cinema, his youthful adventures in 1980s Amsterdam and West Berlin as an expatriate artiste, and his sadder-but-maybe-wiser return.

The show, which premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2006, featured Stew rocking out on guitar and vocals as the narrator and kept the onstage backing band -- including co-composer Rodewald on bass -- in full view among the actors. Classical actor Daniel Breaker played Stew's youthful alter-ego, and Eisa Davis, who was a 2007 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a playwright ("Bulrusher"), played his long-suffering mom. 

Lee said he filmed the last three performances in front of audiences, then did one more day of shooting on the empty stage where he could re-run scenes and go for setup shots. "It's very true to what people saw in Berkeley and the Public and on Broadway," he said. "But I still made it a Spike Lee Joint at the same time."

Lee isn't new to stage-to-screen work, having directed television versions of two one-man stage shows, John Leguizamo's "Freak" (1998) and Roger Guenveur Smith's "A Huey P. Newton Story" (2001). Last year, it was announced that Lee would direct a Broadway revival of "Stalag 17," the World War II prison-camp drama that originated as a 1951 play by former POWs Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, before being made into a 1953 film by Billy Wilder. But what happened?

"The producer died, and I lost interest," Lee said. "I made a decision that if I would do Brodway, I don't want it to be a revival, I want it to be something new."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on January 17, 2009, 07:45:05 PM
Spike Lee's a Sundance kid with `Passing Strange'

PARK CITY, Utah - The timing always was off for Spike Lee and the Sundance Film Festival , which had never managed to land a movie from the maverick who has been at the vanguard of independent cinema for nearly 25 years.

So it's appropriate the film finally bringing Lee to the top indie showcase has its roots in the Sundance Institute 's theater lab, where the Tony Award-winning rock musical "Passing Strange" was developed.

Lee's Sundance premiere came Friday with his dazzling take on "Passing Strange," crafted from the musical's final Broadway performances.

The director behind such films as " Do the Right Thing ," "Malcolm X" and " Inside Man " has debuted films at Cannes, Venice and other festivals, but he and Sundance previously had been out of sync.

"It's because of where the schedule is, where the festival is in the schedule. January never works out for me when I shoot," Lee, 51, said in an interview. "I've never had something that's been available in January."

"Passing Strange" is the semi-autobiographical creation of musician Stew, who developed the project with musical partner Heidi Rodewald and Annie Dorsen, director of the stage play.

With Stew as combination narrator, band leader, stage manager and puppeteer for the characters, the film traces the odyssey of a young black man called Youth (Daniel Breaker), who breaks with his mother's down-home adherence to church and family and seeks to reinvent himself overseas.

He progresses from pot-smoking choir rebel and acid-tripping punk rocker in his home town of Los Angeles to free-spirited bohemian in Amsterdam and finally to cultural icon in Berlin, where he finds musical success by "passing as ghetto," exploiting a south-central L.A. background he never really experienced.

Lee first saw "Passing Strange" when it was playing off-Broadway. He went back to see it again several times on Broadway, where it won Stew the Tony for best book of a musical last year.

"I was knocked out. It was great," Lee said. "I knew nothing about Stew and Heidi. It was just `Hey, there's this show. Check it out.' I was amazed by it."

Approached by one of the play's producers to do a film version, Lee thought about shooting it as a "movie movie," a full cinematic adaptation. He ultimately wound up doing it as a filmed play, keeping the staging and minimalist set design intact.

Lee shot the last three Broadway performances in front of live crowds, then gathered the cast and musicians again the next day to film the entire play again without an audience so he could put the camera on stage for close-ups, dolly shots and other camera coverage.

The film was edited together from all four performances. Along with Stew, Rodewald and Breaker, the cast includes Eisa Davis as Youth's mother and De'Adre Aziza, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge and Rebecca Naomi Jones in multiple roles.

Even with a career that includes Academy Award nominations for original screenplay (" Do the Right Thing ") and documentary (" 4 Little Girls "), Lee was like many other Sundance novices, thrilled that he had a chance to meet festival overseer Robert Redford and hoping potential buyers like his film.

"We're like everybody else who's brought a film here at Sundance, trying to get a distribution deal ," Lee said. "So we'll see what happens."

Lee thinks "Passing Strange" could have a long shelf life on the big screen.

"I think it's going to be a cult film. I grew up remembering the midnight shows of ' Rocky Horror ,'" Lee said. "I could definitely see this playing midnight shows for years."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on January 26, 2009, 11:56:54 AM
EXCLUSIVE: Spike Lee To Use James Brown's Real Voice — Not Wesley Snipes' — For Biopic
Source: MTV

James Brown is the lone Godfather of Soul, and even if he looks a lot like Wesley Snipes in Spike Lee's upcoming biopic, Lee wants to make sure there's one recognizable voice coming through the microphone when the legendary figure appears on-screen.

"We're doing it together – it's going to happen," Lee told MTV News in an exclusive interview at the Sundance Film Festival this week. The Oscar nominated director of "Do the Right Thing" and "Inside Man" lavished praise on Snipes. "He's my man," Lee said; but when it comes to the vocals on Brown's classic tracks like "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Get Up Offa That Thing," expect to hear the authentic voice of James Brown being dubbed in.

"I want to hear James Brown's voice," the director said. "That's just my personal taste."

He's not the first filmmaker to take the dubbing route in a musical biopic. Taylor Hackford dubbed Ray Charles' original voice over Jamie Foxx in "Ray."

"I know Joaquin Phoenix in 'Walk the Line,' he did some of the singing," Lee said, breaking down the decision. "I'm a purist," he explained.

Lee and Paramount grabbed Snipes to play Brown in 2007. The project came together shortly after Brown died in 2006 of congested heart failure. Snipes' big-screen energy summoning Brown's near mythological stage presence will obviously carry a hefty punch. You have to feel the demands being place on Snipes, though, just to physically imitate James Brown to the point of syncing with his vocals. That task alone should make "Demolition Man" feel like a jog through through Park City, Utah, by contrast.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 02, 2009, 05:10:30 PM
Spike Lee nabs rights to WWII tale 'Hell'
Nonfiction story will be developed as a feature film
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Spike Lee is raising some hell.

The hyphenate's production company 40 Acres and a Mule has acquired rights to Brendan Koerner's "Now the Hell Will Start," a nonfiction tale about a private who went native in the Southeast Asia jungle during World War II, and will develop as a feature.

