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Spike Lee Details: 'Inside Man 2' Seems Dead; Next Up Likely Is New Script, 'Brooklyn Hearts MJ' (Michael Jackson)
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 Hearts MJ" and it's about it’s all about the "gentrification of Brooklyn."
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).
One thing we do know is that "Brooklyn Hearts MJ" is complete in script form, because we got our hands on a very current fourth draft dated just a few months ago (Friedman calls it, "Brooklyn Loves MJ," but look at the title card above, we disagree). After Michael Jackon's death last year, Lee did throw a memorial dance party in Brooklyn's Prospect Park commemorating what would have been the King of Pop's 51st birthday and the filmmaker came on stage during that celebration in a "Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson" T-Shirt. And it seems to have inspired his new work.
The new Spike Lee joint in the boroughs of BK and obviously where Lee is spiritually and thematically at home, so we're excited. Perhaps this could be a modern day, "Crooklyn?" As the kids say, we'd be down with that. But that's not quite what it is. Yes, it's about gentrification, but it's also about a whole lot more. Details below:
So it seems that the story goes back to Lee's halcyon days. "Brooklyn Hearts MJ" starts off in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn in the summer of 1989 — with an exact replay of a scene from "Do The Right Thing" — the one where Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) rails on a white yuppie for stepping on his sneakers (we assume, if it makes the final film, Lee will use archive footage). It quickly jumps to modern day in BK's Fort Greene neighborhood set in the summer of 2009. On page 12, the African American protagonist, 40-year-old DJ Brooklyn Godlove is thunderstruck when he hears about the death of the King of Pop.
From there this tapestry-like, engaging, yet rather inconsistent story (with a few really bad on-the-nose dialogue bon mots) which touches upon many lives in the community, place Lee squarely in his comfort zone in a tale about gentrification, race, drug-dealing tethered to a Cain and Abel like story of brothers, all set in post-MJ death era'd Brooklyn. If we had to make a synopsis it would be this:
The script does serve as a nice tribute to Jackson, who acts as an almost perfect metaphor for the film's central concern, that of the gentrification of Brooklyn, and Lee's written a brace of the man's songs into the script, including "Music and Me," "Shake Your Body To The Ground" and a full-on musical number set to "Wanna Be Starting Something" (scoring the rights to any of these will prove difficult and will therefore be dealbreaker-ish to the script which will likely need to be retweaked). There's also a dream sequence using the rare track "Scared of the Moon," which is described as having "the tone and feel of the great film "Night of the Hunter" starring Robert Mitchum. If that reference is too far back for you, think of it as "Tim Burton-esque." It's odd, but so is this script and its protagonists growing obsession with Michael Jackson. Don't get it twisted, it's not too quirky, but it's like "Crooklyn," "Clockers," and "Do The Right Thing" rolled into one with a few fanciful moments we might not have seen before from Lee. It's also definitely race-baiting and provocative and will get your ire up a few times (the policemen are amusing for example, but kind of cartoon characters), but isn't that what Spike Lee does best? — additional reporting by Oly Lyttelton
http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/201...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
BTW, last fall Spike Lee said "Scared of the moon" was his favorite MJ song.
I hope the estate & Sony allow him to use the songs, because Spike Lee has been doing amazing things for MJ's legacy. He's been doing a lot more than people related to MJ (I don't need to name them....we all know who they are)
.
Roger Friedman is a freak, we all know that, but maybe he got freakier since The Hollywood Reporter 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 Hearts MJ" and it's about it’s all about the "gentrification of Brooklyn."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).
One thing we do know is that "Brooklyn Hearts MJ" is complete in script form, because we got our hands on a very current fourth draft dated just a few months ago (Friedman calls it, "Brooklyn Loves MJ," but look at the title card above, we disagree). After Michael Jackon's death last year, Lee did throw a memorial dance party in Brooklyn's Prospect Park commemorating what would have been the King of Pop's 51st birthday and the filmmaker came on stage during that celebration in a "Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson" T-Shirt. And it seems to have inspired his new work.The new Spike Lee joint in the boroughs of BK and obviously where Lee is spiritually and thematically at home, so we're excited. Perhaps this could be a modern day, "Crooklyn?" As the kids say, we'd be down with that. But that's not quite what it is. Yes, it's about gentrification, but it's also about a whole lot more. Details below:
So it seems that the story goes back to Lee's halcyon days. "Brooklyn Hearts MJ" starts off in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn in the summer of 1989 — with an exact replay of a scene from "Do The Right Thing" — the one where Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) rails on a white yuppie for stepping on his sneakers (we assume, if it makes the final film, Lee will use archive footage). It quickly jumps to modern day in BK's Fort Greene neighborhood set in the summer of 2009. On page 12, the African American protagonist, 40-year-old DJ Brooklyn Godlove is thunderstruck when he hears about the death of the King of Pop.
From there this tapestry-like, engaging, yet rather inconsistent story (with a few really bad on-the-nose dialogue bon mots) which touches upon many lives in the community, place Lee squarely in his comfort zone in a tale about gentrification, race, drug-dealing tethered to a Cain and Abel like story of brothers, all set in post-MJ death era'd Brooklyn. If we had to make a synopsis it would be this:
In the summer of 2009, in the heart of Fort Green, Brooklyn, 40-year-old Brooklyn Godlove is moved and deeply affected by the death of Michael Jackson. So moved, the professional DJ (who once preferred Prince), attempts to put on a communal neighborhood block party in tribute to the late singer with the help of his school teacher wife. But his memorial is met with serious resistance by the (white) president of the local resident's association. Meanwhile, Brooklyn's drug-dealing half-brother Tariq's presence is felt deeper in the neighborhood when a series of drug-related shootings occur involving children — and even the head of the community association which makes Brooklyn a suspect. Eventually, as neighborhood events keep getting uglier, a showdown between the two brothers — who have affected the entire community — seems inevitable.
The scope's fairly sprawling, and very reminiscent of "Do The Right Thing"; in many ways, it serves as a companion piece, twenty years on, to that film, looking at black-white relations in the supposedly "post-racial" Obama era. But by looking at the use of kids as dealers, you can feel the heavy influence of "The Wire," and it's not a comparison that necessarily does "Brooklyn Hearts MJ" any favors.
The script does serve as a nice tribute to Jackson, who acts as an almost perfect metaphor for the film's central concern, that of the gentrification of Brooklyn, and Lee's written a brace of the man's songs into the script, including "Music and Me," "Shake Your Body To The Ground" and a full-on musical number set to "Wanna Be Starting Something" (scoring the rights to any of these will prove difficult and will therefore be dealbreaker-ish to the script which will likely need to be retweaked). There's also a dream sequence using the rare track "Scared of the Moon," which is described as having "the tone and feel of the great film "Night of the Hunter" starring Robert Mitchum. If that reference is too far back for you, think of it as "Tim Burton-esque." It's odd, but so is this script and its protagonists growing obsession with Michael Jackson. Don't get it twisted, it's not too quirky, but it's like "Crooklyn," "Clockers," and "Do The Right Thing" rolled into one with a few fanciful moments we might not have seen before from Lee. It's also definitely race-baiting and provocative and will get your ire up a few times (the policemen are amusing for example, but kind of cartoon characters), but isn't that what Spike Lee does best? — additional reporting by Oly Lyttelton
http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/201...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
BTW, last fall Spike Lee said "Scared of the moon" was his favorite MJ song.
I hope the estate & Sony allow him to use the songs, because Spike Lee has been doing amazing things for MJ's legacy. He's been doing a lot more than people related to MJ (I don't need to name them....we all know who they are)
.
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