Penguin Press brought out the book last summer, in which Koerner tracks the story of Private Herman Perry, a black soldier from Washington who, after shooting another soldier, went on the run in the Indo-Burmese jungle and eventually became assimilated into tribal culture.

Lee and 40 Acres recently tackled World War II, directing the African-American-themed tale "Miracle at St. Anna" for Disney; Lee's banner also is working on a Michael Jordan documentary and developing a James Brown biopic.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on February 02, 2009, 10:35:33 PM
Spike Lee Says Film About LA Riots is Dead...At Least for Now
Source: MTV

Few events in recent history seem a more perfect fit for director Spike Lee than the racially-charged Los Angeles riots in 1992. Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment thought so too, agreeing in 2006 to move ahead with a drama about the situation. Then Lee's ambitious aspirations met budgetary realities.

"We didn't get the money that we needed to make the movie I wanted to make," Lee told MTV News in an exclusive interview. "How can you scale back the LA riots?! That's not the movie I want to make. The studio said, 'Scale it back.' What's the point?"

The riots took place after an all-white jury acquitted four police officers of using excessive force in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, an African-American man pulled over for speeding on an LA highway. Over the course of several violent, chaotic days, 53 people were killed, thousands more were injured and the city sustained at least $1 billion in damage.

At the time the riots began, Lee was screening his Malcolm X biopic for Warner Bros. execs. And a few years earlier, the director tackled racial tension and the potential violence of crowds: the climax of perhaps his most acclaimed film, 1989's "Do the Right Thing," occurs during a racially tinged riot on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Back in 2006 and fresh off the critical success of HBO's "When the Levees Broke," a documentary about the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina, Lee discussed the planned drama, to be called "LA Riots," with Variety. "This isn't about some cavalcade of stars," Lee stated, "but rather a truthful and realistic examination of what happened, what the ramifications were and where we are now, in hopes that something like this doesn't happen again."

What does the failure to secure the proper budget mean for the future of "LA Riots"? "It's not dead," Lee says. "But it's...it's on the shelf. Let's use that term. It still should be made—I want to make it."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on February 03, 2009, 10:23:19 AM
That's disappointing.  Lee is perfect for this.  I think he'll successfully avoid the subplots and stick to the linear facts.  I'm really afraid that another director will be slotted for this since it's been shelved. 

I know Lee is a fan of "The Battle of Algiers", so I wonder if he would approach it that way.  Careful editing and frequent logistical information will need to be displayed to the audience.  I'm already picturing this movie in my head. 
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: children with angels on February 03, 2009, 10:32:14 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on February 02, 2009, 10:35:33 PM
a racially tinged riot

Jesus.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on February 03, 2009, 11:59:06 AM
I think the studio heads confused him for oliver stone.  spike's way too intelligent to do a tacky LA riots film.  But I think his last two studio pandering efforts - one of which paid off the other flopped - really hadn't put him in anyone's grace, which sucks.  He's one of this country's last hopes. 
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on March 17, 2009, 10:44:54 PM
Spike Lee's 'Kobe' to debut in N.Y.
ESPN, Tribeca fests partner on NBA telepic
Source: Variety

NEW YORK -- Spike Lee's "Kobe Doin' Work," a telepic capturing a day in the life of NBA star Kobe Bryant, will preem during the Tribeca Film Festival before its May debut on ESPN.

The April 25 bow is part of the ESPN Sports Film Festival, a co-venture with Tribeca. Eight sports-themed pics will screen between April 22 and May 3.

Lee, a famously visible and vocal fan of the New York Knicks, and his d.p. Matthew Libatique spent time with the Los Angeles Lakers' Bryant last spring before, during and after a playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs.

"Kobe Doin' Work" will bow May 16 on ESPN.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on May 01, 2009, 08:40:28 AM
PBS picks up Spike Lee's 'Strange'
Film acquired at Tribeca fest will air in 2010
Source: Variety

PBS' "Great Performances" has acquired Spike Lee's film adaptation of the rock musical "Passing Strange" out of the Tribeca fest and announced plans to air the project in 2010.

"Passing Strange" is the story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class upbringing in mid-1970s Los Angeles to travel to Europe, where he finds he can exploit his "South Central" persona. The play received seven Tony noms and won for book of a musical.

The producers of "Passing Strange" said they're exploring a limited theatrical release for the film in the late summer or early fall.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on September 16, 2009, 11:43:38 PM
Spike Lee, Robert De Niro develop drama series
John Ridley to pen 'Alphaville' for Showtime
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quintessential New York filmmakers Spike Lee and Robert De Niro have teamed  with Showtime to develop a drama series about Manhattan's Alphabet City.

The project, titled "Alphaville," will be written by John Ridley, with Lee on board to direct the potential pilot.

It is executive produced by Ridley, Lee, De Niro and his producing partner Jane Rosenthal, whose Tribeca Prods. is on board to produce.

"Alphaville" is an ensemble drama chronicling Alphabet City's gritty and tumultuous past before it became the gentrified East Village.

Set during the 1980s, it will re-create the neighborhood's eclectic mix of struggling artists and musicians living alongside Puerto Rican and black families.

Along with its growing bohemian and celebrity population that also included graffiti artists, break-dancers, rappers and DJs, the neighborhood was plagued by illegal drug activity and violent crime.

Local tensions culminated in the Tompkins Square Park riot of 1988, in which police clashed with anarchists and homeless activists.

The 1980s Alphabet City was the setting for the musical "Rent." The neighborhood also served as the backdrop for two De Niro pictures: 1976's "Taxi Driver" and 1999's "Flawless."

Following the successful launches of its two new series, "United States of Tara" and "Nurse Jackie," Showtime is shifting its attention to development.

The pay cable network recently greenlighted "The C Word," a dark comedy pilot starring Laura Linney.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: ©brad on September 23, 2009, 03:59:36 PM
Well they won't be able to out-Wire The Wire, but similar premise aside, color me intrigued.

Quote from: MacGuffin on September 16, 2009, 11:43:38 PMThe pay cable network recently greenlighted "The C Word," a dark comedy pilot starring Laura Linney.

Because The L Word was such a hit?...
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on September 23, 2009, 04:25:56 PM
Last time Lee attempted a TV show, it was the Sucker Free City pilot. The amount of ambition and vitality in that show should indicate good things for this show. It seems similar enough to give me hope that will see some of the thoughts and themes of that show coming to fruition here. Hopefully it lasts longer than the pilot eisode this time.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: OrHowILearnedTo on September 23, 2009, 05:44:00 PM
How much ambition does John Ridley have though? His track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: children with angels on September 23, 2009, 06:15:31 PM
This sounds very exciting indeed. I've been meaning to see Sucker Free City for ages - I need to get on that. But this has serious potential.

On another note: I saw Spike give an interview at the National Film Theatre on Monday (they're doing an entire season based around Do The Right Thing). The (immature) highlight for me was when he called Joe "You Lie!" Wilson a "redneck cracker".
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on September 23, 2009, 07:17:54 PM
Quote from: OrHowILearnedTo on September 23, 2009, 05:44:00 PM
How much ambition does John Ridley have though? His track record doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

No, it doesn't. But Ridley is responsible for the screenplay to Oliver Stone's under appreciated U-Turn and the novel it was based on. Perhaps all it takes is working with a competent director.

David Benioff's filmography is relatively unimpressive (and, in some cases, abysmal) but he's still responsible for the screenplay for 25th Hour and the novel it was based on.

It isn't too much of a stretch to think Lee can illicit the same potential from Ridley that he did from Benioff.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 08:48:01 PM
U-Turn is indeed underrated. I just watched it a couple months ago but didn't comment on it because I didn't want to bump the Oliver Stone thread and wake Gold Trumpet. He seemed to be sleeping so well. If his Oliver Stone radar went off the morning erection may have been too much for him.

How much did he have to do with Three Kings? How much of his original script was used?
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on September 23, 2009, 08:56:54 PM
I know Russell has said the similarities between Ridley's original script and his are pretty superficial and the connection is mostly contractual, but I've never read Ridley's version.

Maybe now is a good time to start:

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/three-kings_unproduced.html
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: polkablues on September 23, 2009, 08:58:17 PM
Quote from: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 08:48:01 PM
How much did he have to do with Three Kings? How much of his original script was used?

My understanding is that David O. Russell wrote the screenplay based entirely on reading the synopsis of Ridley's story.  He never actually read the original draft and none of it was used in the movie.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: pete on September 23, 2009, 09:36:41 PM
yeah Spike hasn't really "coasted" as much as the other great directors of our time - even his shitty films are cutting edge.  He needs to write for himself again though!
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 09:41:43 PM
What do you guys think the last GREAT film Spike Lee made was?

I'm gonna go with 25th Hour. She Hate Me was classic Spike but wasn't that great and Inside Man was fun but didn't feel like classic Spike.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: john on September 23, 2009, 10:00:04 PM
Yeah, I'd go with 25th Hour. Miracle at St. Anna is pretty unfairly maligned. It's scope is pretty large and it's an accomplished effort but it that extra cylinder that 25th Hour does. In fact, though I'm fairly certain PDL will reside as my favorite film of this decade, 25th Hour remains a pretty consistent second or third place pick.

When The Levees Broke is pretty fucking amazing as well, if we want to consider that. As certain as I am with Lee's innumerable talents,   Levees left me stunned. That's two pivotal moments in America that Lee is practically the defining voice in the media on. 25th is a knockout encapsulation of a post 9/11 New York, Levees is a definitive document of post-Katrina New Orleans.

On repeat viewing, Inside Man is a big boring. But that first viewing was a blast.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Gold Trumpet on September 23, 2009, 10:56:29 PM
Quote from: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 08:48:01 PM
U-Turn is indeed underrated. I just watched it a couple months ago but didn't comment on it because I didn't want to bump the Oliver Stone thread and wake Gold Trumpet. He seemed to be sleeping so well. If his Oliver Stone radar went off the morning erection may have been too much for him.

Haha, I don't even like U-Turn.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 11:33:06 PM
Do you hate ALL of U-Turn or just certain aspects? It seems to have something for everyone.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on September 24, 2009, 08:00:34 AM
Quote from: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 11:33:06 PM
Do you hate ALL of U-Turn or just certain aspects? It seems to have something for everyone.

i heard GT liked to put his hands up and bend his knees.. but not so much bounce around in a circle, or get down with me.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Gold Trumpet on September 24, 2009, 10:12:18 AM
Quote from: Stefen on September 23, 2009, 11:33:06 PM
Do you hate ALL of U-Turn or just certain aspects? It seems to have something for everyone.

Well, I enjoyed parts of the story and filmmaking. The film I compare it to is Scorsese's After Hours and I think it's better than that, but both films leave something to be desired because they are meant to be imaginative free for all's for both filmmakers, but they still lack imaginative freedom in the technical and story department. Both films deal with stories that are almost about nothing, but both films are still filled with little genre and story conventions through out. Essentially both are remixes of a standard thriller.

Like I said, I can enjoy parts of U-Turn, but I don't really admire it. Even Stone's serious films (like Nixon and JFK) have more technical daring than U-Turn does. Even Natural Born Killers feels more like a true free for all than U-Turn does. All three films were made before U-Turn and both films built up expectations for me with Stone so the situation is like if the Beatles had made Rubber Soul after Abbey Road and all their other experimental works. I could still like Rubber Soul for what it was (in some ways), but I couldn't really enjoy the album too its fullest potential because the Beatles would no longer be a band that would make something like Rubber Soul.

I also don't hate U-Turn.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Alexandro on September 28, 2009, 04:02:41 PM
Both U Turn and After Hours are too much fun to be dismissed.

Spike's last great film was of course When the Levees Broke. 25th Hour is underrated by A LOT of people.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on November 26, 2009, 12:12:28 AM
Inside Man 2 Status Report
Spike Lee on his film development slate.
by Jim Vejvoda
 
IGN chatted with acclaimed director Spike Lee yesterday about the DVD release of his documentary Kobe Doin' Work, during which time we also asked the filmmaker about some long-gestating Joints on his development slate. Here's what he had to say about them:

IGN: What's up with Inside Man 2?

Spike Lee: Waiting on Universal Pictures. They have the script. They have the budget and we'll see if they wanna make it. Denzel's ready. Clive Owen's ready. I'm ready. Jodie's ready. Everyone's ready. It's like, "Coach, put us in!"

IGN: You've long wanted to do a film about Joe Louis [entitled Save Us, Joe Louis].

Spike Lee: I've been unable to get the financing. What's really sad about that is that I had made a promise to the late great Budd Schulberg that we'd get it done and Budd passed recently. He was 95. Budd being, of course, the screenwriter of On the Waterfront and the novelist of What Makes Sammy Run. Great, great, great, great writer.

IGN: Let's say that project eventually came together. Do you envision a star playing Joe Louis, or just any actor that's right for it?

Spike Lee: Well, to tell you the truth, I've not thought about it for awhile, especially since the death of Budd Schulberg. And sometimes it takes awhile for things to get together, so hopefully we'll get it done one day.

IGN: What's happening with that James Brown biopic?

Spike Lee: Financing. I had the all-time biopic trilogy: Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis and James Brown. And I've not been able to get them to fruition yet.

IGN: And you're working on a documentary about Michael Jordan as well, right?

Spike Lee: No, that has not happened yet so you can squash that.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on April 19, 2010, 03:06:47 PM
Spike Lee Details: 'Inside Man 2' Seems Dead; Next Up Likely Is New Script, 'Brooklyn Loves MJ' (Michael Jackson)
Source: The Playlist

Roger Friedman is a freak, we all know that, but maybe he got freakier since The Hollywood Reporter let him go decided not to renew his contract (or was it just watching "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" without effects that really sent him over the brink)?

In an early April (but not April Fool's) piece that most of the blog world seemed to miss the sometimes dubious reporter with a distinctly good/bad track record (depending what day of the week you're on) claimed that "Spike Lee is right now finishing up shooting 'Inside Man 2' with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen."

Oh, really sister? Cause Lee himself told ESPN a few days later that, "We were going to do 'Inside Man 2' but it didn't workout." A good thing cause other wise Washington and Owen would have read the earlier report and had their feelings hurt.

However, Friedman does have something in his report that is true (and verified cause we thought it was a scoop for a moment there): Lee has a new joint (read: project) in the works called, "Brooklyn Loves MJ."

What we can't verify is the cast that Friedman says is huge and may contain Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Rosie Perez, Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington. However, it does sound legit in the sense that these are all mostly actors (aside from Moore) that Lee has worked in the past and many of them several times.

But of course Friedman also said Leonardo DiCaprio was locked in to play Marty Scorsese's ol' blue eyes in "Sinatra," and as we all know that projects, probably like four Scorsese films away and may not even happen. Marty has to get approval from Tina Sinatra on all fronts which could prove to be tough; either way, no script is complete (he recently said, "It's very hard because here is a man who changed the entire image of the Italian-American And that's just one thing. Along with his political work, civil rights, the Mob...we can't go through the greatest hits of Sinatra's life. We tried this already. Just can't do it," sounding pretty pessimistic).

Update: The remainder of this story concerning details of the script for "Brooklyn Loves MJ" has been removed at the request of Zuber & Taillieu LLP.

-------------------------------------------------------

Spike Lee's Next Joint 'Loves Michael Jackson'?
Source: Cinematical

Spike Lee had his greatest box office success four years ago, with the heist thriller Inside Man, and ever since there had been plans for the filmmaker to do a sequel. However, during a recent live chat on ESPN.com (via The Playlist), Lee revealed that Inside Man 2 "didn't work out." No worries, though, as his next "joint" could very well be as lucrative, provided the world is still into the legacy of the King of Pop.

This potential next project is titled Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson and according to Showbiz 411, Lee has already cast Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Julianne Moore and Rosie Perez. Also, Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington are reportedly in talks to join the ensemble. There's word out that the script has a Do the Right Thing connection, but the listed actors don't appear to be reprising their roles from that 21-year-old classic, and this isn't being labeled a sequel.

The Playlist actually shared a pretty detailed synopsis for Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson, but they were instructed by lawyers to remove the information, so I'll avoid discussing the plot (a quick search for the info will get you contraband spoilers if you must have them). All I will say is that the film's title is the same as an MJ birthday event Lee held last summer paying tribute the late performer. And it primarily deals with the gentrification of the titular borough. Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson would not be Lee's first work to involve the King of Pop. He directed Jackson in two different music videos for the song "They Don't Care About Us" and he made a video for the posthumous single "This Is It" (for Lee's initial response to MJ's death, read this interview with Time and watch this interview with Katie Couric).

First, I'm glad Inside Man 2 appears to be dead, as the reasoning for a follow-up seemed geared to the superficial plot elements of the original. Yet Inside Man isn't so much about a bank robbery as it's about the racial climate of NYC and America following 9/11, as well as the theme of things not being what they appear. Lee is great at this kind of portrayal of cultural atmosphere -- the post-9/11 cloud also hangs over 25th Hour -- and tackling both the death of MJ and the overall transformation of Brooklyn in the last 20 years (as well as some discussion of race following the election of a black president, no doubt) seem perfectly suited for the filmmaker to use as the backdrop for another essential representation of his hometown.

Other possible futures for the filmmaker involve another go at the African American experience of WWII, following Miracle at St. Anna with an adaptation of Now the Hell Will Start, and another non-fiction look at the Hurricane Katrina disaster with a sequel to his documentary When the Levees Broke.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 29, 2010, 04:02:34 PM
Spike Lee nears 'Deadline'
Director in negotiations for action-thriller
Source: Variety

Spike Lee is in negotiations to direct action-thriller "Nagasaki Deadline," with Warner Bros.-based Alcon Entertainment financing.

Alcon co-toppers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson are co-producing with Kira Davis of 8:38 Prods., and Jon Landau and Rae Sanchini. "Nagasaki" writers David and Peter Griffiths ("The Hunted," "Collateral Damage") will exec produce.

"Nagasaki" centers on an emotionally damaged FBI agent who must decipher historic events in order to avert a terrorist plot.

William Broyles Jr. ("Cast Away") re-wrote Griffiths' script, and the Griffiths completed a subsequent polish. Davis brought the project to Alcon.

Alcon's next feature release is urban comedy "Lottery Ticket," starring Bow Wow and Ice Cube and opening Aug. 20 through Warners. It just wrapped principal photography in New York on "Something Borrowed" starring Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin and John Krasinski.

Lee's recent gigs were "Miracle at St. Anna" and "Inside Man."
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: modage on June 30, 2010, 02:38:22 PM
Saw Spike Lee outside my new office at 30th and Park in a car today.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on June 22, 2011, 09:16:27 AM
Spike Lee, Mike Tyson, Doug Ellin & John Ridley Team For HBO Drama Series Inspired By Tyson's Youth
BY NELLIE ANDREEVA | Deadline

How is this for intriguing mix of creative auspices -filmmaker Spike Lee, former boxing champion Mike Tyson and Entourage creator Doug Ellin have come together to produce a drama series project for HBO, written by John Ridley and to be directed by Lee. The project, titled Da Brick, is described as a contemporary exploration of what it means to be a young, black man in supposedly post-racial America and is loosely inspired by aspects of Mike Tyson's youth. Is its set in current-day Newark, NJ, nicknamed "brick city." While the project is still in development, HBO has hired a casting director to explore casting choices for the lead, looking for young black actors who are also credible in the boxing ring.

Tyson appeared in a 2010 episode of Ellin's HBO comedy series Entourage, playing himself. The original germ of an idea for Da Brick came out of a meeting the two had on the set of the veteran comedy, which was inspired by Mark Wahlberg's early years in Hollywood. "That's when Mike asked me, why don't do with my life what we did with Mark's life," Ellin said. "The initial idea was 'Entourage meets The Wire', an edgy story about an up-and-coming boxer and his crew that is much more dramatic than Entourage." While it was not a series Ellin felt he would write, he and his producing partner Jim Lefkowitz decided to develop and produce it through their company. Lefkowitz brought in writer John Ridley who, in turn, brought in Lee, with whom he had been developing a movie about the L.A. riots. Ellin, Lefkowitz, Ridley, Lee and Tyson are all executive producing Da Brick, with Tyson's wife Lakiha Tyson and Azim Spicer, CEO of Las Vegas' SpiceReel Prods., co-executive producing.

Both Ellin and Lee have long history at HBO. Ellin's series Entourage returns for its eighth and final season next month. Under his deal at the pay cable network, Ellin wrote the comedy script 40, which has been picked up to pilot with Ed Burns on board to star. Da Brick marks Ellin's first HBO project, which he is not writing, with him and Lefkowitz planning to do more of those as they expand their company's development. Lee directed and produced the HBO New Orleans documentary When the Levees Broke and its followup If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise. Ellin is with WME, Lee and Ridley with CAA.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleepless on June 22, 2011, 09:33:50 AM
I would totally watch it. Ellin isn't know for fine art so the comparisons with The Wire might not be realistic, but he is such a bloke's filmmaker (TV maker?) that this could be the boxing show success that Lights Out wasn't. I guess we'll see...
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: AntiDumbFrogQuestion on July 17, 2011, 07:30:16 PM
Spike slated to direct "Oldboy" remake.
Josh Brolin potentially in Lead role.

I want Lee to deliver a good movie that garners attention but...

Most people I know are chanting "unnecessary"

agreed??
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: socketlevel on July 21, 2011, 02:23:54 PM
Actually Josh Brolin is perfect casting.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on December 09, 2011, 01:15:06 AM
Eddie Murphy to Play Marion Barry in HBO Biopic From Spike Lee
John Ridley would pen the script for the untitled project.
Source: THR

Eddie Murphy may be headed back to the small screen.

HBO Films is developing an untitled television biopic centered on former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, whom Murphy would play should the project move forward, a source confirms to The Hollywood Reporter.
Spike Lee is attached to direct with John Ridley to pen the script. Murphy, Lee and Ridley would all serve as executive producers as the Washington Post first reported.

Journalists Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood have been tapped to consult, along with The Nine Lives of Marion Barry filmmakers Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer. Jaffe and Sherwood penned a book published in 1994 entitled Dream City detailing politics in D.C.

Barry served as the D.C. mayor from 1979 to 1991 and again from 1995 to 1999, and is currently a member of the D.C. City Council representing the city's eighth ward. In January 1990, Barry was caught smoking crack cocaine at the Vista International Hotel in downtown and was arrested on drug charges, serving six months in prison.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on March 27, 2012, 11:55:38 PM
meanwhile, in today's episode of Scumbag Spike Lee:

Spike Lee tweeted incorrect George Zimmerman address, possibly putting Sanford woman in danger
Published: 11:49 AM 03/27/201 (http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/27/paper-spike-lee-tweeted-incorrect-george-zimmerman-address-possibly-putting-sanford-woman-in-danger/)2

Filmmaker Spike Lee tweeted the wrong home address for George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Fla., man who many are claiming should be arrested for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. The tweet could have potentially put the woman who actually lives at that address in danger.

The Washington Times' Kerry Picket went to the address that Lee tweeted as members of the New Black Panther Party were offering a $10,000 cash reward for Zimmerman's capture, "dead or alive," and others were demanding his arrest.

"[T]he Edgewater Circle address Mr. Lee re-tweeted out is not part of the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes where the shooting took place and where Mr. Zimmerman lives," Picket reported. "The area is not even a gated community."

"In fact, I took a drive to that Edgewater Circle address that so many on Twitter re-tweeted and cursed, and I discovered through a neighbor, named Tim, who lives across the street from the address, that not only does George Zimmerman not live at the lakeside house but a woman by the name of Elaine does," Picket added.

Picket also said several news agencies have showed up at the address looking for Zimmerman, which – with the crowds the Panthers, MSNBC's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have whipped up into a frenzy – may have put the woman, Elaine, in danger.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on March 28, 2012, 07:25:46 AM
Unbelievable. 
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleepless on March 28, 2012, 10:55:47 AM
What a cock. Spike Lee is his own worst enemy sometimes.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 22, 2013, 07:03:30 PM
SPIKE LEE'S LATEST FILM IS NOW A KICKSTARTER JOINT

Riding high off the publicity for his Oldboy remake, Spike Lee is now the latest celebrity to hit Kickstarter with an impassioned plea for why you should give him lots of money. On his official Kickstarter page, Lee speaks about the current climate for independent film; what could pass as a budget when he was first breaking into the business is now just a drop in a very, very large bucket. He offers up his entire filmography as a body of work as proof that this Kickstarter is a legitimate filmmaking venture, and offers a handful of details about the film's plot. Lee's hypothetical latest film will chronicle people who are addicted to blood the way others are addicted to drugs or sex (although he promises the film will still have plenty of sex).

The $1.25m goal may seem drastically steep, but keep in mind that stranger things have happened. This spring saw the Veronica Mars movie bank over $5m, while Zach Braff's Garden State follow-up pulled in just over $3m. And a scant few hours into the Kickstarter has already netted Lee close to $12,000 – presumably that number will rise dramatically as the news starts to spread.

For Spike Lee fans, this is a dream come true. The juicier pledges receive autographs, special screenings, and roles as extras, while $10,000 nets you dinner and a Knicks game with the director himself. For non-Lee fans, well, this is just one more way not to spend your money. Although the best way to look at this Kickstarter would likely be through the lens of Lee's Oldboy remake, which only a scant few have actually seen. One super-violent film would certainly be affected by the one that comes immediately after.

The Kickstarter for "The Newest Hottest Spike Lee Joint" will last until Wednesday, August 21 at 12:15AM EDT.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spikelee/the-newest-hottest-spike-lee-joint
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 23, 2013, 05:05:33 PM
Steven Soderbergh Backs Spike Lee's Kickstarter Campaign
Source: Indiewire

Spike Lee's gotta have it... and apparently, Steven Soderbergh is willing to to do the right thing and pledge $10,000.

We're talking, of course, about Spike Lee's new Kickstarter campaign, launched yesterday, for his next project, an untitled film about "human beings who are addicted to blood," according to Lee's Kickstarter page for "The Newest Hottest Spike Lee Joint."

Lee has 28 more days in which to meet his goal of $1.25 million and he's already broken the $100,000 mark, in part with $10,000 from Soderbergh. Lee told NextMovie that Soderbergh invested in the project at the highest pledge level, $10,000. On his page, Lee promises to take anyone pledging $10,0000 out to dinner and to see The New York Knicks (in Lee's courtside seats).

"I'm taking him to dinner and we're going to the game together," Lee said to NextMovie. "I don't even know if he likes sports! So I'm gonna pick the game for him."

Lee tweeted his appreciation, "Super Shoutout To My Man Director Steven Soderbergh Who Pledges $10,000 To Have Dinner And SIt Courtside With Me To See NY Knicks. THANK YOU."

It's unclear if there's a script for the project, which Lee describes on his Kickstarter page as "funny, sexy, and bloody (and it's not 'Blacula'). "I promise you, my hand to God and my mother's grave every red cent, every wooden nickle, will go on the screen," he tells prospective backers.

In addition to Soderbergh, two other backers have pledged at the $10,000 level. For only $750, you can lay claim to a pair of Lee's previously worn Nikes.

Soderbergh and Lee met at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival where they each had films screening ("Sex, Lies and Videotape" and "Do the Right Thing").
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on July 23, 2013, 05:36:02 PM
outside the nature of the financial practice, soderbergh threw down for spike lee to make his movie. wonderful. imo
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on July 23, 2013, 10:51:24 PM
Dude, I wouldn't give him a dime. He burned through his Hollywood money and has nothing to show for it. After 25th Hour, his features (not his docs) have been unbearably bad. They have all had poor technicalities, lazy screenwriting, and an extreme lack of editing. It's extremely disappointing, because I was a huge fan. He made several masterpieces (DTRT, JF, HGG). Nowadays we get shit like The Miracle of Saint Anna, which has to be one of the stupidest movies I have seen in the last five years.

So, his next movie is going to about people addicted to blood?  Sounds about as good as a whistleblower who gets lesbians pregnant.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 26, 2013, 02:38:55 PM
Essential List of Films for Filmmakers


I've Been A Professor At The NYU Graduate Film For The Past 15 Years.The 1st Day Of Every Class I Hand Out My List Of Films That I Feel You Must See If You Want To Make Films. Please Look At This List And See What You Might Have Missed. As I Tell My Students If You Want Your Film "Game" To Be Tight You Must Have Seen Great Movies, World Cinema, It Just Can't Be Hollywood Films. Educate Yourself. Learn. Grow. Evolve. Make Great Films.

Peace, Onward And Upward,

Spike Lee.



(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/613155/posts/550620/image-298296-full.jpg?1374855048)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on July 26, 2013, 02:43:49 PM
"City of Gods"
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on July 26, 2013, 04:14:15 PM
even while overall avoiding hollywood he lists killer of sheep. except for the fact that it's 1977 in the movie and 2013 today, i don't think a movie has done los angeles better
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Sleepless on July 26, 2013, 04:34:55 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 26, 2013, 02:38:55 PM
Essential List of Films for Filmmakers


I've Been A Professor At The NYU Graduate Film For The Past 15 Years.The 1st Day Of Every Class I Hand Out My List Of Films That I Feel You Must See If You Want To Make Films. Please Look At This List And See What You Might Have Missed. As I Tell My Students If You Want Your Film "Game" To Be Tight You Must Have Seen Great Movies, World Cinema, It Just Can't Be Hollywood Films. Educate Yourself. Learn. Grow. Evolve. Make Great Films.

Peace, Onward And Upward,

Spike Lee.



(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/projects/613155/posts/550620/image-298296-full.jpg?1374855048)

He didn't neglect Kubrick. Second page of the list is here. Oh, and what is with people suddenly starting to capitalize every word?

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fd1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net%2Fc8%2F70%2Fc14637c947d0951c968efdd05662%2Fspike-lee-essentials-list-skip-crop.jpg&hash=b36e5f6b48ffb5e5968408c0af33713f7a6232df)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on July 26, 2013, 04:50:40 PM
oh nice. for the mayhem of los angeles, he lists chinatown. political and social unruliness. that's not my favorite polanski movie, and i think it's funny that it's not polanski's favorite polanski movie, but you can begin to learn about the terrible history of los angeles right there

Jeremy Blackman maybe you are lynch missing. have you seen the los olvidados dream sequence? it's from 1950 and you can't believe how well he nails the dream. i could only find a crazy youtube video. maybe mute it and listen to tegan and sara while watching
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on July 28, 2013, 03:07:52 PM
Why I Back Spike Lee By Stephen Soderbergh


The 80s was not a great decade for American cinema; with some exceptions, the filmmakers responsible for the American New Wave that began in the latter part of the sixties had either burned out, self-destructed, or lost their way creatively, and the increasingly corporate-controlled studios weren't really cultivating the kind of bold, idiosyncratic films that made me want to make films. It felt like the sense of what was possible had shrunk, and I worried about my future. Every so often, however, an independent film (or filmmaker) would emerge that felt connected to both those recent, great American films and to great cinema from around the world, and as I was attempting to find my own voice and place in the film world, three independent American filmmakers in particular attracted my attention and expanded my idea of what was possible; David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Spike Lee. These were distinctive new voices, and the freedom (and success) they represented was liberating and energizing; these were shoulders I would try to stand on, that I would be proud to stand on.

Certain filmmakers exist outside the traditional parameters of criticism; their point of view and body of work make discussions about individual films interesting but ultimately irrelevant because each project is merely a chapter in a very long book that must (and will) be acknowledged and appreciated for its breadth, ambition, and contributions to the art of cinema. For me, Spike Lee is one of those filmmakers. He is a totally unique figure in American cinema, and he's always gone his own way and spoken his mind (even when the commercial stakes were high), qualities which are in short supply in the film business. I know Spike's films better than I know Spike (maybe the Knicks game with help with that), but we're friendly enough for me to say I respect him as person as well as a filmmaker.

So, in case you haven't figured it out already, this is why I'm supporting Spike on Kickstarter:

1.   Spike's success helped make my success possible.

2.   Spike has earned my attention because of his body of work and its distinct point of view.

3.   You should support your friends.

Now let's light this candle!

Peace

SS
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on July 28, 2013, 03:17:42 PM
he's so winning my heart. now i understand that last time, when he won everyone else's heart by targeting production woes, he meant "let's get this done"
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Tortuga on July 29, 2013, 03:58:46 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 28, 2013, 03:07:52 PM
Why I Back Spike Lee By Stephen Soderbergh


The 80s was not a great decade for American cinema; with some exceptions, the filmmakers responsible for the American New Wave that began in the latter part of the sixties had either burned out, self-destructed, or lost their way creatively, and the increasingly corporate-controlled studios weren't really cultivating the kind of bold, idiosyncratic films that made me want to make films. It felt like the sense of what was possible had shrunk, and I worried about my future. Every so often, however, an independent film (or filmmaker) would emerge that felt connected to both those recent, great American films and to great cinema from around the world, and as I was attempting to find my own voice and place in the film world, three independent American filmmakers in particular attracted my attention and expanded my idea of what was possible; David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Spike Lee. These were distinctive new voices, and the freedom (and success) they represented was liberating and energizing; these were shoulders I would try to stand on, that I would be proud to stand on.

Certain filmmakers exist outside the traditional parameters of criticism; their point of view and body of work make discussions about individual films interesting but ultimately irrelevant because each project is merely a chapter in a very long book that must (and will) be acknowledged and appreciated for its breadth, ambition, and contributions to the art of cinema. For me, Spike Lee is one of those filmmakers. He is a totally unique figure in American cinema, and he's always gone his own way and spoken his mind (even when the commercial stakes were high), qualities which are in short supply in the film business. I know Spike's films better than I know Spike (maybe the Knicks game with help with that), but we're friendly enough for me to say I respect him as person as well as a filmmaker.

So, in case you haven't figured it out already, this is why I'm supporting Spike on Kickstarter:

1.   Spike's success helped make my success possible.

2.   Spike has earned my attention because of his body of work and its distinct point of view.

3.   You should support your friends.

Now let's light this candle!

Peace

SS

Cool story.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: tpfkabi on July 29, 2013, 04:12:48 PM
Did anyone else know that he put out Red Hook Summer last August and brought back Mookie from DTRT?

I didn't until I saw it while browsing Redbox. Haven't seen it.

The list has a lot of good stuff. Odd that there are no Westerns and very few films since he started making them himself.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on August 13, 2013, 03:02:02 PM
Spike Lee's Kickstarter Campaign Hits $1 Million Mark
Push has raised 80% of goal ahead of Aug. 21 deadline
Source: Variety

Spike Lee's three-week-old fundraising effort has hit the $1 million mark on Kickstarter.

As of 7 a.m. PDT, Lee's campaign had received $1,000,605 from 4,503 pledges — about 80% of the $1.25 million goal for a new film that's known for now as "The Newest Hottest Spike Lee Joint."

About a quarter of the funds have come from 26 pledges of $10,000 in exchange for dinner and a courtside seat with Lee at a New York Knicks game. The campaign also generated $70,000 via 14 pledges of $5,000 in exchange for being named an associate producer and another $40,000 from four $10,000 pledges for "The Ultimate Filmmaker Fan Award," which includes a day on the set of the film, a master class at Lee's production company and a day on watching Lee edit the film.

He's also been offering memorabilia such as autographed "Malcolm X" patches from the crew jackets for the film for $10, with 200 backers so far.

Lee has only described the film as being focused on human beings who are addicted to blood. He announced last week that he had cast British actress Zaraah Abrahams as the female lead after discovering her while watching "Black Girl in Paris," a short film by one of his students.

For Lee to tap into the Kickstarter funds, the campaign is required to hit the $1.25 million goal by Aug. 21.

The two most notable Kickstarter campaigns for the Veronica Mars movie and Zach Braff's film "Wish I Was Here" reached their campaign goals of $2 million in three and four days, respectively. Both of those campaigns provided more details as to the film plots

Lee has defended the campaign, asserting that he's popularizing the fundraising technique among people who had not been aware of Kickstarter.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pwaybloe on August 14, 2013, 09:15:51 PM
Well, at least we have confirmation of 4,503 idiots out there.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: MacGuffin on October 30, 2013, 09:54:49 PM
Spike Lee in Early Talks to Direct Neil Bogart Biopic 'Spinning Gold' (Exclusive)
The film stars Justin Timberlake as the infamous record executive.
Source: THR

Spike Lee is being courted to direct the Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Gold and is in early talks to take on the gig.

The Foresight Unlimited project stars Justin Timberlake as the infamous record executive who was closely aligned with the rise of disco. Spinning Gold was announced during the Cannes Film Festival in May, with Timberlake turning up to pitch the film to foreign distributors.

Timothy Scott Bogart, Neil Bogart's son, wrote the script and is producing alongside Laurence Mark, Gary A. Randall, Timberlake and Mark Damon.

A poor kid from Brooklyn, Bogart went on to define the pop-music culture of his time. In his day, Bogart, who died in 1982 at age 39, was credited with discovering and launching the careers of a generation of superstars, including Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Gladys Knight, KISS, Parliament, Donna Summer and The Village People. He was the founder of Casablanca Records.

News of Lee's involvement comes on the eve of the American Film Market, where Foresight will update foreign buyers on the project's status. In May, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions struck a deal to distribute Spinning Gold in numerous markets. CAA is representing domestic rights; CAA also reps Lee.

Lee is next in theaters Nov. 27 with the thriller Oldboy, starring Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson and Elizabeth Olsen.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: Pubrick on October 30, 2013, 10:08:27 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 30, 2013, 09:54:49 PM
stars Justin Timberlake

this gon' suck.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: polkablues on October 31, 2013, 11:46:18 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 30, 2013, 09:54:49 PM
Spike Lee in Early Talks to Direct

Quote from: Pubrick on October 30, 2013, 10:08:27 PM
this gon' suck.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on June 24, 2014, 03:57:39 PM
today i also wrote a city of god thing, like i was talking from the year 1998, because i bit-ago finished rewatching he got game, which like city of god was important to me when i first saw it. and i wondered if it'd still resonant with me. answer: yes

he got game was as emotional as i remembered (i cried again), and now i appreciate the cinema even more. i appreciate how spike lee uses cinema to make his characters dimensional. he uses cinema in a theatrical way but not like everyone is up on a theater stage, but like the stage is a theater screen. so good

of course i appreciate the backdrop of coney island. it's perfectly suited for he got game and its themes of fantasy blending into reality and vice versa. and all that neon (gush)
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on June 24, 2014, 09:20:32 PM
welp. personally mystified again, after watching bamboozled, a joint i'd never seen that has a solid rep, and i've been liking and appreciating movies left and right recently, but i genuinely did not like or even much appreciate bamboozled. my prediction is that'll be the single time i watch it, because i don't think there's much about cinema in there, and i go digging for treasures where i think treasures might be. there could be a long conversation about this, but a good guess is there won't be

the narrative's backdrop is similar to he got game, the movie i right above this post say i much enjoyed, except a sports life is swapped for a media life. fantasy and reality are blended again, and to a degree they're blended to a more severe consequence

and damon wayans and jada pinkett throw down impressive acting chops, behaving like believable(ish) people quite different from who they appear to be irl

i think warning lights come from interesting areas. there's a huge difference in production budgets, which narrows bamboozled's photographic range. they're both emotional/intellectual, but i think bamboozled leans far more into the intellectual side, which decision i think disrupts the emotions. simply, by the end of bamboozled i was tapping my feet and waiting for the end. and common complaints against he got game are that its scenes run too long, which complaint i don't agree with for that movie but i agree with for bamboozled. 2hr15min of what i think woulda been a fine 1hr30min, maybe, maybe a little long there too. there's a closing montage of referential clips on the historical mistreatment and insulting representation of black people through visual media's past, and i felt more emotional during that montage than i did during the entire movie. he got game ends with a testament to the importance of family bonds, obviously appropriate, and bamboozled ends with descents into madness, obviously appropriate as well, but i'm telling you, i was tapping my feet during the latter. it's a thematic cohesion but the emotions seem implanted, the emotions felt like manipulations. its theme is a real problem but i don't think it was handled in a real way (aka a human way). dramatics, theatrics, both movies have them, but like i've recently been saying it's not so much for me about what tools are being used so much as how the tools are used. way more into 2hr+ of earnest emotion than 2hr+ of satire

personal mystification. personal cinematic desires
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: max from fearless on October 27, 2014, 04:36:27 PM


Mo'ne Davis: Throw Like A Girl - A Spike Lee Joint


An absolute joy to watch.

Spike has been slipping on the fiction front, recently, but his documentaries, most notably "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" are absolutely incredible. This is a sweet little gem.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: max from fearless on November 04, 2015, 09:15:42 AM


A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.

Director: Spike Lee

Stars: Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Anya Engel-Adams, Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Dave Chappelle

I'm there opening day!!!!
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: jenkins on October 25, 2017, 05:50:26 PM
Adam Driver Joins Spike Lee's 'Black Klansman' Thriller (http://variety.com/2017/film/news/adam-driver-spike-lee-black-klansman-thriller-1202599294/)

Quote"Star Wars" actor Adam Driver is attached to star in Spike Lee's "Black Klansman," a crime thriller about the KKK.

Laura Harrier of "Spider-Man: Homecoming" has also been cast. Lee will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Kevin Willmott.

Lee is producing with Jordan Peele along with Sean McKittrick, Shaun Redick, and Raymond Mansfield of QC Entertainment, and Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Productions companies are Peele's Monkeypaw Productions, QC Entertainment, and Blumhouse. Focus Features is releasing.

The movie follows Ron Stallworth, a detective in Colorado Springs, Colo., who in 1978 answered an ad in the local newspaper seeking new Klan members. John David Washington was announced last month for that role. Stallworth rose through the ranks to become the head of the local chapter — even though he's African-American. He sent a white officer in his place for any in-person meetings.

Driver will play the role of an undercover police officer who is the best of the Colorado Springs police force. He is known on the force for being anti-social, and he's a perfectionist, critical of others' mistakes, but brave and dedicated.
Title: Re: Spike Lee
Post by: WorldForgot on April 29, 2021, 11:23:35 AM
On Criterion Collection:

BAMBOOZLED (2000, dir. Spike Lee)

Goddamn, I love Spike Lee joints. Shot on MiniDV mainly, with its diegetic television segments on Super 16mm, reality and fiction here are held accountable as one and the same helix.

Never afraid to cite texts and cinema history -- here Spike's fearlessness involves every measure of medium and media, creating a film that must gain potency depending on the audience. Do you feel its anger, its truth and fatality, are you laughing? This history iz recent, and the toxicity of what we ignore or abide will seep into our language.

Quote"In 1948 approximately 200,000 American homes had television sets; fifteen television stations were broadcasting regularly. By 1958 some 520 stations were broadcasting to receivers in 42 million homes. Today there are tens of thousands of broadcasters and approximately 100 million homes have television homes have television sets. More than 95% of American homes have TV sets today, approximately 14 million of which are color. In fact there are more TVs in US homes than telephones, bathtubs, or refrigerators. TV antennas bristle from the rooftops of ghetto shacks that don't even have plumbing. An estimated quarter billion television receivers are in use around the world.

Television is the software of the Earth."
Gene Youngblood (1970)

Capital nature of appropriation iz stretched in so much zenith that culture accretes onto each characters' conscious. It could fool you into thinking it's camp-satire at the onset, but each turn gets closer to the violent agitation of revolution. If the dominating power structure readily welcomes the ideas -- this ideology has now been co-opted by ruling class.

Quote“People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.”
James Baldwin, No Name in the Street (1972)